DIGITAL GOD
Colossians 1:3-12
The Message v.9: “Be assured that from the first day we [Apostles Paul and Timothy] heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to His will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works.”
Colossians 1:3-12
The Message v.9: “Be assured that from the first day we [Apostles Paul and Timothy] heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to His will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works.”
Texting has become a way of life for people around the world. It’s not unusual for teenagers to send and receive thousands of text messages in one month. One 15 year-old declared emphatically (em-FAT-ik-a-ly, meaning forcefully) that she’d “die without it.” She is not alone.
This digital communication shows me that what Paul said in the opening Scripture is possible. Pray unceasingly is often what people who live by God’s leading do. Throughout the course of a day, they send up “popcorn prayers” to their Father, keeping in constant touch with their King. Does this digital revolution make serious kneeling prayers obsolete?
Missionary Frank Laubach admitted his habit of “shooting” prayers at people he encountered each day. Is his method of linking his thoughts and wishes for others directly onto the altar of God texting God? Constant communication. This is what teenagers mastered with each other through texting, what Laubach attained on others’ behalf using shooting prayers, and is the purpose of popcorn prayers.
Has the digital revolution embraced God? Do we serve a digital God? Yes! Of course! If God invented earth, heaven, humans, everything, He’s surely inside the digital loop. Who could prevent God from accessing (and intercepting) digital communication? Never make the mistake of being arrogant enough to think that God’s not present in every aspect of our lives today.
Laubach believed that prayer is the mightiest force in the world. He said, “My part is to live in this hour in continuous inner conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to his will.” I believe that humans have achieved this continuous communication with the Almighty through thought, prayer, Internet correspondence, crying aloud, and texting.
Wouldn’t Paul have been amazed with these possibilities? I imagine that He’d be proud to have begun the “pray unceasingly” suggestion in his letters to the churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica in the years 48-60 A.D.
The digital revolution hasn’t replaced prayer, it enhanced prayer.
Take Home Nugget
Ongoing conversation sounds like a perfect way for every person to form a connection to God. He can read our minds, but He longs to forge an ongoing relationship with His kids. Reaching out to God is our choice, instead of His invading our hearts and minds.
Now prayer IS just a thought and a click away!
J.D. Griffith
Give me a spirit of prayer, dear Lord,
That I may commune with Thee
As I travel along life’s rugged road,
In Thy company always be.
That I may commune with Thee
As I travel along life’s rugged road,
In Thy company always be.
Dawe
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Written for http://www.biblestudyforkids.com/
A personal, private lesson experience with our staff
Written for http://www.biblestudyforkids.com/
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