As a young adult, it was common to go to the altar to repent our sins and pray, ..... "I want your will to be done, Lord, not mine". I knew how to pray like a Christian, but I had no clue what it meant to "deny myself and take up His cross." It is one thing to pray for God's will, but it was quite another thing to accept His will. You see ...... I could "talk the talk", but I wasn't "walking the walk".
As a senior adult, I have learned that my prayers had become very general: "forgive me of my sins", "keep my family safe", "take away my fear" It took me years to realize that those spur-of-the-moment prayers were not accomplishing much. Deep inside I knew that my prayers were not from the heart ...... they were just idle words.
As I was reading the Bible one morning, I came across James 4:3 which says, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures." Was God telling me that those "spur-of-the-moment" kind of prayers were not what God desired for my prayer life? At that moment, I prayed ......... "Lord, teach me how I'm suppose to pray".
I came to understand that prayer is talking "WITH" God - not to Him. It's seeking Him first, getting to know Him better, being with Him, waiting in His presence. It's taking time to say, "Speak to my heart, Lord, and tell me what I need to do". It isn't about understanding the circumstances, or even the outcome of the situation. Prayerful release is about believing .... trusting ...... that God will handle the circumstances.
In the ninth chapter of Mark, a father's grief is genuinely exposed as he stands by his son who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of his speech. As soon as the boy came near Jesus, the evil spirit tried to control the boy again. This dad ....... helpless, with no where else to turn ......... asked Jesus to help, by saying; "IF you can do anything, please help us". Jesus replied, "You should not say "IF I can". That shows that you do not believe in Me." Jesus was suggesting that the father needed FAITH. The father then cried, "I DO BELIEVE! Help me to overcome my unbelief!" This is how many Christians feel ...... they trust Jesus .... but they are not sure that they trust Him completely.
God teaches us to TRUST Him with all our heart, and lean not on our own understanding. Trusting God is ultimately about SURRENDER. Surrendering to God is one of the most challenging concepts of following Jesus. Surrendering to God involves a relationship, and this relationship involves trust and faith. Trust in God involves acceptance of God's will.
Trusting God is not trying to make sense of unanswered prayers. God wants us to desire His best .... to know and accept His better plan for us. Many times ...... what we perceive to be unanswered prayer is, in reality, God's way of revealing HIS will - not our will for the situation. God's desire is that we want His best ..... to know ..... and accept His better plan for us.
He desires for us to WAIT for His perfect timing. Other times He says "yes" right away, so that we can witness as the miracle unfolds. YES ... NO ... WAIT! Each requires prayerful surrender of our will ...... to accept God's sovereign will. Such surrender eventually does produce the miracle! Trusting Jesus with all our heart, mind, and body ....... we encounter the Prince of Peace who brings the miracle ..... that PEACE that passes all understanding, which changes our lives forever.
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