Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
Do not be quick with your mouth,
    do not be hasty in your heart
    to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
    and you are on earth,
    so let your words be few.
A dream comes when there are many cares,
    and many words mark the speech of a fool.

• Ecclesiastes 5:1-3

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

• Psalm 19:1-4

“What if I said, ‘Stop Praying’?  What if I told you to stop talking at God for a while, but instead to take a long, hard look at Him before you speak another word?  Solomon warned us to not rush into God’s presence with words.  And often, that’s what we do. The wise man comes to God without saying a word and stands in awe of Him.
“… Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of.  We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.
“The wise man comes to God without saying a word and stands in awe of Him.
“…
“Perhaps you need to take a deep breath after thinking about the God who made galaxies and caterpillars, the One who sits enthroned and eternally praised by beings so fascinating that were they photographed, it would make primetime news for weeks. If you are not staggered, go to Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 and read the accounts aloud and slowly, doing your best to 1magme what the authors describe.
“The appropriate way to end this chapter is the same way we began it-by standing in awed silence before a mighty, fearsome God, whose tremendous worth becomes even more apparent as we see our own puny selves in comparison.”

• Francis Chan, crazy love

Rev. Chan spends time touching on the infinite qualities of God: eternal, holy, all powerful and all knowing.  But he mentions an amusing story, in the book and in his video introduction to the chapter.

He had gone to a high school reunion and his old classmates kept asking, “She is your wife?!”  He had always known that his wife was a pretty woman, but after a few people asked the question, he had to look in the mirror to see if their incredulity was due to him being rather ugly.  Sure, his wife was beautiful, at least he felt she was, but the contrast, according to the guys who used to be his high school friends made him out to be a toad by comparison.

But then he relates that to us with our relationship with God.  The bigger and more awesome our God is, the more puny and insignificant we are.

So, the next time we think of praying to God and talk to Him, we need to understand who we are and who God is.  We might need to reconsider a request or two, as being frivolous, but we also need to understand that God’s love is all powerful also.  God does not wish us to be so prosperous that we take things for granted and might get prone to laziness, but He meets our needs, and often with a little extra on top of our needs.

To tie in the last two paragraphs of his quote above, Rev. Chan suggests that we read Revelation 4 and Isaiah 6 and try to imagine the images that John and Isaiah describe.  And we must understand that these two prophets do not have words for half of what they observed.  Some of it was beyond human and earthly words.

So, this first chapter of the book was really a reality check.  Who is God?  Who are we?  And realizing each of those, does it change the way you pray?  It should.  And we need to know that although we are puny and insignificant, God still loves us, and He counts every hair on our heads.

Lord, fill me with Your love.  Fill me with Your awesomeness so that I will live my life closer to You and trying to be more like Jesus.  Help me to understand more fully have wonderful Your love is that You are concerned about this insignificant speck of dust that I am.  Thank You for loving me.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.