Why Are You Praying?

One of the great misconceptions in Christian circles is that God must give us what we ask because of our great need...or because we are so fervent in our praying...or because what we ask is not selfish or intended to feed some ungodly lust.  Our Lord answers our prayers because of the work of Christ on the Cross.  Sin is the great destroyer of all praying and, regardless of our determination to get what we want, it is fool's gold to reach out to God for anything but His forgiveness and transformed life.  Have we come to realize that Satan can give us what we ask and we can gain great treasure on earth without a drop of God in it?  The only proof you have that God is coming to you in your praying is if your faith is in Christ alone to save you.  His blood upon your heart is the mark of your citizenship and family heritage.  What good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul!  What good is it to have a new car, a better job, a string of new friends or a fixed home if the blood of Christ does not seal them with redemption?  Prayer is the grand opportunity we have to give ourselves completely over to Christ to care for us and transform our will which we have from conception as a gift of God.  Wants and needs are never to be the center of praying.  It is the remade personality we have through the crucified life of our Lord that must take center stage.  At some point, we will discover in our praying that we have not a shred of worrying in our praying, that we have become like little children who trust absolutely in the Good Father due to the transforming work of Christ in our crucified praying and the fret will be gone that perhaps we have been abandoned in our needs and wants.  The theology of praying must never be bound up in the getting but always in the receiving.  These are two very different ends and it can take a lifetime to know the difference between the two.

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  Mark 11:24 NIV

The Expanding of Christ

One of the absurdities of our modern Christian era is the belief that God is after our success...or our health...or some form of self-realization...reaching our potential.    When Peter had to man up and face the Christ He had abandoned, the Lord had nothing to say about Peter's bright future.  He asked Peter if the disciple loved Him.  When Peter made his affirmation, Jesus told him to "feed my sheep".  The inner core Jesus was wanting was love for Him.  The outer stretch was for Peter to be Jesus for the world He faced.  There was nothing in this of "being all you can be" or getting God's blessing.    Being born again is the most devastating of blows to self-realization.  The moment the grace of God works its way in us, Jesus Christ joins us and we are transformed into someone totally new; Christ/us.  We forget to our harm that Jesus never went about figuring out how to make His life better; He sought only the will of the Father.  If that meant sleeping out in the open with His disciples or biting His tongue as the priests questioned Him, He did it.  When the Father told Him to throw His life down just as the adoring crowds began to look to Him as Messiah, He did not hesitate.  This character, this absolute loyalty to the Father is what we acquire when we are born again.  If the Father wants us rich and successful, then so be it but we must beware of thinking this is of course God's will for us. If it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven, then we can be certain very few of the wealthy and  accomplished will find themselves on the narrow way.  Not only that, one of the great temptations for anyone wanting to be holy is riches and the achievement of personal goals.  People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  1 Timothy 6:9-10 NIV  The great will of God is that Christ be the central part of us.  He must increase is our constant push….and that may not mean we get healthier or more successful in the process.  It is when we are weak that He is made strong…or to put it another way, that He expands His influence in us.   Nine of the healed lepers ran off and completely forgot about Jesus.   It was only the one out of the ten who when He got what He wanted returned to Christ.  Those are not great odds and it certainly flies in the face of modern convention that those who are "blessed" or the ones mostly likely to be loyal to God.  The opposite seems to be the case both in Scripture as well as in the casual observations we make.  God's glory is most often exhibited brightest in the poor and downtrodden parts of the world.   The priority of the Lord for you is that you first seek the Kingdom of God both in your praying and in your wishing and longing...then all these other things we care about will be addressed and attended.

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?  Luke 9:25-26 NIV