We are talking about proper stewardship of God’s answer to our prayer. We should not just pray for things. When God answers our prayer, we should be grateful and, in gratitude, enjoy what God has granted to us. But we have to keep in mind that there are right ways and wrong ways to enjoy God’s blessings. We all know how easy it is for us to turn God’s blessings into idols. Obviously, that is not a good thing. Listen to what God said to the corrupt priests of Malachi’s day: “And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart” (Mal. 2:1-2). We see that one way God would punish the evil priests was to turn the blessings into curses. But if we are not careful, we can do that ourselves! When we get so enamored with God’s blessings that we grow distant from God, that would be tragic and detrimental. Idols may be attractive and pleasant (at least for a time) but they are bound to destroy us if we should bow down to them.
Read MoreWe are talking about what to do when God answers our prayer. We are seeing that giving thanks to God is not the only thing we do. Yesterday, we started talking about the importance of proper stewardship of God’s answer to our prayer. As long as we live in this fallen world, no gift of God, especially the things of this world, can make us live “happily ever after.” Yesterday, we considered the example of getting a (new) job. For someone, who lost his job and had been looking for a new job for a while, getting a new job in answer to his prayer is a huge blessing. It is important not to forget this simple fact because each job comes with its demands and challenges, which may not be easy. Before we start complaining and looking for something else (thinking that there will be a “perfect” job, which will pose no problem at all!), we should remember the time we were so grateful to God for the job. Not all the “sufferings” are the same. It is a miserable suffering to starve because you don’t have enough to eat. But there are “sufferings” that come because of the blessing/privilege you have—the demanding work of a job or position of authority and responsibility. These are the things that we should be grateful for, not complain about.
Read MoreWe have been talking about what to do when God answers our prayer. I hope you see the importance of considering this matter in our relationship with God. We cry out to God when we are in need but we may not properly thank Him when He actually answers our prayer. Last week, we talked about the importance of not forgetting God’s answers to our prayers and how it is beneficial for us to remember all God’s blessings. Now, let’s talk about proper stewardship of God’s blessings. You know how it is. You pray for something out of desperation and God graciously answers your prayer. Even though you wanted it so badly, for a moment, you can’t believe God actually answered your prayer and you are so thankful. You feel an instant boost in your trust and confidence in the Lord. But that feeling of spontaneous gratitude and jubilation doesn’t last very long and it is so easy to forget how God has just blessed you. It is not right that our gratitude to God should be so short-lived. And it is to our spiritual disadvantage that we should be so quick to forget God’s blessings. We need to do better in our stewardship of God’s many blessings.
Read MoreWe are thinking about how we should respond to God’s answer to our prayers. We talked about the importance of recognizing God’s work on our behalf and not forgetting to give Him the thanks He deserves. We also talked about the importance of remembering God’s answers to our prayers for the future. By remembering and giving thanks to God, we grow in our confident trust in God, which will help us face future trials and tribulations without panicking and doubting.
Read MoreWe are thinking about what we should do when God’s answer to our prayer is yes. Yesterday, we talked about the importance of giving God the thanks He deserves for His kindness and memorializing it in some way. There is another reason that giving thanks to God, not forgetting all His benefits, is important: it is to prepare us for the challenges we might have to face in the future. As long as we live in this fallen world, we cannot avoid problems and adversities. Remembering God’s past goodness will help us not to panic but endure with patience and hope when new trials come: “Through many dangers, toils and snares / I have already come. / ’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, / and grace will lead me home.”
Read MoreToday, let’s talk about what we should do when God says, “Yes!” to our prayers. I hope you don’t say, “What’s there to do?” You may say that because the answers are so obvious. But it is good to remind ourselves of the obvious from time to time. The first is to give thanks to God instead of taking it for granted. Some things are so obviously and unmistakably works of God that words (and even tears) of gratitude spontaneously flow out of our hearts. But for God’s answers to our prayers, which are smaller in scale and significance, we easily forget to thank God. We are even tempted to wonder whether they were just coincidences and God had little to do with them. It is easy to be ungrateful when we are the recipients of someone else’s favor. But few things are more infuriating than ingratitude when we are the benefactors, who had to make some sacrifices to show kindness. On the contrary, when our kindness is met with sincere gratitude, we feel our hearts opening up even wider with greater generosity. Could God’s reaction be any different? When a woman expressed her gratitude to Jesus by anointing Him with the costly perfume in an alabaster vial, Jesus said, “And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:9).
Read MoreYesterday, we talked about how there are times when we cannot, and should not, just pray but also act. This is because what we do may very well be the very instrument by which God answers our prayer and accomplishes His purpose. But, of course, what we do and how we do it matters greatly. We can wait in all kinds of wrong ways. We can desire what we are praying for so much that we venture to go against God’s law/instruction and sin. Consider one of the most famous examples of waiting for God in the wrong way. Samuel instructed Saul to wait for him seven days at Gilgal so he could come and offer sacrifices on behalf of Israel before they went out to war with the Philistines. According to 1 Sam. 13:8, we cannot be sure whether Saul waited full seven days or not before he offered sacrifices to God himself. But upon arrival, Samuel rebuked him for not keeping the command of the Lord (1 Sam. 13:13). This suggests that Saul did not wait the full seven days as he was commanded. It seems he felt desperate and grew impatient, seeing the Philistines gather for battle and growing in number, on the one hand, and the Israelites scatter in fear, on the other hand.
Read MoreWe’ve been talking about why God might tell us to wait. Today, let’s talk about what we should do while waiting. There are things we can do nothing about; all we can do is just wait. But there are also things that require our action in addition to prayer. We will talk about that later. Either way, we should not stop praying while waiting. How should we pray when God says to wait?
Read MoreWe are reflecting on the reasons that God answers our prayers with “Wait!” Yesterday, we talked about His sovereignty over all and how His answer to our prayer must be “coordinated” with His sovereign rule over all the affairs of the world. Today, let’s bring this down to a more personal level and talk about what He wants to accomplish in us when He tells us to wait. One reason that God makes us wait is to see how sincerely we want what we are praying for—actually, for us to see how much, or whether, we really want what we are praying for since He already knows the answer to that question as an omniscient God. If God is going to bring our hearts into conformity with His, He must deal with the deep and true desires of our hearts, not the superficial ones. The period of waiting will sift out the superficial ones: when God doesn’t answer them right away, we will stop praying for them or soon forget about them. But, if we sincerely desire something, we will persist in prayer until we have either yes or no from God, by which we will know what God’s will is regarding the particular desire of ours. It is when the deep desires of our hearts come directly into contact with God’s will can our hearts be conformed to God’s will in a meaningful way.
Read MoreYesterday, we thought about why God might say “Wait!” to our prayers. Let’s think about another reason. Simply put, it is because God is the sovereign Lord of all and He works all things together for the good of all His people, not just for our individual selves, and for the fulfillment of His plan for the whole world. In other words, God’s answer to a person’s prayer must be coordinated not only with His answer to other people’s prayers but also what He is doing throughout the whole world.
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