Can you imagine what the world would be like if God answered every prayer the way we thought it should be answered?
We have all prayed things like; …God if you’ll only get me out of this..... If you’ll only provide me….please heal the… I don’t understand…
Don’t get me wrong. The Bible is full of truth that says to have faith in Him, ask according to His will, and that He desires to answer us and whatsoever we ask will be answered.
What about the person we pray for that is sick and dies?
What about the situation we pray for that causes someone pain and suffering and it continues?
What about praying for protection from becoming a martyr?
How about prayer for the homeless…the destitute …unborn children …Peace in times of War?
My last post was on enduring trials and remaining constant in times of suffering. This is crucial to our growth as believers. Kong Hee has a great view here on suffering as well.
James 5:16 says “..Confess your faults one to another, and pray for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much..” [KJV]
How often does the first part of that verse get forgotten? I’m not questioning others righteousness, only God knows our hearts, but how often are we confessing our faults one to another?
How about suffering itself? It’s obvious that Job experienced just about every lousy thing that could happen to a man, but yet he was still considered a righteous man prior to God allowing him to be tested.
Consider this excerpt from Job Chapter 33:
‘….God always answers, one way or another, even when people don't recognize his presence. "In a dream, for instance, a vision at night, when men and women are deep in sleep, fast asleep in their beds—God opens their ears and impresses them with warnings. To turn them back from something bad they're planning, from some reckless choice, and keep them from an early grave, from the river of no return. Or, God might get their attention through pain, by throwing them on a bed of suffering, so they can't stand the sight of food; have no appetite for their favorite treats. They lose weight, wasting away to nothing, reduced to a bag of bones. They hang on the cliff-edge of death, knowing the next breath may be their last….This is the way God works. Over and over again He pulls our souls back from certain destruction so we'll see the light—and live in the light’ [The Message]
Jesus himself is acquainted with suffering. As God come in the Flesh he had to be, to identify with our human lives. Ultimately to experience every gambit of being ‘human’ himself, He chose to not to activate his access to Divinity in order to know and be known by us.
Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be “…despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not…’ [Isa 53:3]
Paul stated ‘…Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered..’ [Hebrews 5:8]
Jesus learned obedience through suffering. Wow.
Mark Driscoll in his book Vintage Jesus makes an interesting observation when talking about Jesus’ humanity. “He did not always receive what he asked for…”
Remember when Jesus was in the Garden?
‘…And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to show grief and distress of mind and was deeply depressed. Then He said to them, my soul is very sad and deeply grieved, so that I am almost dying of sorrow. Stay here and keep awake and keep watch with me. And going a little farther, He threw Himself upon the ground on His face and prayed saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will [not what I desire], but as You will and desire….Again a second time He went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass by unless I drink it, your will be done. …So, leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, using the same words…’ [Matthew 26:37-44 AMP]
Now as the Son of God, Jesus knew what he was about to endure. He knew what was before him and still asked if there was any way for the omnipotent, omniscient Father to let the path before him to be taken away. The important thing is that Jesus prayed “... Not my will, but yours be done...." Yet he still prayed that if there was any other way for the Father to remove it three times. And was still obedient to do what he knew was His Father’s will.
My Pastor says frequently "…Faith is not believing regardless of circumstance, but obeying regardless of consequence…" Praying for and in God's Will should be our focus in prayer. Jesus gave us an awesome example in that he was persistent, consistent and fervent in His own prayers, and then followed his prayers with obedience. I believe it was Dr. David Cho that said...
"Effective prayer is going into God’s presence with His Word and getting into agreement with him on that Word…"
We have exceeding great and precious promises in Scripture. God wants us to have hope, understand that our current situation is nothing compared to our future end result, As His children we have access to every promise and blessing that the owner of the cattle on the thousand hills can provide. Health and knowledge, discernment and understanding CAN be ours…. But we are not guaranteed that we will receive what we ask for in the way we want it to happen. Just as God knew in his perfect knowledge that the only way for our relationship with Him to be restored was for Christ to suffer and die, making atonement for us.
The more I come to know Him, the more I am convinced of an increasing need to know Him more. The more I am convicted, the greater my need to confess and ask forgiveness for what I have allowed to take place of His truth in my life. The more I come to understand about prayer and life and suffering I am coming to understand that it is my heart, spirit, and way of thinking that need to change….regardless of what I see happen outwardly, physically, relationally or
emotionally.
And how often His answers to my prayers are what changes in me, rather than what I see change.
