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“Obsession with self . . . is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God.“
— Rom. 8 MSG
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I hope you are well.
This week I want to pick up where we ended last time. A friend who receives these prayer guides asked me to expound on something, so I want to do just that.
When Jesus taught us to pray, “When you pray . . . pray like this . . .” (Matt. 6:7, 9), he didn’t give us a formula, rather he offered a framework. To paraphrase Tertullian, a Church Father, the entire Gospel can be found in Jesus’s prayer, a prayer we now refer to as The Lord’s Prayer or Our Father.
As I pointed out last time, many of us want to pray more but find it difficult to experience living prayer, the type that overflows from what is most Real, both within and without. One of the main reasons we struggle is because we pray from a posture of self-conscious performance rather than God-conscious surrender.
For most of my life, I’ve struggled with self-consciousness. When I walk into a room, I’m often inhibited by thoughts like, “What do they think of me?” . . . “Am I enough?” . . . “Do I even belong here?” But now I know what to do when these thoughts emerge. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and ask God what He’s doing in the room. I trade my self-consciousness—my pride and insecurity—for the Spirit’s intimate knowledge of what’s most Real. And as I make this exchange, I get to participate in moments that confirm God’s closeness to me and the people I’m around.
Response
The Lord’s Prayer begins with a call to God-consciousness for a reason: “Our Father whose name is Holy, above all separation or distinction, God over every dimension . . .” (my paraphrase). We’re to pray from this place of reverence because it puts our concerns and requests, whether they be big and small, in their proper place—under our Father’s lordship. Once we’re reestablished in God’s goodness and holiness, our requests tend to reveal their true form.
When you pray this week, begin by meditating on God’s holiness, His love, His tenderness, His faithfulness. Think of this as a holy inhale—you’re breathing in God’s Life and breathing out the temptation to make yourself (or your concerns) god over your life. (And please read Romans 8:5–8, specifically in The Message.)
Closing Thoughts
I’ve learned the hard way that it’s virtually impossible to be God-conscious when I’m self-conscious. There’s a reason why the world of the self-conscious gets smaller and smaller. But don’t be discouraged—in Christ, our weakness becomes a gift, an opportunity for us to surrender and receive more of Life. So when self-consciousness crawls into your mind, take a deep breath, recenter in God’s holiness, and thank your loving Father that the Accuser has overplayed his hand.
Praying with you,
Addison
P.S. If you’re new to this community, welcome! I’m so glad you’re here. And if you don’t have the Words with God books yet, be sure to grab a copy from Amazon or the Messenger store. I spend a good chunk of it breaking down the Lord’s Prayer, working through its eight dimensions of prayer.
