Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. Jeremiah 17:7
Do you know that we can’t say we trust God when we are not
aligned – or I should say refuse to be aligned with the will of God. Do you understand that when we pray for our
will to be God’s will – in essence, asking that our will replace the will of
God - that we’re not only praying amiss but we are in direct conflict with the
will of God? When we pray that God bless
what we want rather than we being obedient to what He wants is a direct
contradiction to His word. God knows our
wants and desires and He also knows what is best for us – what will keep us on
the path of righteousness and what will cause us to detour. It’s just as important to understand that we
can’t live in sin and think just because we pray and ask in the name of Jesus,
we’ll be granted our requests. In accordance to the word of God, tremendous
power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of godly
believers. That’s what the word says:
. . . The
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
James 5:16
It is the prayers of righteous men and women that avail with
God:
If ye
abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall
be done unto you. John 15:7
This means IF we’re abiding in Christ we can ask and
it shall be done. IF we’re walking in obedience to God's Word, then we
can ask with assurance in the name of Jesus.
And
whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, . . . John 13:14
Some may disagree with this Biblical teaching. They say you
can ask ANYTHING as long as it’s asked in the name of Jesus and it’ll be
done. But that would imply that God
acquiesces to our will when the bible clearly indicates that we are to submit
our will to His will.
And do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2
That scripture is loaded; it speaks to not only how we are
to be living our life but our thoughts and our prayers to God in order to walk
this scripture out. I know we prayer for
a whole bunch of things – natural and spiritual and as long as they’re godly,
keep praying them. But, in want to be in
alignment with this scripture [Romans 12:2], what ought to be foremost in our
petitions to God is:
· a
hunger in our hearts for souls
· forgiveness in the areas of poor stewardship.
· wisdom
& application of effective stewardship.
· knowledge
of money for the building of God’s Kingdom.
· With
all the disharmony in the church, more than ever pray for unity within our
church family
I know we need temporal things, but our spiritual needs should have preeminence. To be clear, I’m not saying don’t pray for natural or temporal things but we must be careful when they are not aligned with the will of God. God may grant you your request but there may be consequences to follow. When we’re presumptuous in our prayers without submitting our requests to God’s will, He may answer our requests, but it may not be in our best interests. He did this with the children of Israel in their wilderness experience when they prayed out of the lust of their flesh [this is an excellent example of praying amiss]:
And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into
their soul. Psalms 106:15
God gave them their request, they wanted meat and they got
it in great abundance:
And
the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and
they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they
spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their
teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people,
and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.
Numbers 11:31-33
There was a problem here because God had given them what
they needed to sustain them on their journey.
So now, they were praying [the bible says crying] out of their lust for
Moses to go before God so they could eat meat and instead of the positive
response they were looking for there was a negative recompense.
Imagine the insult to God that His people didn’t trust Him
enough to realize that He had already given them what they needed to sustain
them on their journey. But instead of
trusting God, they listened to a ‘mixed multitude of people’ who escaped Egypt when
they did but who didn’t even have a relationship with God. And they allowed them to whisper in their
ears. And the children of God had the
nerve to follow their thoughts instead of the will of God. How many times have we put our confidence in
man instead of trusting in God. God
tells you one thing and you listen to someone else’s opinion about what God
told you! But, if you trust in God, in
His will, you’ll find yourself strengthened as did Apostle Paul when he put in
his prayer request; not once, but three times and He didn’t get the response he
was looking for. He was seeking his
will that God deliver him when God had a whole other agenda for
him! He didn’t seek counsel from the
other disciples; ask them what they thought he should do; no, he
continued to pray and wait on God’s response.
Here’s what he had to say about his prayer and the result of it:
And
lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the
revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan
to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought
the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. 2
Corinthians 12:7-9
But because his prayer wasn’t
answered, that didn’t stop Apostle Paul. He didn’t lose faith, in fact, he was
strengthened because of it. God used Apostle
Paul’s infirmity to strengthen his reliance on God and keep him humble before
God and man!
That’s a lesson for you:
just because God can, doesn’t always mean He will. If our faith is based on the premise that God
can do and will do anything that we ask, all we’ve done is created a recipe for
disappointment and loss of faith. This is bible. God is sovereign, and yes, He
can do anything, He is capable and able to do anything. He tells us that in His word:
And he
said, the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
Luke 18:27
But that doesn’t mean that it is an automatic that He will. The three Hebrew captives understood that
though God is capable of the impossible doesn’t mean that he’ll always do the
impossible according to our desires and requests. They acknowledged this when faced with the
fiery furnace:
If it
be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery
furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king,
that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast
set up. Daniel 3:17-18
The catch is that He does what He does according to His
will, not our will. We have to trust His will with every aspect of our lives
and every fiber of our being including what we pray for or about.
Blessed
is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. Jeremiah
7:7
To believe otherwise is a setup
for failure. Not only will it disturb and cancel out the peace of God that is
promised to us, it leads to disappointment and a loss of faith.
Further reflection on the three Hebrew captives, reveals that
they trusted God despite the obstacle.
Their demonstration of their obedience to God and their reliance in Him
when they refused to bow to false gods at the King's request and subsequently
were thrown into a fiery furnace. Their
response to this ultimatum demonstrated their obedience because of their trust
in God.
Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are
not careful to answer thee in this matter. Daniel
3:16
In other words, they let the king know that they knew who
their God was, in whom they trusted and to whom they belonged. Their trust in God, which was first spoken
and then demonstrated by their actions allowed the glory of God to be
manifested.
Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his
servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded
their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own
God. Daniel 3:28
When we trust in God, then we trust the will
He has for us and our life and the responses to our requests.
Trusting God’s will is paramount. If we’re not going to trust His will, then
what is the point of praying? We have to
realize that all the things that we go through are not always about us. We may just be the instrument that God is
using for His glory to be revealed, Jesus trusted the will of God and made
himself subject to it. He prayed before
His death:
Father,
if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but
thine be done. Luke 22:42
In the weakness of human flesh, Jesus didn’t want to suffer.
He wanted the cup of suffering removed, but He submitted His will to God's
will. Why? Because He wholeheartedly trusted in God.
Knowledge and experience builds our relationship with
God. It starts with trusting in Him.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not
unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
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