Who do you pray to?

By Beth Peltola

Does it matter who we pray to?
Does it matter which ‘god’ we worship? Does it matter what name we use for God? Jesus, Allah, Shivah, higher power, god, the god, god within, mindfulness, spirit guide, spiritual partner, spiritual state, inner-wellness, love? Aren’t they all connected, part of the same being?

Or is God a person we can enjoy getting to know?

What is God like, and how may we expect Him to act toward us?

“Such questions are not merely academic. They touch the far-in reaches of the human spirit, and their answers affect life and character and destiny” (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p24)

These are relevant questions considering more of us are praying since covid-19, marches for Black Lives, genuine grief, calls for justice, violence against law enforcement, lock-downs, mental-health struggles, conflicting opinions, tug-of-war politics, compounded by the usual anarchists mixing things up; insults, rage and hate.

2020’s higher death toll world wide, for multiple reasons, has many of us ‘looking up’.

Who are you looking up to?
Can the One(s) we look up to be trusted? Can we personally know the God we call out to? Is there someone above us who can remedy the trends and attitudes destroying us, the diseases rampaging through us (covid, just one of many).

Some religions point to multiple gods, or multiple manifestations of a higher power, others point to ‘Abrahamic’ views of god, some follow creation (nature), and many seek to discover a god within themselves.

The hope in our cries
When people cry out to ‘a god’, what is the hope of their cry? Hope that God is real, trustworthy, able to hear, a solver of problems, able to action His plans or help us in the details of our lives, and ultimately draw near to us in times of need.

Does such a God exist?

Stories of Gods
My Hindu friend’s tell me stories of Hindu gods, (easier to read in children’s books). They take me to the land of Greek gods, lives, loves, deaths, wars, conflicted action and behaviour, those demi-god ‘heros’ made into movies, and already mentioned long before they were written into Greek-mythology in the Bible near the beginning of human life (Genesis 6:1-4). Do these stories of Greek, Hindu and quite likely Nephilim spirit beings, provide solutions to our struggles? Loved perhaps by some historians; but are they eternally good for humans? Perhaps these stories point us to lesser spiritual beings discovered through meditative exercises, rather than the actual God?

Brahmin Priests and New Age followers leave the spirits behind

Testimonies of gurus and spiritual guides turning away from these spirit beings to the One who isn’t a pantheon, to God who has a name, a character, make for riveting reading.

Two biographies stand out, which detail the journeys of spiritually minded people discovering a real and tangible walk with God. God who sought them out, cared for them and transformed their lives:

• The amazing story of a Brahmin priest, guru and trained yogi’s journey to meet Jesus Christ, the late Rabi R. Maharaj, ‘Death of a Guru: A Remarkable Story of One Man’s Search for Truth’

• A life transformed after journeying through meditation, mystical experience and science told in ‘Truth seekers: a New age Journey to God,’ by Mark Phillips.

Their meditative spiritual lives and experiences with spirit entities discovered through mediation and yoga, did nothing to satisfy the longing of their hearts and minds. That satisfaction and transformation came when they met the Living God. The late A.W. Tozer (older writers have so much wisdom to offer!) explains this phenomena superbly

“The study of the attributes of God, far from being dull and heavy, may for the enlightened Christian be a sweet and absorbing spiritual exercise…”
(A.W. Tozer)

”Only to sit and think of God, Oh what a joy it is! To think the thought, to breathe the name earth has no higher bliss.” (Frederick W. Faber)

The satisfaction of their mind and heart did not come from empty meditation, repeating a chosen word, praying and feeing an idol, or praying to anyone they chose, but from knowing and meeting God.

The Biography of God
’Influencers’ love to write biographies about themselves, and since so many do, there must be a good market for them. Biographies detailing the lives of fellow human-beings intrigue us. Many discuss murky and disturbing experiences, while others are inspirational, but none as life-changing as the biographies about God. The testimonials of God’s character, action, and interaction with human-beings certainly adds fuel to prayers of hope.

The testimony of this God’s actions and character remain the same through history. We have biographies from over four thousand years ago through to today.

I think of Abraham’s testimony of God thousands of years ago, written by Moses who talked face to face with God over and over again, through to my friend who helped me on my own journey towards health -the journey of Nutritionist and life-Coach, Laura Rimmer, from New Age spirituality to relationship with God, http://www.laurarimmer.com/eternalhealth/. Her biographical journey came at great economic cost. She turned from the ‘spiritual trends’ of celebrities, to grab hold of the same God met by Maharaj, Phillips, Tozer, Faber, Abraham and Moses.

‘Spiritual trends’ are popular in our modern world, but they don’t provide the outside help needed when life falls apart.

It is that outside help God offers us, His friendship, guidance and conversation, which is found in the lives of those mentioned above, and written about on the pages of the Bible. God who forgives His people entirely, literally giving them a new life.

He walks with His people, meets His people in person, Guides and prompts them, and when they are truly in communion with Him, their lives, families, societies and even nations are transformed.

From personal experience, this God is well worth a shout-out.

I love to pray through the Psalms - they are real, raw, deal with true human experience, anguished and joyful, covering emotions and experiences of the human race. Psalms, God’s words, guiding us through the hurdles and joys of life. This God gets us to ‘look up’ away from our tumult to the solver of the tumult… And then the solutions come.

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills
— From where comes my help?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel,
shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord  is your keeper;
The Lord  is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
The Lord shall preserve your going out
and your coming in
From this time forth, and forevermore.

Psalm 121

Ok, so this is a BIG topic…
Next up: Who is Abraham’s God (note the present tense) ? Is it the God Maharaj, Phillips, Tozer, Faber and Rimmer love and follow? And is it good enough to just use the term ‘God’?