Approaching God in Prayer
I must always remember that I can no
more approach God than an infant can approach its mother. When that
baby sees its mother several feet away, he tries to reach her by
stretching out his tiny arms toward her. But it is Mom who goes the
distance and makes the connection. In the same way, my human capacity to
reach across the great divide between the finite and the infinite is
eternally inadequate. But from God’s perspective, the gap doesn’t exist
at all. Like a loving mother, our God is ever present. Because of his
mother’s faithfulness, the child of the loving mother soon becomes
convinced that his reach is sufficient, and in a way he’s right, isn’t
he? In the same way, all I need to do in order to reach God is to reach for God. I should do myself a favor and memorize this line: To reach for God is to reach God. I
will have to remind myself of this whenever I feel tempted to believe
that God will only come to me if I find the magic book, say the magic
formula and become the perfect pray-er. I should trust that God is present to me any time I stretch out my feeble little spiritual arms
—from the book Armchair Mystic: How Contemplative Prayer Can Lead You Closer to God by Mark Thibodeaux, SJ
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