We must learn from his humble prayer. You must calm down and realise you are a little speck and offensive to God. The trouble is we can’t even manage humility in prayer so often. The great us, and a God who should be at our disposal – that is how we see it.
Some of us have never prayed at all. We have no interest or confidence in prayer, but if we don’t pray, from heaven we are just dumb; we are like dogs, which bark at each other but can’t speak. What a difference between one who prays and one who doesn’t! That is what we are intended for: to know the Lord. We live such narrow, limited, cramped lives. God meant us not to have a doomed shallow life.
Did we just fire words into the air? No, we pray to someone who is there, someone we know about. Jacob addressed the one God, the Creator of the world. He prayed on the basis that God had invited him to pray. Do him the respect of remembering this. Make his promises the basis of your prayer. Don’t throw them at him, but remind yourself before him of what he has said he will do. He is the God of promises who demonstrates them. He came to suffer and die, and proved himself willing to pay the price for our sins. Tell him what you believe about him and what you know he has done to make your salvation possible. He prepares the way – ‘Lord you have commanded me to come to you.’ You come on his authority. You can come because he has urged you to come.
There is no need to think that God will never listen to little me, no need to be in doubt. He has promised to listen. Nothing is certain in this life, but God has said again and again that we don’t have to be in any doubt. Jacob knew God had made it possible for him to go back. He had possessed very little, but he knew God had provided for him. You say, I can pray, but can I go to heaven, and be forgiven? Yes, for God has told us it is possible. Don’t say, ‘I have no guarantee he will listen to me.’ You can be sure because he has promised to receive all who come sincerely in faith.
He addressed himself to the God he knew about, not to any old God that he imagined. He did not say, I will shut my eyes and hope for the best. If someone spoke to you and never looked at you, it would be insulting. He is the personal God and has certain characteristics: he is holy and yet he is kind. God has explained what he is like. We don’t need to guess. We come to the God who can reveal himself. Sometimes people pray in the wrong way. They imagine that if there is a God he will let all into heaven and they don’t need to humble myself. You won’t be heard if you approach him like that. You must pray to the God of the Bible.
This was the God who had revealed himself, the only transcendent God. Humble yourself and call upon the Lord, a relational God, so merciful so kind. He has found a way of forgiving us. What right have I to come? Every right for he is the God who has told me to come. We must so pray because he has called us through pages of the Bible; that is what gives you the right to come, the warrant of faith. You can only go to Buckingham Palace if you are invited, and that invitation will include instructions on how to come. You can’t decide for yourself, or come in a bizarre way. Some think they can approach God through singing, dancing, and he will enjoy it. Some think they should use various techniques: meditation, self-denial, ritual and ceremony. No, we must come on his terms.