The prayers God answers. . . .

Are there any ‘human event’ illustrations to explain prayer? The only one I can think of is the man who bought a violin and learned to play along with the orchestra he listened to on the radio. The orchestra played without his initial mistakes and screeching affecting their music, but as the man listened and followed, he learned the right notes and began playing sounds that matched what he heard.

Today, I read that, “In essence, prayer is not about changing God's mind, but about aligning ourselves with His will and participating in His plan for the world. It's a way to connect with God, receive His guidance, and experience His blessings as He works through our prayers.”

Before our 2024 family reunion, the skies were filled with wildfire smoke. The days were unbearable hot, and on the way to the event, the wind was blowing the grass flat. Before that day, I’d prayed about the air and the heat, then the sky was clear and the temperature just right. So I prayed again, “God, You control the weather. What about that wind?” In less than five minutes, it stopped, and the weather was perfect for the three days of our family gathering. 

Only God… and yet I realize that had I not prayed, His will would be done anyway, but I would have missed a note. Instead, I had the wonderful experience of being in tune with God. 

Some are certain that our prayers are vital or God does not move. They cite verses like: “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.” (James 4:2) But what is the reason for not asking? If I am wanting something in a selfish way, haven’t I listened to the music long enough to know God does not want to fulfill all my selfish desires? Such prayer is playing the wrong notes and expecting the orchestra to play it with me. I do not pull (or pluck) God’s strings. His will is perfect and nowhere does His Word affirm that my prayers are vital to His playlist.

Instead, as I am learning, my prayers are not my plans but to fit in with what God has planned. “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance,” says Martin Luther, “but laying hold of his willingness.”

How could I think to change His mind — as if He is wanting the wrong thing?  A.W. Pink puts it this way: “There is no need whatever for God to change His designs or alter His purpose, for the all-sufficient reason that these were framed under the influence of perfect goodness and unerring wisdom. . . . To affirm that God changes his purpose is either to impugn his goodness or to deny his eternal wisdom… The sovereign God hangs the universe on the prayers of His people, and then inspires and empowers us to pray.”

I pray for many things, but never for any change in God, even though I fear too many Christians pray for their will to be done rather than His. How sad to view God as a genie in the sky who bows to our every wish. Prayer should reverse that idea so that I am bowing to His every desire!

PRAY: Lord, enable me to know You so well and listen to You so closely that I hear every note and know how You want me to pray. I want my words in alignment with Your heart. I want to be tuned in, not playing any tune other than what fits with the music of Your sovereign will because I totally trust that You know far better (and far more) than I do about all things on my prayer list. May all of us who follow You listen and respond in alliance with Your gracious will.

 

Going deeper…

 

It’s humbling to think about the hardness of my heart and my spiritual blindness before Jesus came into my life. I had started reading the Bible every day when thirteen and read it for seventeen years before understanding what it said. I now realize that this was done as a ritual and habit (copying my mother) yet God not only used that self-centered motivation to keep me reading, but kept on using even this most selfish reason to read it to teach me His will.

For a long time after being saved, even though my sins were confessed and I’ve tried to keep short accounts with God, it wasn’t until recently that He showed me how He has used even my mistakes to teach me His will. I brooded over those mistakes and rued them as if they had ruined my life. But God (two wonderful words) showed me that those mistakes were tools to powerfully change my heart and my attitudes. He waited a long time until I was ready to see that this was a good thing. Not that the sins were good but that in great mercy and love, He used them for good. Seeing this reality brings great joy to my heart.

Today’s reading reminds me how, after a long time of backsliding on the part of the children of Israel during a time when the book of God’s law had been lost, it was found again. These people assembled in the public square of the city to hear it read. At first they wept; but as God enabled them to understand it better, their lives changed from sorrow to rejoicing and then...

All the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. (Nehemiah 8:12)

For them, it was realizing God is holy and His joy was their strength. They did not have to live as if all was lost because, in their position as God’s people, they were blessed and cared for by a God who is holy and loved them.

This truth is still a blessing to God’s people, even though many of them still are fearful of what God might do if they want only His will and not their own way. Part of this is human pride, as if any of us know better than God what is good for us. The other contributing factor is not knowing God in a factual way, having false ideas about Him. Some of this is motivated by Satan’s lies, including those that come through false teachers. The NT warns me of those who claim to be Christians yet put unbiblical burdens on their followers:

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:13–15)

The subtlety of false teaching often urges people to trust God for what we want rather than for what He wants, as if His will is not good for us. However, as today’s reading says, the words “Thy will be done,” when once we understand them, become the dearest words our lips can utter.

PRAY: Jesus, You are teaching me the value of ‘just keep reading’ and how Your Spirit will take care of my burdened heart in the most amazing ways. What You reveal is astonishing and not at all like the false teachers and their messages, and sometime even contradicts sincere but unenlightened ideas that genuine Christians believe, ideas that give us anxiety instead of that peace and joy Your love wants for us. Oh Lord, open my eyes and my heart to a deeper and fuller understanding of the blessedness of Your will.

Discernment — a gift!

 

In all the Christians I know, two stand out as opposites: one is quick to discern the will and working of God yet the other is oblivious, always supposing and assuming. This contrast shows up in the dictionary. It says discernment is perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual guidance and understanding. In other words, it is not relying on what I think, but seeking understanding from God. Otherwise, the opposite happens.

The dictionary describes this lack of discernment as "without providing for a time of healing and discernment, there will be no hope of living through this present moment without a shattering of our common life." It points to the necessity of seeking discernment from God. Otherwise, in trials life is apt to fall apart.

The NT uses this word to describe people who seek the mind of God. First, the Christians at Thessalonica did it:

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

However, the Bereans went beyond them. They didn’t simply believe what they were told (which is okay if it is true) but they checked it out:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

Discernment is a human trait to a degree, yet when it comes to spiritual matters, I need to seek God for it:

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5)

Discernment from God comes with other qualities as described by what the Thessalonian Christians were learning and doing:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–24)

MacArthur says that today’s church has an appalling lack in this area with believers duped by novel teachings and outright heresies. They are immature “children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:14) This indicates that if someone lacks discernment, they are not obedient in some areas, particularly in faithfully studying God’s word and rejecting their own understanding. Perhaps this is pride rather than humility, or they are not teachable, but whatever is at the root of it, growth is not happening. We do need discernment.

Paul prayed that our “love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment” (Philippians 1:9) and stated “at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Ephesians 5:8–11)

The need for discernment and its source is also expressed in these verses:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14)

To be discerning, I must read and study the Word of God and obey what it says. The focus this month will be the character and benefits of God’s Word as the source of spiritual growth, service, blessing, victory, truth, and knowledge and discernment. His Word is infallible, inerrant, authoritative, inspired, and sufficient. It makes modern-day, noble-minded Bereans out of those who use it to seek the will of God.

PRAY: Jesus, You have given me a love for Your Word. Increase it — and my discernment — as I study it and look for greater understanding from You.

PONDER: Acts 17:1–15 reveals why Paul and his companions left Thessalonica and Berea. What do I need from God if I share Christ with others and the same thing happens to me?

 

 

Knowing the Way

 

In meandering through social media posts, most are silly, irrelevant, or even fabrications, but sometimes one pops out as an important truth. This reminds me of a Christian education course that stressed, “All truth is God’s truth.” That is, the source may not be a Bible verse, but biblical truth is expressed in the quote or idea.

The problem with finding truth that way is a great need for discernment. Some ideas might seem right, “but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25) “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” (Proverbs 18:17)

Discernment is sometimes hard to come by. Besides, I’m a hard sell. By that, I mean the harder someone tries to convince me, the more I resist their pitch. Is it true? Or does it only seem right? From the verse that prefaces today’s devotional, if I have any discernment, it is likely because people are praying for me!

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, (Colossians 1:9)

The original readers were challenged by false teachers who tried to convince them that Christ is not enough for salvation. They appealed to our human desire to ‘do something’ to earn favor with God. However, that desire could easily be tied to this OT definition of sin:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

Sin is simply going my way instead of God’s way. It is ignorance or rejection that there is a God, or refusal to admit I am a sinner, or rejection of God’s remedy for sin — which is the Gospel of Jesus who died for my sin, was buried, and rose again. My way of doing things can look good to me, even after salvation. The notion that I can do nothing apart from Christ is correct, but it can be unappealing, even a blow to my ego.

The alternative is being controlled by the knowledge of God’s will through the Word of God — as the Spirit of God imparts it. Human reasoning and ‘good’ ideas don’t cut it. Only God can transform my life, no matter my abilities, education, determination, self-esteem, or any other ‘positives’ because only God has that power. If I do His will, it must be for His glory, not mine.

MacArthur rephrases Colossians 1:9 this way: “I pray that you will be continually controlled by the life-transforming knowledge of God’s will, which the Holy Spirit imparts as you prayerfully study and meditate on God’s Word.”

Scripture and the Holy Spirit tell me how to live and give me the power to obey. It doesn’t take long to discover that philosophies and other alternatives do not work, or if they do, it is because the Spirit uses ‘all truth’ to teach and enable me. This is never the intent of those who post words that sound true and might be true, but I need to discern the intent, or even more, what that ‘cute’ saying does to me. Does it bypass faith in Christ and elevate me? Does it appeal to that desire to do it my way?

For example, I did an online search for “be kind quotes” and found many. Most were not from Christians and hinted that doing kindness would benefit me in some way, like winning friends or being a more important person. In contrast, the NT says kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that comes from “God our Savior” to whom belongs all glory. I wonder then how the ‘kindnesses’ of those without faith in Christ can be the same as the kindness that comes from Christ? 

This reminds me of the woman who said, “I love to help people because it makes me feel so good” which makes me aware that motivations to do good can be selfish, whereas the kindness of God involves eternal ramifications for those who experience it.

Doing the will of God is not about what it does for me, even though it usually feels good later. Instead, obedience is about glorifying God and loving others. The difference may be invisible to undiscerning eyes, but Paul’s prayer makes it plain that doing His will requires more than an effort to replicate His actions. I need Jesus or all that I do is a waste.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5)

Jesus, I am so grateful that You are sufficient for every need. Give me all the discernment necessary to separate true from nice-sounding but misleading stuff. You know my heart. Guard me from trying to do my own thing rather than listening to You.

READ: John 15. What does it say about Jesus and His role? What does it say about me and what He wants from me?