Epic Bible College

Crazy Love – Stop Praying

Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by abdrumm in Crazy Love

Crazy Love

Stop Praying

Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love” messed me up to say the least. When I first read it I was on some flights back from Virginia to California and literally stepping off the plane I was speechless with my life. Maybe I’ll go more into detail later but I wanted to discuss my thoughts on the first chapter of the book called Stop Praying.

First go to www.crazylovebook.com and watch the video “Awe Factor.” It’s a video on the enormity of creation. He starts with pictures of Earth all the way out to a view of the 350,000,000,000 some galaxies. Yes I said 350… Galaxies. He then describes the small things in this life that is simple nature, yet so profound and in detail when it comes to the creation. When I saw this video and read the chapter I sat amazed of how powerful God really is. The purpose of Francis writing this chapter, I thought, was for me and you to be in awe, because frankly we don’t ponder the reality of who God is. Francis mentions…”there is an epidemic of spiritual amnesia and no one is immune. No matter how much we see or read, we will forget.” It really is challenging to day in and day out see God  in his glory when al the world he pushing him out and not even tolerating his existence, yet we are to know him for exactly who he is. If we were all honest with each other we would all say, “I don’t feel like loving God today or maybe I just forget. In a world of distraction that is constantly buying for our attention, telling us we don’t have enough we are left dissatisfied” We have to remind ourselves to actively pursue God’s presence.

What I love about this chapter is it takes you out of your normal day to day worries. If God is this big, why am I giving this or that so much thought and allow such a strong hold in my mind?  Sometime we can get preoccupied in life whether its work, school, relationships, responsibilities, family, finances, etc. this list can go on, yet above all that there is a God who made this little speck of a earth in this universe filled with trillions of galaxies. If this doesn’t boggle your mind nothing will. Sorry, how graphic this may be to you, but its something I think about randomly and it goes with this chapter in the complexity of our creation. Isn’t amazing that each of us came from to simple elements meeting from our parents. That’s how we started. Wow! Those elements within their body, in that process, created my body, my bones, veins, toes, finger nails, lungs, a heart, and a mind. Your heart pumps blood so you live then one day its stops and you die? Weird, right? What about my mind? The brain is just flesh so I think, I hear, I move, I see. How does that work? I don’t know about you but I see God written all over this. Nothing about the human body is random or chance. Let me ask you something after hearing this do you believe God can heal you? Yes, he can! He formed you for God sakes. By the way, I’m not even talking about the invisible qualities about us like our soul and spirit. Just the physical nature of us we see God. Looking at the universe, world, humanity, animals, insects, plant life, we see His Art at work. We even see him in technology. I’m writing this on a laptop on an airplane probably 20k feet in the air. To me all technology is very much a glorification to God in what he has given us the capability to do. I say all this to say “Stop praying” as Francis says. Stop, and look at God for who he is before you do anything, even before you pray. If you did your perceptions of your worries will change.

Francis brings out a few things to think about who God is but I’ll just mention one.

He is Holy – He is set apart above and separate from us. That’s a good thing because if he wasn’t we would have a problem as Christians. I’m glad my God in complex and unexplainable in ways because if I could put him in a box and explain him there’s an issue. I’m not saying we can’t know him, or we are stupid ignorant Christians because we can’t explain him. What I am saying we can know him to the extent that he has revealed to us, but there is more to come. I heard someone say speaking of eternity that he will be in heaven with God for millions of years yet we will still be in awe of Him.

Whatever situation you are in God is above all of it. This is an easy thing to say, but living the life is different. Having faith day in and day out is a struggle especially while the world keeps telling you that you are alone in this thing called life. God is the created of galaxies, yet he formed you in your mothers womb with love and he knows you intimately in a way that not even you know.

READ CRAZY LOVE BY FRANCIS CHAN…More to come

God Bless

David Pineschi