Focus: The God Factor

Text: Lam.3:41

"Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens."

Who in this life can do without God? Can a man in his right senses count God out of his life? It was credited to George Washington, one of America's presidents, to have said that "it is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible," and he was right in that assertion.

One important lesson about prayer is that man is needy and God is needed. We need God; He doesn't need us. God has no need that He cannot take care of Himself.

Man is a God-dependent creature. He owes his existence to God. He depends on everything that God has made to survive, to be sustained, and to succeed in every facet of life.

I heard a story of an atheist who got into a conversation with God. He told God that he could do without Him, and that he could make things himself. God said, 'Okay, get started; let's see!' As he wanted to use the dirt of the earth to mold something, God said to him, 'No, that's my dirt; make your own dirt and use it to create whatever you so wish.' And that was the end of the discussion, as he could not make his own soil. 

Man only uses what God has already made to make things out of it. God is the creator par excellence. God is original in the art and science of making things. He creates ex nihilo - out of nothing. There was no preexisting material out of which God designed or crafted the universe. God simply spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood still. His word was His own raw material out of which the world was manufactured.

Man cannot sleep or wake up without God. Man breathes God's air and lives off of God's bounty.

In prayer we demonstrate our need of God. God didn't create us because He needed us. God has been God long before we came along. It is in Him that we live, move, and have our being. Our existence does not improve God. For those who are in Christ, it is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Outside of God we can do nothing. We are limited in power and wisdom. Whatever we have, God gave it to us.

So "let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens." We need His favor, His wisdom, His provisions, His peace, His protection, and most importantly, His presence. Come to God, lifting up your heart with your own hands to the Lord God almighty. God doesn't need you, but amazingly, He wants you. He delights in you. He is favorably disposed to you. He made you for Himself, not out of necessity but out of His own pleasure. 

Call on Him, and He will answer you. He will meet your needs and use you to advance His glory on the earth. In the place of prayer, man and God meet each other, and through man God makes Himself known to all of creation. Go into prayer now and meet with your God. He's waiting for you in the audience chamber of His heavenly palace. Acknowledge the God factor and count on it for yourself.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter