A 911 Call?
Could your prayer life be characterized as a 911 call? Do you communicate with your Savior and Lord only when life becomes uncontrollable? Peter instructs you to be “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
The important word here “all”; believers, you have open access to very throne room of heaven. Jesus Christ tore the veil that blocked the way when He was crucified. How often does God see your face? John wrote, “Now this is the confidence that we h
ave in Him, 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 the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14-15) What’s the problem? Why do most of us wait until we have exhausted our own energy before we knock on God’s door? I imagine that when the Lord looks toward us, He often either sees our back or the top of our head. And what our heavenly Father desires is a full view of our face. Why is that? I suppose that when we pray, we expect God to deliver exactly what we want. When we get an answer that doesn’t seem to match the request, we conclude that God isn’t listening. We don’t entertain the possibility that God’s will is different than our own – it often is. We simply take our matters into our hands, and fulfill our desires through our strength, until life slips from our grasp. Then, we place a 911 call to heaven. King David said, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.” (Psalm 63:1-2) Let each of us cultivate the same heart that the psalmist had. Then, our desires will closely match the Lord’s will, and we will have confidence in answered prayer.
Sin cera, Erik
Erik O. Garthe is Associate Pastor at Canton Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland.
