Dear God . . .

Dear God, my heavenly Father, I bow before you in your most holy and awesome presence. I want to be near you and talk with you for a bit. I want to know you better than I ever have up to now. I know a little bit about you, but I want to know more. I want my family and friends to know you, too.

I know you are my Creator. In the very beginning, you made the heavens and the earth. You created the sun, moon and stars out of nothing, then flung them out into space. You set the planets in orbit and hold them in place to this very day. You paint beautiful sunsets for me to enjoy. You send rain to water the flowers and gardens. You thrust lightning bolts across the sky, which frighten me with their enormous power to destroy. You make beautiful rainbows for me, sometimes at crucial moments in my life. I feel close to you when I see one.

You created out of nothing all the trees, bushes and flowers. You must have enjoyed making such a vast array of colors, textures and fragrances. You made fruit trees to delight our taste buds. You stocked the oceans with fish, dolphins and great whales. You filled the air with millions of birds that twitter your praise day after day right outside my window.

You created out of nothing all the animals on the earth. I like watching your squirrels playing tag in our front yard. The zoo and the African Lion Safari have many of you awesome creatures. The giraffes are so elegant, the snakes so scary and the monkeys so funny. You must have had so much fun making them! Did you laugh out loud? Thank you for fuzzy little kittens, tail-wagging dogs and even those cute little rats my grandchildren had for pets. I could have lived without all the bugs and spiders though, and those silly ants insist on marching through my kitchen. I do mind that.

Last of all, you created people in your own image. Imagine that! Some things about us are actually like you. Let’s see if I can think of some.

God, you are the source of all that is good in the world. Thank you for that. I can be good to others, but I’m not always.

God, you are love. You eternally give of yourself to others. That is so amazing, knowing that we often aren’t too lovable. Thank you for loving me. I love you, too. Help me to learn to love you more and to love my family and friends the way you do.

God, you are merciful to those in distress. All we have to do is cry out to you and you extend your mercy to us. Help me to be a merciful person.

God, you are gracious. You are good to us even when we deserve punishment. Thank you for the being gracious to me. Help me to be gracious to others.

God, you are patient, even with those who continue to ignore you, who try to shut you out of their life, or who blatantly sin against you. You are not willing that anyone should perish, so you patiently wait for them to come to you.

God, you are holy. You are totally separated from sin. I know you have commanded me to be holy, too. Help me to remember how badly it hurts you when I’m not.

God, you are peace. There is no confusion or disorder with you. I have received your peace in my own heart and thank you for the difference it has made.

God, you are righteous and have set the final standard for righteousness. Because you are righteous, you found it necessary to punish sin and unrighteousness. When your son Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins, it showed that you were truly righteous, because Jesus took the appropriate punishment for our sin, even though you forgave us. Thank you for making me righteous through his death.

God, you are a jealous God who continually seeks to protect your own honor. You deserve all honor and glory from your creation. You alone are infinitely worthy of being praised.

Sometimes you are a God of wrath, because you so intensely hate all sin. Help me to imitate you by hating evil and injustice and sin. I know that you eventually will punish all wrongdoing.

God, you are perfect. You completely possess all excellent qualities. You expect us to be like you in this respect. How short I fall of that.

God, you are blessed. You delight fully in yourself and in all that reflects your character. You are always perfectly happy and full of joy. You take pleasure in everything in your creation that mirrors your own excellence. Help me to imitate you by finding delight and happiness in all that is pleasing to you.

God, you are beautiful! Help me to reflect that beauty in my own life by living a life that is pleasing to you.

God, you are glorious! A bright light surrounds your presence. You made us to reflect that glory. Help me to live so close to you that others can see you reflected in me.

God, you are faithful. You will always do what you said you would and fulfill what you have promised. There are hundreds of promises in your word that we can count on happening. Help me to be faithful to you, to love you and to serve you throughout my life here on earth.

God, you are free to do as you please in the universe. You have given each of us a free will, too. We can choose to believe in you or not to believe in you. We can choose to love you or to turn away from you. We can choose to live a godly life or to sin against you.

God, you are truthful. All your knowledge and all your words are both true and the final standard of truth. You expect us to truthful, too, and not to lie to anyone.

God, you are wise. You always choose the best goals and best means to those goals. Your decisions about what you will do are always wise decisions. Help me to consult you about the decisions I make so they will also be wise.

I’m sure there are many other ways in which you have created me in your image. It’s no wonder you declared when you were finished creating the first human beings that what you had made was good. It is! Thank you for creating me in your own likeness.

I’m so glad you have revealed yourself to us, both through your creation and through your Word. Otherwise, we would never know you. I know I will never fully understand you, your greatness, your wisdom, your way of relating to us. I’m sure I’ll never run out of things to learn about you. I will never tire discovering more of your excellence and the greatness of your works. Even in eternity, I will be able to go on learning more about you and getting to know you more fully.

Thank you that I can talk to you every day in prayer. You can speak to me through your Word. I like to feel you near and sense your presence with me. I delight to sing praises to you on Sunday morning or as I drive along in my car. I feel blessed just to know you.

In many ways, I am not like you. You alone are God and have these attributes. For one thing, you are eternal, while I am a created being. You had no beginning, end, or succession of moments in your own being. You have always existed, even before the creation of the world. You see all time equally vivid, as if it just happened. It will remain that clear in your consciousness throughout millions of years of eternity future.

You are infinite. You are not subject to any of the limitations of humanity or of the rest of creation. You are far greater than everything you have made, far greater than anything else that exists. Yet, you are a personal God. You interact with us as people, and we can relate to you. We can pray to you, worship you, obey you, love you. You can speak to us, rejoice in us, and love us. Wow! That is so incredible!

You are infinite with respect to time. There will be a succession of moments one after another and things happening one after another in heaven as you revealed in the Book of Revelation. We will live with you eternally, a duration of time that will never end. Our life will go on forever with you.

We can be present only in one place at one time, but you are present at every point of space with your whole being. There is nowhere in the entire universe, on land or sea, in heaven or in hell, where one can flee from your presence. However, you cannot be contained by any space, no matter how large.

You are an unchangeable God. Our faith, our hope, our knowledge of you depend on a person who is infinitely worthy of trust, because you are absolutely and eternally unchanging in your being, your perfections, your purposes and your promises. I’m so glad for that.

You are an invisible God. You will never be able to be seen by us before we get to heaven, yet you show yourself to us through the things you have created. We just have to look for you and come to recognize you through your handiwork.

You are an all-knowing God. You know everything. From all eternity, you have known all things that would happen and all things that you would do. You know every thought in my mind. With the Psalmist David I say, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.” (Ps. 139:1-4)

You are an all-powerful God. You are the sovereign ruler of the entire universe. You are able to do anything you will to do, everything that is consistent with your character. However, you cannot lie. You cannot sin. You cannot deny yourself. You cannot be tempted with evil. You cannot cease to exist. You cannot cease to be God. You cannot act in a way inconsistent with any of your attributes. You alone are God–my God!

God, you are the Great Physician, the Healer of all our hurts, all our diseases, even our broken spirit. “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.” (Jeremiah 17:14) Lord, you know those among our family and friends who need your healing touch. Reach out and touch them. Restore health to their bodies and minds. I believe you are both able and willing to do that.

God, you so loved the world that you gave your one and only son, Jesus, to die for our sin. You said if we believe in him, we will not perish, but will live eternally with you. Lord, knowing who you are and how much you love us, how could anyone turn down such an offer?

I know there is so much more to know about you. I will keep searching. Thank you for all you have shown me so far. Thank you for sending your son to die for my sin. Thank you for healing me from all the hurts of the past. I look forward to the day when I will be with you for all eternity. I love you with all my heart. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

by Fern Boldt, Sept. 2001

Written for a friend who claimed to be an atheist. She was on a plane returning from Europe on September 11, 2001, when the terrorist attacks took place. She arrived safely and later read this.