An old Dutch proverb says, ‘Necessity teaches prayer.’
A grim truth, for very often it is so that we only pray when we cannot find a solution ourselves. God is then only a help for difficult cases: ‘You cannot involve God in everything!’
But God wants to be involved in our whole life, and that is what we do not seem to be willing to accept. That is why we are continuously confronted with all kinds of seemingly insurmountable problems, so that we will learn to ask Him. Unfortunately we have become so headstrong and opinionated that we keep looking for solutions apart from Him. And we then do not call ourselves godless, but optimistic.
Reading the first books of the Bible we notice that the people of Israel were not as hard of heart as we are. When a problem emerged, alright, they would grumble, complain to Moses, but at least they would ask for his advice. And Moses was no optimist, instead he cried out to the Lord, and He answered. ‘The Lord showed him a piece of wood’. Simple, is it not?
Would not many problems find quicker solutions if we cried out to the Lord sooner? But then our mentality, our frame of mind must change completely. Then we must learn to acknowledge God as our King, from early in the morning till late at night. And God wants to teach us how. Therefore He has given us His word so that we would learn to obey.
And he who submits to God’s word will find that He, the Lord, comes ever closer. In learning to obey God’s word, we are more and more enthralled by Him Who obviously wants to live so close to us. In that delight we entrust ourselves to Him more and more. And in this relationship of growing trust and dependence we find that He is our Father in Christ.