Ain't got time for that

Happy Soul SONday Sancturians! Well we are in the final stretch of our 21 day fast: growing DEEPER and I must say that this has truly been one of the most challenging fast that I have done. I have fasted I would say for the past 10 years. I always do it at the beginning of the year and I will do it periodically throughout the year if I feel that I need to strip away distractions and hindrances to refocus my spirit. It had gotten to the point that it was somewhat easy for me to remove the meat and the sugar from my diet. But this year, I went a step further and I dug in deep and removed more comforts, such as animal byproducts which include cheese, milk, eggs. And all white products, which include, white rice, white bread etc. And I must say that my self-control has been challenged. But this is all for a good reason, right? I am denying my flesh so that my spirit can be fed. And as I have been challenged by my flesh for some gooey cheese I have dug in and prayed even more to bring my flesh under subjection and have been reading my word more.  And in my prayer time I have prayed for just about everything; finances, health, relationships and The Sanctuary. I have asked God to do and move in all these areas. But in my prayer time last Tuesday, I begin to wonder when God was going to move.  I told him I need a right now move, but I wondered if it was going to be right now. And that lead me to begin to study on how to get my prayers answered. And what I found changed the directions of my prayers.

When most of us pray, we pray for what we want and what we think we need, or the need to be delivered from a situation. I am guilty of it. Remember I said, “I have been praying for finances, health, relationships AND The Sanctuary”.  And if we look at how and what we pray for it is all about ME! Yes, we all are guilty of praying selfish prayers. And prayer is not meant for us to ask God to do what we want when we want and to be delivered at the time we want it. It is the highest privilege of a Christian. Prayer is meant to be a conversation between a child of God and his loving heavenly Father. And for Him to hear you, you must first be a believer. A personal relationship must exist. You must have accepted Christ into your life.  And we find this in scripture. After the blind man of John 9 was healed by the Lord Jesus, he made this profound statement in reference to prayer. First, negatively speaking, he said, "We know that God does not listen to sinners" (John 9:31). Then, positively, he said, "He listens to the godly man. . . ." God does not listen to the prayers of a sinner, but he does hear the prayers of a godly person. Then the healed man explained further what characterizes the man whose prayer God hears: he is the one "who does God's will.  Now this is not to say that God does not love the sinner and wants what’s best for him. Jesus was sent in the flesh for the sinner. So when the sinner prays the salvation prayer God hears him and he is automatically accepted as His child with full rights. And not only does God not hear the prayers of unbelievers, but he also does not hear the prayers of Christians who are backsliders, whose hearts condemn them, as we read in 1 John 3. God says to his people who are sinning, "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear" (Isaiah 59:2). So as God's children it is improtant to have a relationship and fellowship, which is expressed through prayer. Therefore, it is important that when we pray we are confessing. And prayer should besomething we do daily.

Once we have come into right relationship and fellowship with our God though our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit and we must have confidence and pray in alignment with our Father for our prayers to be answered. 1 John 5:13-15 says,

 "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him.

This simply means that you are secure in your salvation. You are a child of God with an assurance that you will have all of his inherited promises which include eternal life. Therefore, with this knowledge you are confidently approaching your loving Heavenly Father. And He is ready to listen to His child petitions so that He can grant them as long as you’re asking according to His perfect will for your life. Yes, this is the caveat. He will give it to you according to His will. So what is His will for your life? We know He wants us to prosper and live in natural wealth and abundance and have good health and a long life. His word is full of these promises. But he also wants us to prosper spiritually. John 3:1-2 says,  Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. So when we pray we should be praying for areas of our lives spiritually that need attention and healing and we should be asking how we can live within the will of God as in his will is peace, joy, love, prosperity and purpose. 

But if we honestly look back over our prayers we know that they are filled with temporal earthly things that are selfish, self-glorifying and full of what can God do for us and we touch lightly on what He wants for us. Let’s just be real about that. We have no interest in God's glory and purpose. Our mind is far away from the interests of the kingdom of God and all on what we can accomplish on earth. God is kingdom minded and don’t have time for that. 

Jesus told us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all those things will be added unto us. He told us that those of the world run after these things, but we are to seek first the kingdom of God, meaning we are to pray for God's plan and purpose, not ours. We need to recognize what God is doing in this world and pray for the success and progress of his plans and purposes. When we study the prayers of the Apostles or the prayers of Jesus, we notice they have nothing to do with temporal things; rather, they have everything to do with spiritual matters. When we analyze the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, we notice there is only one little request for temporal things: "Give us this day our daily bread." Every other request is about spiritual issues: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and so on. Our prayers are the exact opposite of the prayers of Jesus and of the apostles. Their prayers have nothing to do with money, health, or grades. God takes care of all these things because we are his children. Now we can understand how unspiritual our prayers are. We are so interested in our health, our welfare, our relationship, our clothing and all these other things that we get confused when we don't get what we prayed for. 

Suppose you prayed for a better job, but you were fired instead. You should go to God and find out what his purposes are for you. Ask God, "O God, may your purpose and plan succeed in this world." This is not to say that God is not concerned about our needs, he said "He would provide all our needs according to His riches in glory".  He has promised to be our deliver and strong tower in the time of trouble. So why should we concern ourselves and spend so much time praying and pleading for what He has promised.
 
And sometimes our prayer aren't answered because it's God's plan for us to go through it, to suffer through whatever it is we are experiencing. I know we do not want to hear that as there is so much prosperity gospel being preached and taught. But as mature kingdom citizens we must understand this. We may not like it, and we can fast and pray and try to get out of it. But God is not going to change his purpose. He is going to give us certain suffering. Peter writes, "Those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." There is a suffering according to God's will. Why did God include suffering? So that we may be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ so that we can have fellowship with God.  In Romans 8:28 Paul writes, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. As we grow spiritually, we come to realize the  important role suffering plays in our spiritual life; suffering should bring about good in our lives. It should not have us mad, doubting and questioning if He loves us and turning our backs on him. 
 
I am guilty of this. If you know me or read through my blogs you know that I have experienced a lot of tragedy and suffering in my life. And when I would be in the fire I would question Him and wonder if he even loved me. But with each trial or circumstance I have seen the hand of God move, even when I was living outside His will.  With each move he was drawing me closer to Him for his purpose. And now that I am  living in His will for my life I have a clear view of what He was doing all these years. But this clarity did not come without many hours of prayer, fasting and supplication. And with this particular fast I have gone to new depths in my worship, my prayer life and in reading my word. What I have realized is that our prayers should not be selfish and self-glorifying seeking money, status, and fame; things that hold no eternal value. God ain’t got time for that. We should be asking, "O God, give me wisdom to know your word. “Lord, help me to forgive my enemy and those who despitefully mistreat me." O Lord, I am fearful. Give me courage that I may declare your word." “O God, I want Your will and not my will for my life”.  Our prayers should be about what can we do of service for His Kingdom.  We should be praying to live, be and do God’s will. These are the type of prayers that He has time for and He wants to answer.