When you do what God tells you to do, haters will show up.
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Matthew 11:9-13
“So I say: Ask and it will will be given unto you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
If you then, though you are evil, know to give good gifts to your children, how much more will you father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
When you pray to God, do you really expect a positive response? Do you expect a response at all? If you are unsure how to answer this question, like many of us may be, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate the kind of relationship you have with the heavenly Father.
When is the last time you really talked to God? When was the last time you really listened to God? Maybe your prayer-style has not been a conversation where active-listening was used at all. Here’s an example, a family member comes to talk to you, the person immediately starts to apologize for not coming sooner or more often. The person talks about how badly they now need your help with a list of favors, immediately. They further explain their desperation and their need for help as they urge you to get busy answering their requests. Is this example close to your/family member prayer style?
This would be the time to guide this family member through prayer, because it’s God’s guidance, through you that’s needed. It does little good, I feel, to say to someone who’s wings of faith are in their infancy, “just pray about it!”
Blackaby and King tells us in their book, Experiencing God If you do not have clear instructions from God in a matter,
-Pray and wait
-Learn patience
-Depend on God’s timing
-His timing is right and best.(pg. 75)
Now, we are not God, nor do we understand the mind of God or His Ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). God is however, availing Himself to us, each day through prayer.
“Prayer is a Relationship to a Person.”
“Prayer is a two-way fellowship and communication–you speak to God and He speaks to you. Prayer is not a one-way conversation in which you merely list everything you want God to do. Your personal prayer life may have been primarily one-way communication–you talking to God–but we now learn that prayer is much more than that.
” Prayer includes listening. In fact, what God says in prayer is far more important than what you say. God already knows what you are going to say. You, however, do not know what God is thinking.
Prayer is a relationship, not just a religious activity. Its purpose is to adjust you to God, not align God to your thinking. God doesn’t need your prayers. but He does want you to pray because of what He wants to do in and through your life as you pray. God speaks to His people by the Holy Spirit through prayer.” (1, pp 107-108)
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing each of us the privilege of communicating with you through the gift of prayer. We don’t take this gift for granted, but use it to stay on-task with you as we constantly receive your guidance for our lives. Enrich our prayer life, we pray. In your name. Amen.
1. Blackaby, Henry & Richard, King,Claude, Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing The Will of God. Lifeway Press 1990. Revised 2007.
2. Scripture from: The New International Version Study Bible, Zondervan, 1973.
Originally in Homewords News,July 2011
These are my reflections from the teachings of a sermon series called God is…
Who is God to me and more importantly how can I grow to know him more fully in order to establish and foster a relationship with him. During our study we looked at scripture to first glean why it is important to God that we know him.
Jeremiah 9:24(NIV) …but let him who boasts boast about this: that he who understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord.
We can learn who God is by his own words and how he describes himself. In the earlier verse (v.23) he chides us about our own placement of importance on such things as wisdom, strength and riches. We have a tendency to boast about these things and place them high on the list of how we feel about ourselves and our accomplishments. We decide that being smart and having the money to purchase and use the latest smart phone is important. These things have no value to God; they are not important to him. What is important, God declares, is our knowledge and understanding of him, that we know that he is the Lord. He teaches us in his word that our knowing his attributes, what he does for us, his purpose, his love for us – in all of these he delights.
Another scripture we studied in the God is… series was Isaiah 6:1-3 where Isaiah looked upon the Lord and described him seated on a throne with a robe that filled the whole temple. Seraphs or angels called to one another:
Isaiah 6:3 (NIV) Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory.
We learned that triple repetition of the word holy denotes God’s infinite Holiness; a way to exclaim before there were exclamation marks. Holy is defined in Webster’s dictionay as revered, set apart, awed. The majesty, splendor and grandeur of God is described by Isaiah who is so awed and inspired that he answers God’s question to be the one God sends to deliver his message. Will we be so inspired and not run away from the tasks, the challenges that God puts before us? Will we listen and obey; will we run to him and welcome the relationship offered to us. God’s invitation is clear.
We can learn who God is by exploring how God describes himself. This time we looked at scripture where The Lord asks:
Isaiah 40:25 (NIV) “To whom will you compare me?”… and in V.28 Isaiah responds “The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.”
There is none to compare to him. He can name every star by name; he most assuredly knows who we are and wants us to know who he is. He wants us to understand who he is and to develop a relationship with him. We are to be in awe of his power and his majesty but we also are to be aware of his love, his kindness and his righteousness provided for us the faithful, obedient people he created. God you truly are Awesome, awesome, awesome to me. You are wonderful and to be praised.
Today, January 1, 2013, is the new beginning for us as Believers. We’ve been blessed to see this New Year begin—we don’t know how it will end. We can trust God with every phase of this year! He alone knows how each minute, day, week, and month will unfold; and how we will be affected by the events that will happen. Some of this year’s events will be beyond our wildest imagination!
Some of us may be experiencing a sense of fear as we approach this new beginning. Let’s allow our trust in God as our guide into this future to cancel any fears that the enemy may bring to our mind.
My “Life Verse is Isaiah 41:10:
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (NIV)
As we prayerfully follow God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, let’s face this New Year with grateful hearts.
Homewords Ministry 