Keeping our hearts unto Prayer, pt. 4 - Remembering God's Awful Presence

John Newton once told the story of a pauper who was graciously granted access to the king of England's throne, where he was given access to ask the king for whatever he wanted.

As the king began to address this poor, yet now extremely privileged man, a butterfly came flitting into the room, and made its way between the two men.

What happened next is breathtaking: though kneeling before the presence of the mightiest potentate on earth, the beggar, completely mesmerized with this inconsequential insect, gets up and begins chasing it, despite the fact that the king is in the act of addressing the very request the beggar had so importunately fought to bring before him.

This, says Newton - though on an infinitely lesser scale - is precisely what we do when we are in prayer and begin daydreaming, or making our plans, or worse. We have come into the very throne room of grace and have gained the ear of God Almighty. We have brought our prayers and petitions to Him through Christ.

Amazingly, the King opens His mouth and begins to answer our request.

Even more amazing than this is how often we cut Him off as it were mid sentence and begin thinking about our plans for the day, a YouTube clip, something nasty someone said to us, something we want to buy, our kids, our jobs, our recreation.

It seems we think about almost anything and everything but the very fact that we - as lowly beggars - have been granted access to the King of kings.

Newton's puritan predecessor, John Flavel, gives us another important strategy for keeping our hearts in a prayerful frame: the awful presence of God:

If you would keep your heart from vain excursions when engaged in duties [i.e. prayer], realize to yourself, by faith, the holy and awful presence of God. If the presence of a grave man would compose you to seriousness, how much more should the presence of a holy God? Do you think that you would dare to be gay and light if you realized the presence and inspection of the Divine Being? Remember where you are when engaged in religious duty [prayer], and act as if you believed in the omniscience of God. 'All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do' [Heb. 4:13]. Realize His infinite holiness, His purity, His spirituality.

One of the greatest travesties of the seeker sensitive movement in evangelicalism is how it has 'neutered' God. Since the concept of a God who is infinitely holy, infinitely hates sin, is infinitely jealous for His glory, and infinitely powerful to judge sin is distasteful to the modern man, the church, in her desire to fill her pews more than honor her King, has jettisoned the biblical notion of the God who is "a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29).

And, whether we realize it or not, our theology - for good or for ill - always impacts and affects how we live. If we have a low, trifling view of God, we will have a low, trifling view of prayer. If Jesus is merely my 'homeboy', then I will treat Him as such. But if I see Him as He really is, "holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens" (Heb. 7:26), I will come into His presence more like Isaiah did: with fearful humility and reverential awe (see Isa. 6:1-7).

The remedy? Says Flavel,

Strive to obtain such apprehensions of the greatness of God as shall suitably affect your heart; and remember His jealousy over His worship. 'This is that the LORD spake, saying, "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified"' [Lev. 10:3]. A man that is praying should behave himself as if he were entering the court of heaven, where he sees the Lord upon His throne, surrounded with ten thousand of His angels and saints ministering to Him.

When you come from an exercise in which your heart has been wandering and listless, what can you say? Should your tongue utter all the thoughts when you are attending the worship of God, would not men abhor you? Yet your thoughts are perfectly known to God. O think upon this Scripture: 'God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of His saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about Him' [Psa. 89:7]. Why did the mountains smoke under Him, and the people quake and tremble about Him, but to teach the people that their God was a consuming fire? Such apprehensions of the character and presence of God will quickly reduce a heart inclined to vanity to a more serious frame.

All I can do is pray, "Lord, help me to see You as You really are. And in seeing You, may all my vain thoughts be burned up in Your holy presence. Lord, help me to pray as I ought."

In Christ, our great High Priest who has purchased for us a confident access to the throne of God's grace, where we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Pastor Ryan

P.S. some great resources to foster a biblical reverence for God in His holiness are the following:

Arthur Pink: The Holiness of God (from his book, "The Attributes of God")

R.C. Sproul: The Holiness of God (video series from Ligonier ministries)