What can prayer do? According to Genesis, prayer can rescue a saved family from a bad situation (Lot). Prayer can bring national deliverance, as seen in Exodus. Prayer shut up the heavens so that it would not rain, and then opened the heavens so that it would rain again. Prayer brought healing to those who were sick. Prayer opens the storehouse of God's provision. Prayer brings the power of the Holy Spirit upon our lives and ministries. Thank God for prayer! What a marvelous privilege! It is a shame that such a powerful tool can be disabled. Let's look at another principle for answers to prayer: PRAY WITH THE PROPER MOTIVES.
James 4:3 shows us that sometimes our prayer are unanswered because we "ask amiss" that we may consume whatever it is we are asking for on our own desires. How can we examine our motives. . .the things that cause us to ask God for His blessings? I believe that we should follow three principles: 1. God's plan must be our focus; 2. God's person must be our delight; and, 3. God's provision must be our satisfaction.
One of my favorite prayer promises is found in Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." If I pull this verse out of context, you would say I have joined with the "name it and claim it" group. In fact, Scripture must be taken in It's context to make Heavenly sense. The last part of chapter six, in Matthew, provides the proper context. Reading in verse thirty-three, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto thee." We can receive that for which we pray, if our motives are right. From these verses we see that God's Plan Must be Our Focus. This weeds out many improper motives.
Next, God's Person Must be Our Delight. Psalm 37:4 "Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." This is an awesome verse! He will give thee the desires of thine heart. Again, the context makes the condition for this promise clear. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, not in what He gives, but in Him, then He will give us the desires of our hearts. Do you delight in the Lord? If we delight in the Lord, we will also delight in what He says. Our Bibles will not be neglected. Preaching time and Bible study time will not be neglected either if we truly delight in Him. When we delight in the Lord, we will also delight in His work. We cannot be consistently having answers to prayer and not be involved in the work of God. Often my father-in-law makes the statement, "Every Christian needs to be an active member of a local Bible-preaching church." When we truly delight in the Lord, we will be an active part of His work. If we delight in the Lord we will delight in His ways. Our decision-making processes indicate whether or not we truly delight in the Lord. "My sheep hear my voice. . .and they follow me," Jesus said. How do you make decisions? Those who delight in the Lord will earnestly and honestly seek His leadership in every decision of life. A preacher friend of mine used to invite sarcasm because he would pray about everything, even the kind of peanut butter he was going to buy. I say, he was simply delighting in the Lord, His Shepherd. Our motives are revealed when we delight in the Lord.
Our motivation can also be exposed by our contentment or the lack thereof. God's Provision Must be Our Satisfaction. Ask yourself, "Am I satisfied with what God gives or do I seek something else. . .something more?" Satan tempted the first woman and the first man with this very temptation to be unsatisfied with God's provision. God's gifts to us are enough. For our salvation, Jesus' sacrifice and the shedding of His precious blood is enough. Seek nothing else for salvation. Simply trust Him. For our sanctification, the Word of God and the wondrous Holy Spirit at work in our lives are sufficient. Thank God His provision provides perfectly for our needs. For our daily sustenance, God has promised to provide what we need. Yet, many of the times we are greedily seeking MORE! Lehman Strauss made this statement: "The true purpose of prayer is not to get the things that we want from God, but to make us content with the things He wants us to have." Have we learned to be content? Jesus warned the brother seeking the inheritance to beware of covetousness. His warning should not go unheeded today.
So. . .what motivates our prayers? Do we pray for the same reason as the Pharisees? To show off our vocabulary? Listen to Psalm 24 "Who shall ascend in to the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. . ." The Word of God alone can show us our true motives. When we get our motivation cleaned up, our prayers can begin to be answered. Let us pray, and get our prayers answered for the glory of God. "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God." Keep praying!
No comments:
Post a Comment