All in Answered Prayer
As we approach Lent and Easter, I am thinking about the two who walked the road to Emmaus and encountered Jesus. I am amazed that they had left Jerusalem and were returning home dejected and believing the Lord had failed them... they were disappointed that their timeline had not been met as they thought it should have been. The promise of three days, in their eyes, meant that Jesus would arise and redeem Israel by force from the Romans. Let's read their words...
We know why we pray to God; we know the needs, the desires, fears, and suffering that we experience which brings us to our knees before Him, but why does He choose to answer us? Do we think that it is out of obligation because we are His creation? No, God’s answer to our prayer is much more than that. It is because He loves us, and is faithful to us in support of every promise He has ever made us… each being driven by, and rooted in, that love. Can we say that we love Him in like kind, and are just as faithful?
God’s promises are not such that they might or might not apply to us, no, each one begins with our individual name written into it. Do we believe this, and do we trust in the fact that He will do everything He has promised? In the New Covenant Jesus makes some new promises, but we must understand the stipulations that are placed on them, and God’s Will for us. Jesus said that we will have eternal life, but before that can happen He tells us that we must believe in Him... not simply by saying that we believe, but really, truly, believing.
Do we believe that Jesus is able to do the things He says? When we are in prayer asking that He heal us, provide for us, or raise someone from the dead, do we truly believe? If we say “YES!” Then there are two more questions to ask before we proceed... have we invited him into our house; into the place where we presently are; into the deepest recesses of our heart? Then finally... do we have faith that He is who He says He is... the Son of the Living God?
On occasion, I have attempt to take God’s decisions from my lap, and determine the outcome of my life by my own determination, have you ever been inclined to do this? Leaning on God for provision in all things is a very difficult accomplishment when every worldly lesson taught us throughout our lives has been directed at making us self-sufficient, but learning to pray in every circumstance, and to always trust in Him to provide, should be the first lesson we master. Have you mastered this? Do you even understand it’s importance?
Are you in the midst of trouble and don’t know what to do? Perhaps you cry out to God in prayer for your provision or rescue, but when the answer doesn’t come in your own time you begin to doubt Him. Prayer... it is more than a revelation of our thoughts to God, it is a plea to be within His will. God answers prayer that isn’t at odds to His character, and that is conformed to who He is.
Are you waiting on the answer to a prayer today? Have you been praying for something for quite a while, and though you believe it is within the will of God it remains unanswered? Perhaps you have been feeling out of sorts and just want to feel better, but you don’t really know how to say what is wrong with you, or know what to ask for. If so... then you are not the first to wait, or the only one who didn’t know what to ask for.
Do you really know how to pray? No? Well, do you know how to talk with God? There is no secret to having a conversation with the Lord, and no secret to answered prayer, just one simple fact... it we pray in unison with the conversation we are having with Him, and ask for those things we agree on during that interaction, then He will do those things for us.
Do we abide in Jesus Christ? This is an incredibly powerful question, and our answer to it determines much. This is the condition that is placed on one of the most sought after promises in the Bible... answered prayer, and it is also linked to other promises such as the love of God, and joy. So how do you approach Jesus? Is Christ abiding in you, or just a visitor?
Do you weep in your prayer closet and ask for a certain thing day, after day, after day? Does your heart break in the midst of your supplication , and yet you have faith in God to answer... are your prayers lifted up yet again, and the tears run down your face once more? Do those around you say “stop praying, it isn’t going to happen”, but you continue to cling to hope, and trust in God? This is what Jesus taught us to do. This is the evidence of faith.
What is it about prayer that we value the most? Is it the time spent with God? The comfort it brings us? Knowing that we are heard? Realizing that we are never alone? Finding joy in praying for others? The list goes on and on doesn’t it... but the one thing that stifles our spiritual lives more than any other is making the answer to our prayers paramount in gauging the success of our prayer lives; and not just answers, but those we have dictated, or in other words, when we want OUR will to direct God’s answer to our prayers.
Do you pray in secret? If you do pray secretly, and God answers your prayer, do you still keep it secret? This is an especially hard thing to do for a couple of reasons; first you want to tell the world what your God has done, but secondly, and most destructively, you want the world to know that God has heard, and answered, YOU!
One of the most frequent responses I receive from readers of my morning devotionals is a request for prayer. More often than not it is to join them in a specific prayer that they have been praying for some time without receiving an answer. Do you have prayers like this? Well if so, don’t be discouraged because the disciples failed in prayer too, and Jesus taught them a powerful lesson in it.