I’ve lost track of how many churches I’ve visited in the past six months. It seems there are sacred buildings every few hundred meters in the older sections of European cities. Their open doors invite you to step out of the noisy hustle on the street into the hushed calm of cool stones and stunning artwork. The ones with works by celebrated artists tend to be full of tourists, and they’re certainly impressive. But the environment can be challenging for quiet prayer or reflection on the message of those works.
It’s generally in the less “popular” churches that I find people praying. And while the manner of prayer varies, one thing that has struck me is that generally the supplicants tend to keep towards the back. Maybe the weight of what they’re carrying is so heavy they can’t go one step further. I’ll never know what it took for them to even get to the vestibule. But I do know that God does not want to be far from them. And He loves that they’re intentionally seeking Him in their distress.
I don’t want to minimize the importance of reverence. The Bible describes the Lord in this way – “It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. The people below must seem like grasshoppers! He is the one who spreads out the heaven like a curtain and makes his tent from them” (Isaiah 40:22). He is too majestic for the human mind to comprehend. He could easily have kept His distance. But He willingly entered into our frame of reference. He took on Himself the cloak of humanity and made Himself nothing in order to fit in a manger (Philippians 2:7).
What’s even more incomprehensible than the enormity of God is the immensity of His love for sinners. Even after we have disobeyed Him, rejected Him, despised His counsel and His care, mocked and crucified His Son – even now He wants to be close to us. Even now He offers us forgiveness and free pardon.
“Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods!” Romans 11:33
We don’t need to go to a church to find God. We don’t need to wait for the doors to be open to cry out to Him. He’s everywhere, all the time, and He will meet us wherever we are when we draw near to Him. We take the first step when we recognize that God is the only source of meaningful help. But we can’t stop at the threshold. We must go into the sanctuary, to the altar, directly to the throne of grace. Since God’s own Son doesn’t condemn us, but instead stands before the Father as our advocate and intercessor, “let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him” (Hebrews 10:22). He has held nothing back to demonstrate the intensity of His desire to be near to us. What we will receive when we draw near is not condemnation, but merciful grace, an open embrace, a joyous welcome.
“I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: to live with him in his house my whole life long.” Psalm 27:4 MSG