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From the Pastor
O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul ... --Psalm 131:1-2a NRSV
People in 12 Step recovery groups often pray the “Set Aside Prayer”: “God, please set aside everything I think I know about myself, the twelve steps, this book, the meetings, my disease, and you, God, so I may have an open mind and a new experience with all these things, please let me see the truth.”
This is a prayer that recognizes that we who have walked a number of miles (years) by faith in the Lord, can get entrenched in our ways. It is hard to learn if one thinks they have learned all they need to know. Many believe that God never changes so once they have learned the fundamentals of the faith, it is just a matter of doing them.
If this is true, we have a lot of stuck and bored believers out there. The Psalm above invites to a place where we open ourselves to a new place with God. Certainly, God is not going to change. The Bible says that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Yet, we realize that there is no way we can get to the place that we completely know God. There is always more to discover. It doesn’t matter how long we have been a believer and follower of Jesus, there is always room to grow.
I wonder if this isn’t part of what the Psalmist was saying. He was willing to let go of himself and all that he had learned and experienced in order to remember that God is in charge. God is always moving us to a new place. God is always allowing us to grow.
Sometimes we get “set” in our ways. We think we know all there is to know. We feel we have done our religious duty. We see ourselves as “okay with God.” That is a dangerous place to be. For it means that our hearts are closed to the new thing that God is doing.
God is always doing a new thing!
Let us all pray this Psalm again. Let’s ask what we can do to open ourselves to how God wants us to grow. Maybe we could even decide to do something new that might help us grow. Join a Bible Study. Sit in a new place during worship and see if a different perspective helps us see things in a new way. Start a new daily devotional. Open your Bible and read. Attend a fellowship event. Go for a walk by the Lake or in the Woods. Sit out under the stars and experience awe!
God knows everything about us. Yet, I believe God desires an experiential knowledge of us that only happens when we spend time together with God. It is the kind of thing that can surprise us, but it is also the kind of thing we do on purpose. Let’s pray together, with thankful hearts, that we might not let all that we think we know of our God, keep us from the new thing God wants to do in our hearts and lives.
-Pastor Dale
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