God loves us in an unimaginable way.

Many people cannot or do not want to believe this because they have not yet recognised Him or experienced his work in their lives. There are probably several reasons for this. Often it is because the testimony of believing Christians is so weak. Also, they are probably not aware of the freedom that God has given us, a freedom that he always respects. God will therefore not intervene in our lives without being asked. If he has nevertheless done so, we may assume that it was because of the intercessory prayer of other people.

God wants to make it possible for all of us to experience his love. He envisages how each of our lives can be fruitful and fulfilled. This is true of the life and destiny of nations as well. But we have to approach God in our freedom and ask him for his help, his guidance and his companionship. God wants to be close to us and wants to help us. But when he does so, he does so in such a way that doesn‘t interfere with the autonomy of other people; after all, only we have asked him for his help and guidance. This is also the reason why, alongside the wonderful fruits of faith and love in the world, so much strife, hatred and human-induced suffering exists.

Consequences of our decisions:

However, it is important that we personally decide for God. After all, this is about our own destiny on earth. God can and does want to help us in the here and now so that our lives can be successful .... in his sense of the word. This means that he will help us when our efforts and our lives contribute to more love, reconciliation, peace and justice. His help will therefore not always correspond to our own ideas and desires, because these are sometimes very self-centred. But if our requests and personal concerns have a place in his plans, he will help us to fulfil them because he loves us.

Our decision for or against God also has an impact on our destiny because, one day after our death, we will stand before God. God will then judge our lives from the point of view of the extent to which we have loved. He himself is absolute love, and we will only have the opportunity to come closer to him after our death if we have made an effort to walk this path of love during our lifetime.

In other words, if we have followed a negative path through our lives, one of unkindness and selfishness, of discord, of disregard for human dignity and justice, we will either not receive a share in the closeness and love of God, or we will still have to travel a long and painful path after our death before we become capable and mature enough to enter into the closeness of God. Jesus warned us repeatedly about this difficult path. We should take these warnings seriously.

Making room for God in our lives

We can assume that we can lay our concerns, problems, worries, conflicts and fears before God at any time. Because he loves us, we can ask him to help us resolve these things in his way. If we never try to do this, we will never know of Gods works in our lives.

Perhaps the question now arises, how should I talk to someone I cannot see and hear? How should I pray? I'm already a bit out of practice or I don't even know how to start..........

It doesn't matter.

God values our intention, the desire of our heart, rather than the perfection of the words that we say. He values honest and sincere communication rather than the simple repetition of words. He values our admission of faults and weaknesses because he loves us and only in this way can he help us overcome those faults and weaknesses. We can remove the masks that we wear inorder to make us appear strong, cool or faultless before God because he knows us anyway. But he needs our honesty because he respects our freedom and will not do anything in our lives without our consent.

It doesn't matter how we talk to God, the main thing is that we do it.

It is helpful if we talk to Jesus as if he were standing next to us as a human being. He is actually next to us and would also understand us if we only communicated with him on a mental level. But that is not always favourable for us. A mental communication does not have the same weight for us as a spoken word, it is much less binding. But God wants our commitment in our speaking and doing, also in our praying. So if it is possible, for example, when we are alone, we should also try to pray aloud.

We can talk to Jesus as if he were our best friend, tell him everything that is on our mind, what makes us happy or burdens us. This may sound strange at first, because God knows our fate, knows what makes us happy or burdens us. Why should we tell him everything?

The answer is simple: Yes, God already knows. But telling creates closeness and trust. God wants us to learn to trust him. He makes his work in our lives dependent on our trust. That is why so many people do not experience anything of God's work, because they cannot trust him. We are to grow into an attitude like that of small children who feel safe and secure in the hand of their parents.

This attitude is difficult to adopt, especially for men. One has to give up ones often supposedly strong role and accept that there is someone who actually understands everything better than you. This is not easy, but those who are able to accept it will rejoice in being allowed to walk beside Jesus.

Obstacles to accepting God's love

It is very difficult when people have been emotionally hurt by someone in their life, perhaps even by their own father. They may have a broken, negative image of their father. Perhaps they were even abused by their own father as a child. In such a situation, it is almost impossible from a human perspective to develop trust in a heavenly Father. Nevertheless, because God wants us to experience him as a loving Father, we should try to lay these painful experiences before God. We can ask him to show us ways in which these wounds can heal. God desires for these wounds to heal. He wishes to help with this healing process but he also needs our help. We need to forgive our father, or indeed, any other person who has hurt us. There is no way around this, even though such forgiveness seems almost superhuman. However, we can ask God to help us with this difficult step of forgiving. He will help because he loves us and because he knows that without forgiveness we will never have true peace of mind. There are some incredibly beautiful testimonies that show how great blessings can result from such acts of forgiveness.

Yes, we may and should simply talk freely with God. This brings us into an honest and deep relationship with God. That is what he wants. But there are also various other forms of prayer. These are treasures that should not be neglected.