O LORD, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day. [Psalm 88.13]
Job said:
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. [Job 13.15 NKJV]
To trust God regardless of circumstances seems the right thing to do. I guess the thing that got Job in trouble however was the last past of the verse above... defending his own ways before God.
Is that what we do? Do we declare our faith in God while defending our own ways before Him? Do we keep pleading with God for His blessings while holding on to our proud ways that God has set Himself against and therefore will not bless?
It is indeed commendable that we keep crying out to God and remain faithful to turn to Him, HOWEVER... if we insist on continuing to do things our own way, we might as well settle in with the turmoil and difficulties of our ways! All our prayers and pleadings, while good in that we are looking to God, are useless if they are for our own will and ways irrespective of God's intentions.
Jesus said:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24]
God doesn't save us and bless us to do our will! Jesus didn't die on the Cross so we could do whatever we want to do! Unaccountable faith is a sure path to disappointment! Regardless what "prosperity" and "faith" teachers may argue, God's blessings are reserved for His will. We can either get with His will, or waste a whole lot of time and effort trying to coerce God to bless us with our me-centric faith.
Regardless what well-meaning teachers and preachers have said otherwise, unanswered prayers should serve to reveal to us that somewhere, somehow, "self" is in the way. The very fact that we are so well-acquainted with the phrase, "unanswered prayers" should tell us we have too much of ourselves invested in the prayer anyway! If we weren't self-invested in the prayer, the outcome would be of no consequence to us but simply God's way, not ours.
This is a good place to rehearse how Jesus taught us to pray:
Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. [Matthew 6.9-13]
It's all about 1) God's Holy Name, 2) His Kingdom, and 3) His will as it is in heaven. Our need is summed up as food and forgiveness. And even then, our forgiveness is contingent upon our obedience to forgive - so all Jesus really taught us to pray 'for ourselves' was for food each day. Let that soak in.
Yes, Jesus DID say in Mark 11.24 that "whatsoever" we ask for when we pray we would receive... We should understand that Jesus said this based on the foundation of having taken up our respective crosses and following Him. Having taken up our crosses, we are in fact 'dead men walking' for no other purpose but the will of God as modeled by Jesus Who took up His cross showing us the way. James understood this:
You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. [James 4.2-3]
While there is indeed a spiritual principle of patience in our prayers, while we wait, we would do quite well to consider our motives - as we might well be waiting for something that is never going to come - like waiting for a package that has never been shipped.
Father, forgive me for wanting all Your blessings for my own will and ways...
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