August 3, 2012
BREAK" THROUGH PROMISES
Today was a day of hope. I say was. I had my eye on a job and the deadline was today. I needed a letter from a particular person in order to complete the application and it never came. He even said that he had sent it on Tuesday and it should have been here Thursday if not today. It never came and I thus could not submit my application. I was somewhat conflicted about the job because it is located in Reno. I would once more be away from home, but it would be much closer than New York. To me, I am willing to go to North Korea if God provides an open door. It appears Reno is a closed door. As of today, all my concerns are still without answer. Because of the powerful testimonies in the previous chapters I had hope in God's healing and provision. I was not healed today and I remain jobless and still single with an increasing longing for female companionship. The author opens the chapter with this quote.
"Did you know that in addition to describing God as Creator, Comforter, and King, the Bible also calls him "the Hearer of Prayer" ? This is one of the sweetest yet least known descriptions of the Lord in Scripture: "O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come." Or, more literally, "Hearer of Prayer, to you all men will come" (Psalm 65:2). If God didn't hear our cries and prayers, wouldn't our world be incredibly lonely and depressing? Fortunately, the Lord is not some distant Creator who set the world in motion and then proceeded to ignore it. He is the "Hearer of Prayer" who made costly provision so that his people might "approach the throne of grace with confidence" (Hebrews 4:16)."
Unfortunately, today, the world does seem lonely and depressing. More and more I begin to wonder if God really hears my prayers. It is not like I am praying for a BMW, vacation home in Miami, and to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company. I pray for employment, healing, and a wife. I pray for the salvation of family members. I pray for my church. I pray for my neighborhood and city. Sometimes, I wonder, why after many months I continue to ask and wrestle with whether or not God hears. The author turns to a popular text many of us know by heart:
"In the letter Jeremiah tells them what the Lord is about to do for his people:
This is what the Lord says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. / will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile" (Jeremiah 29:10-14).
Let's analyze the sequence of God's dealings with his people as found in this passage:
1. The Lord has future plans for his people that are shaped by his loving-kindness toward them. He never intends them harm, but a future full of his blessings.
2. As a result of his loving purpose, God confirms the promise he made that after a period of seventy years, he will bring his people home from exile in Babylon. God's plan for their future comes in the form of a promise that calls for faith on their part.
3. In a part of the sequence that is often overlooked, the Lord says, "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."
Will the people seek God and be answered by him before or after he fulfills his promise to bring them back from captivity? When we read the text carefully, we see that the Israelites were to pray before the promised return from exile. The Lord would keep his word to them after they fervently prayed for his promise to be fulfilled.
Many of us fail to call on God because we don't understand the need to pray about something God has already promised to do. Though we acknowledge that God has plans for us and that his promises reflect his grace and mercy, we don't realize that he wants us to petition him for the very things he has promised! It's in response to our prayers that God accomplishes his purpose, demonstrating once again that he is a "Hearer of Prayer."
The great reformer Martin Luther boldly declared that God does nothing but in answer to prayer."
I think many of us already know this. In James 4, it says we don't receive because we don't ask. This is true for those who do not ask. Indeed, prayerlessness is a problem and I see it in the church I am a part of. However, what about when we pray for months for basic things like healing, companionship and employment and receive rejection letters and face loneliness and difficulty. I sometimes begin to raise doubts about the promises. Does God really have plans to give me hope and a future? As I finish this statement the author makes this powerful statement:
"In the apostle John's first letter we find what I call the most overlooked promise in the Bible. John is speaking about the attitude of assurance God desires for his children.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).
God wants us to feel secure regarding our relationship with him. He wants us to know with certainty that we possess eternal life as part of his family. This security and knowledge is significant because doubts and insecurity will grieve the Father's heart and hinder our ability to live victoriously.
Because we are God's children, then, we can bring our needs to him with certainty in prayer. We can have the same confidence in asking for things as we have about our salvation."
So often I have doubts, doubts about my position, doubts about God's goodness, doubts about the certainty of eternal life. Needless to say I have little confidence and very little victory in my life. This is for me a promise I know, but another promise that for me remains very theoretical and not yet part of my identity and life.
"Once again, this confident asking and receiving from the Lord must follow the laws of prayer laid down by the Father. These guidelines are found scattered throughout the pages of Scripture. Obedience to them opens up the channel from the Father's willing hand to our own hands stretched out in need.
First, approach God in and through Jesus' name. We make our appeal on the basis of what Christ did for us rather than on our own merits, because we have none. It may be humbling to continually admit that we are helpless sinners saved by grace, but only this path will lead to a prayer-hearing God.
Second, a person who prays must also believe. The Bible states that when we ask, we "must believe and not doubt" or else we will be "double-minded." A doubting, double-minded person "should not think he will receive anything from the Lord" (James 1:6-8). A United States senator once told me that he encourages others to pray
The third guideline involves the state of our hearts. The apostle John addresses the issue this way:
If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask because we obey his commands and do what pleases him (1 John 3:21-22).
A clear conscience and a pure heart are absolute necessities for prevailing prayer. I cannot confidently ask God for answers when I cling to the sins that nailed his Son to the cross of Calvary. I cannot live in iniquity and enjoy the Lord's favor simultaneously. These are impossibilities in God's moral universe.
I think the first and the third are easier for me than the second. I really struggle with belief recently. I am like the father who brings his son to hbe healed and the disciples could not heal him.He is remembered for saying "I believe. Help my unbelief". I don't really see God's miracles in my own life so it makes it hard that God can really come through in these impossible situations even though I continue to pray for these things.
"Because Satan understands the potential of prayer far better than we, he has developed cunning strategies to clog the asking-receiving channel. An unforgiving spirit, bitterness, secret sexual sins—the list is endless—can stymie our praying. Every sin we hide and justify becomes a hindrance to bold, confident prayer to the Father.
A fourth guideline for effective prayer, one we have already touched upon, is to approach God with assurance. This is the attitude he desires from every believer every time we pray. John says:
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him (1 John 5:14-15).
John uses an interesting Greek word for "confidence." Parresia derives from a root that denotes "all outspokenness," "frankness," or "boldness." It is the confidence of a child so sure of his father's love that he freely speaks all that is in his heart. With God, there is to be no holding back or fear of rejection. It is the same thought we find in Paul's word to the Ephesians: "In him [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence" (Ephesians 3:12).
If we really believed God's guarantee to both
hear and answer our prayers, we would pray
far more than we do.
Yet many of us lack this confidence, and our insecurity about our relationship with God is stifling our prayer life.
Instead of bringing our needs confidently to him, we cloak our doubt and unbelief in mock humility. If we really believed God's guarantee to both hear and answer our prayers, we would pray far more than we do. Note the breathtaking import of this overlooked promise. The Lord wants us to be absolutely sure that "if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." If he hears us, "whatever we ask,
we know that we have what we asked of him." What an incredible promise filled with grace and power! Not until we go to heaven will we learn of the mighty things accomplished by this sort of prayer.
Because God cannot fail to keep his word, he must, then, answer every petition he hears."
"My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
We can confidently pray, then, for daily wisdom and for our Father to supply every need. Don't permit the size of any problem to prevent you from approaching the throne of grace. Instead, may God's promises propel your prayer so that you are no longer afraid to ask and receive great things from him. "Hearer of Prayer, to you all men will come!"
Prayer:
Father, I am really struggling with Your promises and with Your character today. I fail in my belief. I fail to see Your goodness and love in my life. I long desire to see You provide for my needs of a job, needs for healing, needs for female companionship. I am convinced these things are within the scope of Your will and nature as evidenced by the writings of Scripture. These things do not come easy to me as I have already been rejected in so many job applications. So many of these things are impossible and only within the power of Your provision. Father, I continue to pray for Your provision in the areas of health, employment, and a wife. Help my unbelief and allow me to not give up. Open my eyes to Your goodness and grace. Thank You for the reminders of Your promises that You answer and hear. I look with eager expectation to how You will provide.
No comments:
Post a Comment