This morning I awoke to a clear, bright dawn. We’ve had a lot of rain and fog so it was wonderful to see the California sunshine. But driving to church, we hit a fog bank. Suddenly complete gloom engulfed us. We could hardly see the lines on the road right in front of us. When we arrived at church, the fog was so bad, it was hard to find the entry doors. Yet I knew the church was there because for nearly ten years now we’ve worshiped in this place. The fog didn’t change the location of the church, but it sure changed the focus of things.

This reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about all week. The Bible says God knows every intent of the heart. So why do I worship God? What is my heart’s intent? At first, the answers that came to mind seemed good: He died for me. He loves me. He’s never once let me down. Many rock-solid reasons surfaced about why I worship God, but I soon realized that all these answers were about me. So who was I really worshiping? Myself or God?

I’ve been reading through the Bible in a way I’ve never read it before. Our church is pushing a program right now to either read the Bible in a year, or in 90 days. A handful of times, I’ve read the Bible in a year, so I decided to take the 90 day challenge. The three month reading plan is set up to cover about 12 pages a day. What I’ve found by reading the Bible this way is that it unfolds sweepingly, like an epic movie. The most interesting aspect is that God truly shines as the central character.

In the past, while reading the Bible in smaller portions, I’ve always found Moses, or Samuel, or King David, or some prophet seemingly the main character, or in the New Testament, Jesus and his disciples. I’ve never really seen the central character of the Bible as God until now. In my head, I’ve always known God was the main character, but it hadn’t hit my heart before this way.

In light of really seeing the character of God, I realize that the way I’ve been approaching Him in prayer and worship isn’t quite right. My approach has been human based instead of God based. It reminds me of that often quoted President Kennedy statement: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” In other words, “Ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God.”

I’ve come to see that approaching God is truly about Him, not about me or the people I’m praying for. The heroes of the Bible knew this. Their prayers were full of God and often began this way:

Because You are a merciful God…

Because You are slow to anger and abounding in love…

Because we are a people called by Your name…

For Your namesake hear our prayer…

The emphasis is always on God, not the believer. In light of this, I’ve been doing some soul searching about how I pray and worship. Instead of just asking God to do something for me or someone else like: heal, deliver, or save, I’ve begun to pray in this way: “If it brings You glory, God, heal. Because you are a merciful God, deliver. For your great name, save. See how the focus of the prayer has shifted? The fog of self lifts and the clear light of God settles sharply into play. No longer is the prayer about the person, the prayer is about God, and rightfully so.

After going through all his pain and suffering, Job said to God at the end of the book of Job, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” Job 42:5.

I believe this is what happens when the fog of self lifts. No longer have we only heard God, we have seen Him and His glory is far brighter than we could ever imagine.