Digging Deeper: In with the New

Two things are true of me. In middle school, I got my very first cell phone, and I got my very first girlfriend. Now, those two facts may be a coincidence, but they were much more related than you might think. I think back to the month I got in trouble because we had Verizon as our phone provider, and my girlfriend had Cingular. (Anybody remember Cingular?) We texted so many times that month that it cost my parents hundreds of dollars in cross-company texting charges. I also have a memory of being on the phone with my girlfriend until about 3:30 in the morning. I eventually had to get off the phone because I knew my dad would be getting up at 4:00, and it would not go well for me if he heard me still awake!

There is a connection between having a new relationship and having new access. I had a girl that I really liked, and I now had a new means of communicating with her whenever I wanted. (Mainly because my parents upgraded us to the unlimited plan.) When you have a relationship with someone, you naturally want access to them. You want to be able to talk to them, spend time with them, and hear what they have to say.

There is a similar connection between our relationship with God and our access to Him. If you have put your faith in Jesus, you have a new relationship with the God of the universe. A God who loves you deeply. But you also have new access to Him. Through the Holy Spirit, we now have the ability to communicate with God through prayer. And because prayer can feel so normal to us, it is easy to forget just how significant that access really is.

Think about some of the people from the Old Testament. Maybe you thought of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, or King David. These people certainly knew God and experienced His presence, but access to God’s presence was mediated in a way that is different from what we experience today. God gave Israel the tabernacle and later the temple, and at the center of that worship was the Holy of Holies. This is the place where God’s presence was uniquely represented. The high priest could enter that room only once a year, but only after making the sacrifices and following the requirements God had given. There was a real barrier between the holy presence of God and sinful humanity.

But then Jesus came. Jesus (our Great High Priest) offered Himself as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin. And when He died, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two. The barrier was removed. Hebrews 10:11–14 explains that while the priests repeatedly offered sacrifices that could never ultimately take away sin, “Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins.” His sacrifice accomplished what the repeated sacrifices of the old covenant could never accomplish.

Sellers, why does this matter? It matters because when you begin to pray, you are approaching the holy God of the universe. You don’t have to travel to a specific place, wait for a priest, or bring an animal sacrifice. Because of Jesus, you can draw near to God yourself. Hebrews 10:19–22 says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”

Think about the significance of that. Because of Jesus, you have a new relationship and new access to God. Prayer isn’t simply a spiritual discipline that Christians are supposed to practice. Prayer is one of the ways we experience the access Jesus died to give us. The God whose presence was once separated from His people by a curtain invites you to come near and talk to Him.

And that should change the way we view prayer. We don’t pray because God is distant and we’re trying to get His attention. We pray because, through the sacrifice of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, God has brought us near. We don’t pray because we are trying to convince God to listen. We pray because He has already made a way for us to come into His presence.

So let me ask you a few questions that I would love for you to consider…

• Why do we pray?

• How does the relationship you have with God change the way you pray?

• How does the access you have to God change the way you pray?