Day 43: A Servant's Gaze

As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, 

as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, 

so our eyes look to the Lord our God, 

till He shows us His mercy. 

(Ps 123:2)

What kind of attention are we supposed to give God when we pray?

As servants of God we are in utter need of His provision; His hand alone comes between us and eternal death. This total dependence on Him in all things is what should drive us to come before Him in prayer, doing so with the gaze of a servant. We need to see ourselves as needy servants; totally dependent of Him, so that we can enter prayer with the proper focus.

How then are we to 'look' at God when we pray, if we are to have this servant's gaze? We show our regard for others by looking at them when we talk; how do we 'look' at God? We must do so by having the focus of our prayer of Him. So often we briefly mention Him in the opening, 'Our Father' or 'Merciful God', and at the end 'in Jesus' Name. Amen', and we also tend to intersperse His name throughout the the prayer 'Lord.......Lord......Lord...'. But in all this God is never really the focus of our prayer. When we pray like this, its almost as though prayer has become a spiritual shopping list; and God has taken second place. We become to absorbed with our material and spiritual needs that we crowd God out. So instead, of pushing God aside, remember that it is He who made you, and He who saved you. You are completely dependent of Him; so pray to Him in that manner.

Some ways to improve our attention to God is to address Him in prayer by different names. Add variety; this will give you a new awareness of God Himself. The bible provides countless other names besides 'Father', 'Lord', etc. Try: "righteous Judge" (2 Tim 4:8), "Head of the Church" (Eph 1:22), "Firstborn of creation" (Col 1:15), "Lamb of God" (John 1:29), "Prince of Peace" (Is 9:6). And that's just a few names; there are so many more. God's character is so rich that we tend to minimalise this when we call Him by those familiar names. But when we call Him by others which reflect the multi-facets of His being, we are also enlighten ourselves towards this awesome God we can call our Father.