FULLY ALIVE

Imagine someone highly spiritual, a person of prayer. What image comes to mind? When you think about a person like this, how would you describe that person? Withdrawn? Scholarly? Exciting? Strong? Weak?

The Bible’s prototype of piety is an enthusiastic adventurer, songwriter, and warrior king. Irenaeus, one of the Christian church’s first pastors, said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” That described David. David believed in God, thought about God, imagined God, and prayed to God. His all–consuming passion for God shines in the metaphors of his psalms. God is like bedrock, a castle, a crag, a shield, a hideout. Every thing in David’s life points him to God.

By contrast, many of us have a stereotyped image of what it means to be “full of God.” Pictures of sober nuns, rule–following Puritans, and judgmental critics may come to mind. If so, the idea of being prayer–full may well sound boring.

But David had a big life. And that’s because he knew God was big. David experienced God fully, in life and death and in victory and defeat. In all kinds of situations he turned to God in prayer: running for his life, grieving a friend’s death, faced with his own sin, asking God for mercy. That tendency was the key to David’s becoming “a man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14).

Prayer

Lord, help us to become people of prayer. Make us fully alive in you. Help us see that staying connected with you gives us more life than we can imagine. For Jesus’ sake, Amen

Kevin Adams