Dear God, whom I hate with all my being precisely because you hate and threaten me with hell, I hate this punishment perhaps even more than I hate you. Or, maybe I should say that I love my comfort even more than I hate you. For that reason I am asking a favor of you. I want you to make me love you, whom I hate even when I ask this and even more because I have to ask this. I am being frank with you because I know it is no use to be otherwise. You know even better than I how much I hate you and that I love only myself. It is no use for me to pretend to be sincere. I most certainly do not love you and do not want to love you. I hate the thought of loving you but that is what I'm asking because I love myself. If you can answer this 'prayer' I guess the gift of gratitude will come with it and then I will be able to do what I would not think of doing now—thank you for making me love you whom I hate. Amen. (John H. Gerstner. The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, Volume III, (Virginia: Berea Publications, 1993), p. 81).
I am founder or chairman of Lord of Glory Ministries. I have provided my materials as a few "fishes and loaves" to attempt to exalt the Holy Trinity alone and debase the idolatry of man. I hope and pray to provide sound and free online books (although they are not cheap!) and Reformed sermons related to biblical apologetics and theology or regular Reformed "blog posts".
Friday, June 21, 2013
The God Who Sinners Hate: A Biblical Prayer of Spiritual Help
The Bible says that by nature we hate God and we despise Christ. How have you come before a holy God? Have you come in the personal effort of your own heart? Here is prayer that is surely "set apart" and different in the way people come to Christ nowadays. You would rarely here this kind of biblical prayer on a televangelist program. For it is biblical to say to God:
