The Trinity: An Inherently Relational God预览

In addition to living Communally, pursuing the Ministry of Reconciliation, and living Hospitably, the fourth practical, relational application that the Trinity teaches us is the importance and nature of Worship and Prayer. Both our worship and our prayer lives should be greatly shaped by our understanding of the Trinity. Additionally, a healthy relationship with God is centered on those foundations, and prayer is essential to growing and developing a healthy relationship with others.

On the most basic level, the Beauty, Intricacy, and Mysteriousness of the Trinity should absolutely inspire our worship in the first place. What an incredible privilege it is to worship a God who is inherently Relational and who has always Loved!

But on a deeper level, the Trinity should also not only inspire but also shape our worship in that it should be promoted and energized by the Holy Spirit within us, through the Son and to the Father. Without the Holy Spirit, our worship is just a human activity. But through the Holy Spirit, we have access to the Father through the Son. This should entirely shape our worship.

What's more, we only know who it is that we worship because of the Trinity. We have not seen the Face of the Father and we do not see the Holy Spirit, but we have known the Father through the Son. And thus we know what He is like, as it is revealed to us through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. We therefore only know the object of our worship through the Trinity.

As we worship Jesus we worship the Father through the Revelation of the Son. Instead of being lost in this complexity, try and be awed by its Beauty.

Our view and experience with prayer are similar, in that Christians pray to the Father through the Son by the Spirit.

It is a Beautiful Relationship whereby we are to dwell upon and seek the Mind and Will of the Father. We are able to do this because the same Holy Spirit who knows the Mind of the Father also dwells within us. This same Spirit quickens us to pray in the first place, and thus we pray by the Holy Spirit through the Son who gives us access to the Father.

When we pray, we have the opportunity to enter this Beautiful Communion that the Trinity has with One Another, and thus through prayer we are actually functionally activating the Triune God.

Finish up today’s study by spending some uninterrupted time in worship and prayer, using as inspiration (if it’s helpful to you), this poem by Frederick W. Faber:

“O Blessed Trinity!

O simplest Majesty! O Three in One!

Thou art forever God alone.

Holy Trinity!

Blessed equal Three.

One God, we praise Thee.”