After a month's hiatus from blogging, I'm finally sitting down to write about some of the stuff God's been teaching me over the last month. The good news is that I have a whole month of stuff to write about! More than anything, this past month, I've seen God answer numerous prayers in absolutely amazing ways. Like many people, my prayer life comes in waves but, recently, I've experienced a real renaissance in prayer. What's struck me most during this time is how suprised I am when God answers my prayers. Perhaps I wouldn't have normally noticed it but the frequency and magnitude of God's answers have made this fact increasingly apparent.
The Bible is stuffed with quotes from God saying if we pray to him about things, he'll answer. Most notably in Matt, chapter 7, Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
I'm not sure how much more plainly he could say it. But then he goes farther: "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!".
In this passage, God not only speaks of his willingness to answer our prayers but, even moreso, his enjoyment in doing so. As I've thought over this passage recently, one question lingers in my heart: God, I know you're good but are you really that good?
It's not a very orthodox question to ask, but its honest. I'm continually underestimating how good God is and he's, therefore, continually suprising me by answering prayers that I, honestly, never expected him to answer. It's some kind of excessive-compulsive need I have to draw a line around God; to know his boundaries so I can say I've figured him out.
It is with much regret that I must admit I am running out of energy trying to put God in a box. He simply refuses to respect the boundaries I place on him. I'm compelled to start asking for impossible things like entire cities and an exciting desk job. I'm becoming convinced my prayers are almost tangible in God's presence. And most dangerous of all, I'm starting to believe the prayers I pray.
God keep suprising us with your goodness. Amen...
2 comments :
Dude, I have felt the same way for quite a while now. It's suprising, though I don't want to go off on this tangent here much, that I found myself at the plateau (on which I realized I placed myself) so soon after accepting Christ. Hmm, even that phrase in a way limits Him. Weird. But yeah, it's been difficult to realize that I have been sort of putting God in this nice little, cordoned off place in which He hears my prayers, but realizes that I don't truly believe that He'll do anything about them and thus does nothing about them due to my disbelief. I find myself shocked in two ways: first, for finding faults in people that they limit God with their beliefs and secondly, that I do the same dang thing! Just in a different way, but no less limiting of the Almighty. He's freakin' Almighty, dude! And, Jesus's words there are exactly what I needed to hear/read just now, that God not only answers prayers dutifully almost, but that He even ... gasp Enjoys doing it. For us, who deserve not one iota of positively answered prayer. And yet we ARE truly deserving of it, merely because God says that we are through His love of us. Think about THAT for a second. We really shouldn't define for ourselves of what we're deserving. God does that for us. But then again, to realize that, instead, without God, we certainly are undeserving. But with God through Christ, we are deserving, 'cause He says so! Hehe, believe it! Well, that's mostly a message for myself.
Prayer for me has also been wave-like. Reading the Bible has been wave-like. Doing devotionals has been wave-like. And usually when one is in a trough of the wave, they all follow suit. Interestingly, worship through music is always on, in my mind mostly, and rarely ever decreases. So I've got that going for me. In some sense, when the other things decrease, it keeps my awareness of my relationship to God in front of me. Or the back of my mind. Or somewhere. Hehe. But yeah, recently, I've definitely gotten back into the swing of reading everything I can and studying scripture, even on my own. Though, I admit, things in the Bible definitely come through when studying it with other people. Rock on, HG/LG! Or CC for those who roll that way.
You speak the truth, my friend!
Yes!
There are a unbelievable amount of people who find themselfs praying prayers of which they want god to answer, yes if they turn their eyes and look inside themself they will realise that they do not believe with ALL of their heart that god WILL provide for them what they ask for.
Some find themselfs with a doubt in the back of their mind, yet when he answers or prayers we are in awe. It is almost as though we arnt expectant of what we ask our God for. How wrong are we to limit the most high god who has said that he will provide us with all of our need and that to him who believes nothing is impossible.
My friends, Be expectant. Our Lord can't fit in a box :)
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