All tagged answered
As I read the title of the devotional message that Pastor E.M. Bounds had written this morning I was captured. It read "Bad Praying = Bad Living” but, as I read further, it was actually telling us that the way we live can impact the success of our prayers. When we are actively engaged in sinning it is nearly impossible to pray as we should. Oh, we might say the words, but the connection to our heart is broken, and our outreach towards God is without sincerity and strength.
The incredible width and breadth of prayer is our contemplation today. The magnificent blessing and power of prayer should be evident to all believers, and yet some can’t seem to grasp the enormous magnitude of it. God’s promise wasn’t that if we prayed he might do something for us, or that he might give us food, but not something else. No, His promise is that if we pray within His will, and in the name of Jesus, He will give us anything we pray for. What an amazing promise this is. So, if we pray as we should then there is nothing He will not provide us. There are many scriptures that make references to this truth, so let’s begin by using one from the New Testament and another from the Old Testament for reference…
05/24/2024
What do we do when the impossible prayer is answered? How do we react when we pray for a miracle and we actually get it? This is the subject of our devotional this morning, and my example has to do with the coming Christ... The promised Messiah. Jesus Christ was promised, but before he could arrive another would have to be born and prepare the world for his coming... That forerunner would be John the Baptist, and his birth would be miraculous, but even after his parents had prayed continuously for a child, and when faced with this miracle, his father doubted the coming miracle because the answer was outside the natural norm.
This morning I read of God's provision and gifts to us. I am strengthening myself in the understanding that He is always there, always good, and always hears and answers my prayers. My confidence in these facts forms the basis for my expectation in Him and relieves me of doubt and worry.
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...
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.
God speaks to us, and asks us to do something, but at that particular moment it is inconvenient for us, so we say “I will do it tomorrow Lord”, and we go about our business, however, when we are faced with a trial in our own lives we pray for His relief, and expect Him to answer immediately. Does this sound familiar? So often we hold God to a standard of immediacy that we ourselves would never agree to, and yet we treat the God of all creation as though he was our personal servant; sent to do our bidding. Why is it that we lose faith, or become angry with God when in our minds He is slow to act? In fact, is that really true?