INCONSEQUENTIAL PRAYER

Do you ever find yourself praying, maybe even urgently, about things that really don't matter very much? Interestingly enough, we find some prayers like that in the Bible. In fact, Jesus began his supernatural ministry by answering a prayer for something that really didn't matter a great deal. In the second chapter of John Jesus performed his first public miracle. He turned water into wine at a wedding feast. No one was going to starve to death if he did not perform this miracle. Some people at a wedding party might have been embarrassed that they could not afford enough refreshments for all who came. It was not a crucial time in the plans of God. When Mary told Jesus about the need, He told her the timing was bad. And yet the Gospel says that Jesus manifested His glory and His disciples believed in him by answering this little prayer. This ought to encourage us to take the everyday things in our lives to our Lord in prayer.

I think of another miracle that Jesus did early in His ministry. He told fishermen who had fished all night without catching anything, to lower their nets in the day time. And they brought up enough fish that their partners in the other boat had to help them bring them into shore. I suspect those fishermen had a hard time selling that miraculous catch of fish. They might even have glutted the market for a week or so on the Sea of Galilee. As far as I can see the only goal of Jesus was to show those who would become his disciples that He was Lord in the everyday issues of life. Faith became something practical and fearful for His disciples. Peter came to him and said, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

God uses such prayer to reveal His glory and grow our faith in Him.

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GROWING NEARER

Are you growing nearer to God in prayer?



We are familiar with John 15 that says our Lord is the vine and we are His branches. Jesus applies that wonderful picture in the verses that follow.

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

John 15:7,8

This morning I prayed, “Lord, help me find the remote control.” Many of our prayers are trivial. In fact from God's perspective most of our prayers are trivial. I am reading Munich Signature as I re-read The Zion Covenant series. In the book a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany wonders how her husband could have longed to have a radio, and how she could have wept that all five of their children needed shoes at the same time. Now they wept with thanksgiving that all of them were alive and together on the deck of a rusty steamer that left Hamberg without a destination. We will someday see that most of our prayers are less important than we once thought.

Many of our prayers are actually counterproductive. We pray, “Lord take me out of this difficult situation.” or “Make my life easier.” when God has appointed us to bear witness to people there who will come to Christ, or to minister to others who are hurting there. In another series by Bodie Thoene, the author of The Zion Covenant books, a black man in a dire situation wants to pray for God to let him die. His wife reminds him that he had prayed that way before. And now he could thank God for not answering that prayer.

James 1 advises us to give thanks for tribulation because that develops steadfastness in our lives. In Romans 5 Paul says we are to allow that growth in spiritual stability to become character and hope in God that will never disappoint.

But even when our prayers are shallow and misdirected, they are prayers. And God uses them to draw us nearer and nearer to Himself. By our continual praying we abide in Jesus. Through the power of His word and the trials of life our prayers grow us nearer and make us more like Him.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/
http://theanchorofthesoul.blogspot.com/
http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/
http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

Website
http://daveswatch.com/

YouTube
https://goo.gl/PyzU

Amazon Author's Page
https://www.amazon.com/David-Young/e/B008C7VLAQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1