“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
So, imagine you have a meeting with the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. He designed and implemented everything natural and supernatural that you know and understand, and everything you don’t. There is nothing that exists that is not within His dominion. He knows the name, path and current position of every asteroid, star, planet, and galaxy in the universe, the soul of every child ever conceived, and, for His own accounting purposes, the number of every hair ever on the head of everyone who has ever existed.
Yes, apparently somewhere in heaven are lists of every hair on every head, notations of every sparrow that ever lived and died, and detailed accounts of our every deed or misdeed. God is intricately detailed, amazingly complex, infinitely comprehensive, and extremely powerful.
Now you are standing in His Presence. He loves you, wants His best for you, and has created angels as ministering servants on your behalf. He has orchestrated entire sequences of events in your life for His glory and for your benefit. He is on His throne and around Him expectant legions of angels, saints, and all creation await His command.
With this in mind, you open your mouth to speak. The Lord God Almighty fixes His gaze on you, gives you His attention, and hears what you have to say in this, your moment before the King.
“Lord, I just… “ you begin.
“Father, we just… “ you continue, while tossing in some more “Father,
I justs” and “God, we justs” along your verbose way.
Then, you summarize, “God, I just… “ and end with a closing “Father, I just… Amen.”
This type of “justing God” is comparable to the person puttering around in a finely tuned 980 horsepower Formula One racing machine like they were driving a common golf cart.
In Luke 18:35-43 a blind beggar cried out to Jesus, “What do you want me to do for you?” He did not say, “Lord, I just want to thank you for visiting today” or “Lord, I was just wondering if you would autograph my beggar’s cup” or “Lord, I just wish… “
No, in faith he told Jesus—explicitly and succinctly—exactly what he wanted, and his request was granted. Like others we read about in the Gospel accounts, the man was bold AND believing.
When we pray we should imagine ourselves standing in the Presence of the Lord, for we are. We are speaking with Him face to face. Our verbiage should be rooted in faith, limited in pronouns, and devoid of “justs.”
Perhaps we imagine God is too busy to care, too distant to dare, or too superior to share our concerns. We think to ourselves that we don’t want to bother the Lord with our trivialities or burden Him with our travails, and yet we waste holy time discounting Him with “justs” and irritatingly repeating personal pronouns as if He is not physically or spiritually present in our conversation.
Rather, should we not approach the Lord with godly fear, confident faith, concise conversation, and hopeful expectation?
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. ‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. –
Isaiah 40:21-26
Jesus encouraged His disciples to “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7) and the writer of Hebrews asserts, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
Yes, it is a great privilege to pray, to have an audience with the Lord, and such opportunities should not be squandered.
Therefore, let us not “just” God, but trust God, boldly approach His throne, and speak to Him in all of our prayers as if speaking to Him personally, face to face, intimately, in all of His power and glory.