The Proper Approach To God in Prayer

John 15:7
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

2 Kings 19:19

Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.

One of these days we are going to find ourselves in a tough situation. Its going to be as hard as the day the armies of Sennacherib, King of Assyria surrounded the city of God's people. But for most of you, life may very well pass by with little tough times. No matter. Prayer is the daily focus we must have in our lives if we are to be close to the Lord.

God's people often pray hard when there is something hard to pray about. Yet no matter what our level of difficulties are, prayer needs to be just as serious, deep, sincere and directed in our most prosperous day as in our most perilous day!

When I think of prayer I think about King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19. The situation was grim. The opposing armies encamped around the city were fierce, ready, willing to destroy just as they had done all the neighboring city states in the area. They were bold to brag on two points, 1. They did it all themselves, 2. They conquered all the gods who were supposed to be mightier than they.

Now when you come to a situation in life that looms just like Hezekiah's enemies, what shall we do. Here is the formula, and is not a magic one or any such thing, its just the proper response to tribulation before our God, lest we try to handle it ourselves.

Let's see the problem,

1. Assyria was the most powerful nation at the time, eating up as many vulnerable people they could.

2. They had all the means to carry out all their threats.

3. They taunted anyone with any allies other than themselves

4. They outnumbered any opposing force

5. They described in detail what they would do to anyone who was for them or against them

In Short, they wanted to be ruler over everything.

Let's see the players

1. Sennacherib, devout worshipper of Nisroch, the god of the Assyrians, confident in himself and his power.

2. Hezekiah, devout worshipper of the Jehovah God, the God of all Creation, confident in HIM and and HIS power

What did Hezekiah do?

1. He heard the taunting of Rabshekah and Sennacherib.

2. He received the letters and took them to the house of God

3. On His Knees--No, the text doesn't say it, but anyone who is submissive to God does so, thus He laid the accusations out before the Lord

4. He desired that all the world would know by the defeat of the most powerful army, that it was THE LORD who is God alone in the Earth.

5. He was confident in the answer given him by the prophet Isaiah.

So how does all this relate today,

Simply, Satan is still Satan. When we find ourselves in tribulation, his first move is to try to dethrone our image of God and His power in our lives. This is what life on his end is all about, to discredit God wherever he can and cause God's people to turn from Him. This is what the Assyrians did, they stood outside the city walls and attempted to demoralize the people to weaken their resolve to fight. Satan will attack us, cause fear and doubt to surround us on all sides and let us "know" its hopeless, God has left us, there is no use to call on Him or anyone to save you or me. I have first hand knowledge of this and I have faltered listening to Satan. Interestingly noted that Hezekiah instructed the people not to answer the taunting of the enemy. Such we are taught in Scripture to resist the Devil and he will flee from you, James 4:7

The problems we face are real, just as the army encamped were real. The problems are not going to go away on their own unless God acts on our behalf. Here is where we get down to business. Hezekiah did the right thing, the thing we oft neglect, he took all the care cast upon him and went straight to the Source, God, the Only One who could ever help them.

We should do like wise. Hezekiah poured out before the Lord in this fashion and so should we:

1. Came before God in the proper manner, Humbled

2. Admitted the peoples weakness and the enemies strength

3. Acknowledged God's power and His control

4. Desired for God's glory to be the greatest reason for their deliverance

When we come to God with a problem just as similar we need to do theses things too. We cannot come on our own strength. We cannot come on our own terms. We must be Humble. We cannot bargain, barter, negotiate! We must come just as we always have been, Helpless and Humble before God. We do so and acknowledge His Sovereign Power and Authority. You see it is through the WEAK He glorifies Himself. Sennacherib thought Power came through might. He was wrong.

Sennacherib's largest mistake was to proclaim himself mightier than the God who made him, and it cost him literally everything.

So what happened to the vulnerable weak people of God? The Lord heard Hezekiah's heartfelt faithful prayer. Thus Israel never drew a sword, notched an arrow, or threw a stone. The next morning Sennacherib noticed God walked through his camp last night. All that the pagan king trusted in, was now laid dead by the hand of the angel of the Lord. To be exact, 185,000 slaughtered with no effort whatsoever. That is our God! He is Powerful, Strong To Save and is more than able to Deliver.

Look to Him in faith, knowing that no matter how fierce the adversary looks, God is Greater. Its so hard and we are tested sorely, but this life is not the end. Our Home and Hope is with Him, YET know that IN THIS LIFE, our God does Deliver, He does Save, He does do Miracles!!! To deny that, we must take a knife and remove 2 Kings 19 from the only Book God ever wrote! When you consider how God delivers and His power to heal, what Joy should be ours. I will be the first to admit that its hard even difficult to take our eyes off the visible and put it on Him. Destruction seems so real and hope so vanished. Let us encourage one another to trust in our God who delivers and come to Him Properly in Prayer. God delights in our Faith in Him (Heb. 11:6). May our chief aim be that of Hezekiah, to desire the whole world See our God by seeing the Hand of His Miraculous Deliverance. May it be so with us today, whatever we are facing, and as I write this we are facing hard times. I don't know when someone will read this, but when you do, know that our God is Greater and Stronger than all who oppose us. May we trust in His ark of Safety.

Lord, we need your Help! We are vulnerable to the attacks of the world, sickness and Satan. We come before You with humble hearts acknowledging Yourself as the only God and that we are looking to You for our deliverance as did Hezekiah. May our chief desire to be through our Deliverance is that Your Name which is above all will be clearly seen and believed on by a watching world. Make haste to help us. Cleanse our hearts from sin and may we be found abiding in You always we pray, Amen.

Are We Receiving?

Scripture Reading: Revelation 13:9 See also 3:22

While I am writing this, I am without mobile cellular communication.  Fifteen years ago this would be the norm for everyone.  Not so today.  My cell phone was going on the blink and finally laid down and died.  Needless to say that put this little ear receiver out of commission too.   If you're not familiar with this device, it can be either a blessing or an irritant.  This is a typical Bluetooth headset made by Motorola.  It allows the user via voice commands in certain phones to make calls, receive calls, and perform other various functions while your hands remain free.  That is the blessing part.  The irritant part is walking about talking to someone and people give you weird stares as if you're talking to an imaginary friend or having an emotional fit.  Other than that they are nice.  

The one problem with these receivers are that they receive.  So in order to work, they need to have something to send them what they need.  If no phone is actively online and sending transmissions to them, then they are useless pieces of Star Trek looking technological jewelry. Yet they serve one purpose if you're looking for it, and that is a reminder of our relationship with God.  

If we look at our relationship with God as believers in a metaphorical sense, then God is the Transceiver (phone) we are the Receiver (headset).  Now important to note that God does not stop transmitting willfully due to error on His part.  However, we stop receiving willfully due to errors on our part.

First, we stop receiving from God because we get out of range.  A Bluetooth receiver does a good job, but only when its close to the source that feeds it.  When we let unconfessed sin linger in our hearts we drift farther apart from God.  The farther along we go from Him the weaker His voice is heard.  This desire to separate ourselves from Him comes from a lack of understanding His Word.  We see other people seemingly getting by with sin, so why not we? Lovingly that is where we are far different from the world.  The world has a father who doesn't care at all what happens to them.  The father of this world doesn't show any remorse when the children get into deep trouble because of their sin in fact, its welcomed to him.  Our Heavenly Father sees ahead of what we do and knows the consequences.  This is why when we get out of range we feel His discipline rather than hear His voice.  What better a thing it would be to hear a gently rebuke than feel a stern lash.  

Another reason why we drift out of range is because we get overly confident in our own strength.  The fundamental difference in God's parenting and the world's example is that God does not want us to become independent from Him.  God never pushes away a child from His house so that child can go it on his or her own.  Yet we get the urge to leave the comfort of the Father's care for some trifling matter.  We see others seemingly making it in the world without dependence on God so it naturally occurs to us that the same should be true of us.  We resent that Divine hand upon us at times.  

The second area in which we stop receiving from God is  that we are interrupted by other signals.  This is sort of like the previous paragraph with one difference.  The difference is that we are trying our best to depend on God, yet the world's distractions are so great and boisterous we lose our spiritual concentration.  There is so much out there clamoring for our attention.  TV ads, newsstand ads, seemingly innocent humor (that consequently we haven't noticed how gradually rough and evil it becomes).  There are demands on our schedule, listening to complaints and "wisdom" from friends who don't know Christ.  There is loud noise all around out spiritual ears so that it is hard to concentrate on Bible study, prayer, and Christian living according to God's standards.  The way we turn down the noise is to escape the source.  Now of course, we are not totally to separate ourselves from worldly contact, for we have no one to fulfill the Great Commission upon.  Yet, like the old adage, "one rotten apple in the barrel spoils the rest," certainly does apply.  The more we become involved with the practices of the world, the less we are receptive to God.   We need to spend time alone, even if its for a few moments, talking to God in a quiet place, reading a Scripture or reciting one committed to memory.  We cannot make it without Scriptural Truth and devotion towards God.

Lastly, we fail to make the connection many times when God is speaking.  This can result from many things, but somewhere in all the reasons, bitterness and disgruntlement are at the core.  We tend to judge God as we judge men, this is our first mistake.  Too often we see no need in ourselves to listen to God if we have judged God to have seemingly acted in "error" in our lives by not giving us something, allowing something other than we wanted, not answering us on our timetable, etc.   I cannot be writing to you now and say I am innocent of this.  In fact I fail at this a lot.  We question God's sovereignty.  We doubt His ability.  We question His willingness.  All these things compacted together makes us stop our Spiritual ears when God speaks.  To better term it, we go to our spiritual "pouting place."  I am not saying life is easy.  Contrary to modern sermonizing in today's pulpits, life is not getting better, its getting harder.  Jesus plainly told us that you can expect tribulation in this world.  Our joy comes from the certain knowledge that this world of trouble is not our permanent residence.  So when we choose not to hear from God, we typically are angry in some fashion with God.  The wonderful part of this is that God doesn't get as angry with us as we do with Him.  Is He displeased with us when we act so?  Yes Hie is.  Does He come down on us in punishment as we deserve? No He does not.  Yet being angry or unwilling to hear from God can be fearful.  In fact it may be that putting you in a place of fear is the only way you will desire to hear Whom you have shut off. I believe this is a mark of a true believer.  The one who desires to come back to the Father as the prodigal, is one who is truly a Son or Daughter of God.  

So how do we stop being unwilling to listen to God.  First repent (turn from) whatever reason you have to hold against God.  Second, re-committ a desire to talk to Him and spend time with Him.  Third, be thankful we have Him as our Helper and ask Him to safeguard our hearts from foolish behavior.  

Are you receiving from God?  Do you desire to be in contact with Him? Or are you still desirous to make it on your own without being connected?  Remember what Jesus said in John 15:5  "I am the vine, you are the branches....apart from Me you cannot do anything."

Heavenly Father, help each of us today to be desirous of Your guidance and Voice.  Help us not to look fondly after what the world calls pleasure.  May we be in tune with Your will.  Thank you for lovingly taking us back when we wander from You.  In Your Name we pray.  Amen.







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Central Is Never Busy

Scripture Reading: Psalm 69:30-34

In my last post I mentioned I like old things, particularly old hymns and songs that are mostly forgotten. Out of these hymns there are certain phrases that makes wonderful sermon and teaching topics. Cliff Barrows, the choir and song leader for Billy Graham, once remarked that good hymnology makes wonderful theology. Though a lot of songs are not completely theologically structured, they have good references to Biblical principles. The reference we are going to look at today is one of prayer.

The old hymn we're looking at is "The Royal Telephone." by Frederick Lehman 1919.

The lyrics are extremely clever in their analogy to our open line of communication to our Father in Heaven. We as Christians have an always "open line" direct with Heaven at any time or any place in the world. The question is, how often do we use it or take advantage of such a privilege? Let's look at some privileges and one urgent suggestion that we should appreciate about our "connection" to Heaven.

First of all, we have no intermediate operator. It used to be back before even the dial telephones that one would have to call the operator to speak to whoever they wished. Later on there were, and I suppose still are, direct line phones. When I think of such, I am reminded of the "red" phone that you would see in the movies of the 60's era, where some secret service man would pick it up and the call without dialing would go immediately to the Oval Office of the President. This "hot line" is exactly what we have with God. We need no priest, no pastor, not anyone to connect us with God. That is one of the greatest blessings we have over all other false religions. You can talk to God anytime without any interference or anyone listening in. Prayer is a personal matter and is not limited by the greatest joy of the soul to the greatest sorrow of the heart. Direct line always.

Secondly, there are no busy signals. Before the advent of "call waiting." we would be constantly annoyed and upset when the buzzing of a busy signal was heard. This was due to either the phone being off the hook purposely or accidentally, or, the person on the other end talking only to someone else. Maybe today you feel like God hands you a busy signal or has too many voices to listen to. We cannot judge God with human means. We cannot understand how He can listens to millions of voices every second and yet heed and understand each one as if they were singularly it. But He does. God stands open and willing to listen to you the believer. You're not bothering Him. The sum of all the world's urgent needs are but a trifle to His Omnipotence. God has never had more than He can handle. The line is open.

Thirdly, there are no charges to be paid. Ever since there were telephones, there have been monthly fees. Now with cell phones, those fees include roaming and data charges too. It can be expensive if not overwhelming. The Devil would like to discourage us with the lie that because we are not as Holy as God, or, because we did not do a great job in the Christian life yesterday, that God cannot and will not hear us. We have to work our way back and earn His trust and ear. No. Do we sin? Yes we do. Does God forgive? Yes He will. Does God act like a tyrant in keeping us down with earning anything? No He does not.

A completely interesting side note about the lies of Satan. Whenever Satan accuses God of being whatever, fill in the blank, and tries to discredit what God says and promises, Satan is only trying to mask himself, because his discrediting accusations towards God is really and truly the way he acts towards his own children, the unbelievers.

The blood of Jesus Christ takes away our need to pay for our sins and earn confidence with God. God sees us as He sees Christ, pure and blameless. He sees us as we will be apart from the world and these fleshly bodies. The Bible does say that we must repent of our sinful practices to restore our fellowship with God, but that is a far cry from trying to win it back. You are His freely, and He is yours freely.

Fourthly, there are no dropped calls. This sort of correlates with what we just talked about with the difference that God is not in the business of "hanging up" or losing you because of anger or some hostility. Cell phones are notorious for losing a call right in the middle of usually something important. One moment you have a full signal, the next you might as well be in a cave. As you talk to God in prayer you have His full undivided attention. In fact, God delights in us talking to Him. He wants a personal dialogue with us. So He will not drop you or leave you stranded. Once you are connected to Him in Christ through salvation, its like having a heavy anchor chain from His throne to the depths of your world. No element, no trial, no doubt or no sin can sever the connection.

Finally, the urgent warning. Prayer is a privilege, and being constantly connected like a line telephone is a great privilege. However, the greatest tragedy of prayer is that its only seemingly used when disaster strikes. This speaks and smells of deep carnality on the part of the believer. Of course, we can freely and always should turn to God in prayer when a tragedy strikes, there is never any shame in that at all. What I am saying is, prayer is supposed to be a constant connection in the good times as well as bad. We are never in need of more prayer to God for us than when we find ourselves in the times of prosperity and plenty. It is such times that we sort of feel free from depending and thanking God for all we are and have. When times are easy we sort of feel like we can do this thing called "life" on our own with no Divine Assistance. How awful we treat God by not giving Him but a sentence prayer in the fields of plenty, but give Him a screaming scroll in the times of agony. How great His love is! This was case with Israel so often. In fact if the Old Testament could be summed up in one thought it would be that God tried and tried for Israel to acknowledge Him and His love everyday, and the same from them to Him.

Spend every day thanking Him, Praising Him for Who He is towards you, Bless Him with praises of song, and speak to Him words of your love as you hear words of His.

Central Is Never Busy.

Father, help me and all who read this to appreciate this awesome privilege of prayer. We can't fathom its full blessing, but we do know what it is like to feel lonely and cut off by people in the world. Thank you that You do not treat us this way and that we can come to your listening Ear and that You not only desire to hear us, but delight in it as well. We hold the attention of the God of all that is, help us to fully realize this everyday. Thank you for not being too busy to talk to us. In your Name, Amen.

Not How It Works In MY World

Scripture Reading

Proverbs 16:17-19

Not too long ago I was attending a customer in the place I work. She was picking up a photo order and the mother told her little daughter that such and such an amount of money has to be paid. The little girl figuring the amount up in her head came up with an answer to her addition and blurted it out. The mother said told her that sum was incorrect, and the girl blurted out, THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT WORKS IN MY WORLD!!! Just like the cartoon here. We all want things our own way. That's funny to think about, that is, until we look in the mirror and face up to the way we talk to God when we want our own way or something that He cannot out of His character do.

Coming to God in prayer and petition must be understood in three areas.

First of all, God dictates what God desires, we do not.

We are just privileged that the Sovereign God of all that is would even listen to us small creatures. To come to Him and start telling Him what needs to be done in our lives or in someone else's life must go out the window! God is by no means hindered without our help. Is this to say that He does not desire to hear our heart and even our complaints? No it does not. However, we must understand that this is GOD we're talking to! The same God that formed all that exists in every micro detail is the same identical God who gives you an audience. So many people in today's world view God as a common personage. Thankfully He sent His Son Jesus to dwell with us and in our flesh, but we must respect His Deity and Sovereignty. It is His world we live in and we go with what He says, because what He says is precisely what is going to happen no matter what.

Secondly, God desires our requests to be of His heart and not of this world. Simply put, our "world" is to wrapped up in His plan. We come to the greatest impass when we try to box in God by human limitations. We wonder why He doesn't give us this or allow that. Do we realize when we come to Him, we are to forsake all the old stuff that used to be our habits and lifestyles and come to Him with His purposes in mind. This must be the hardest yet most necessary lesson for us to learn. The Christian life is all about stripping off the old caked layers of this life and putting on a whole new mind and heart as Christ has. Consider framing your conversations with Him to be willing to have Him be glorified rather than us. When we seek His heart in the matters we are engaged in, He will act on our behalf and tailor His solution to fit our circumstances. To ask God to do anything that is laced with worldly desires would be like asking your earthly father to do something that would be vile and totally against all his morals and principles.

Thirdly, God is interested more in the world ahead of you than the world beneath you. When we draw away from God we retreat in our world where we somehow think that all that we plan or strive for is right and without fault. If left to our own perception and sight, its hard to tell where we would be. One thing is most sure, it wouldn't be God's best and it very well could be disastrous. God however interrupts our little plans and little world by showing up with a plan that is far more forward in sight and design. So many people, people you know and work with can only seem to see the weekend or what they will do tomorrow. God on the other hand looks at a person life as one would a panoramic photograph. He scans it left to right, end to end to see the whole picture and enact what is best for us. The Apostle Paul reminds us 1 Corinthians 15:13, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." In other words, should Christ let us go our own way, doing our own thing, never caring to readjust the course of our lives to the better He sees ahead, He would be the most cruel and uncaring Being ever known. But God does act in our behalf, He is working in us for something better, not just something immediate. To act or pray according to the dictations of this world is so faulty and useless that God is not moved to hand us what we sometimes want. He knows it can be junk and without lasting value. That is why He sent His Son into the world to die, so that we might have a better life than what is detailed down here on Earth and certainly better than the dungeon of Hell. His aim is to make you more like Him and exalt you in due time better than we can exalt of live it up for ourselves.

Do you approach God with a "my world" mentality? Are the dictations of your heart and spirit concerned only with what will benefit this life? Do you find yourself desiring to have it your way? If so, let's be honest and confess that God is a better Master of our life than we. My "world" and your "world" will one day lie in smoldering ashes, but as Martin Luther remarked in his song, "His {Christ's) Kingdom is forever." We as believer's are the recipients of the Kingdom's blessings and King. Our pathways end in destruction. His pathways end in everlasting Glory.

Father, help us today to be desirous of what You want and that our hearts might be in tune with Your world for Your Saints. Forgive us as we take our eyes off Your best and desire our least. May it be that we shall one day be confident in saying, "my life is Yours unreserved." In your Name, Amen.

Forward this to a friend and keep your eyes upon the skies, Jesus is coming soon!

How About Your Heart

Many people will make impressions on you early on in life. One such person was Brother Carl Johnson, an evangelist from the Beckley WV area. As a child, I perceived him to be quite old as he had white hair and reminded you of an old time preacher (which I suppose he was). He stayed at our house during some of his meetings and he always carried a guitar with him. Carl is now with the Father, but we have his voice on an old cassette tape. One song I remember seeing and hearing him sing at our church was, "How About Your Heart." One verse and a chorus I offer for your reflection says this,

"Friend how would you feel if your heart were made with a window on each side?  So that all would know, not for outward show, but does Christ REALLY abide?  People often see you as you are outside, Jesus really knows you,  for He sees inside. How about your heart, is it right with God? That's the thing that counts today."

That is a pointed question, pointed at all human hearts, that no one will one day avoid an answer. A preacher once said, "God rules all things but one, and that is the human heart." It took me a while to see the point, and now I agree. Not that God cannot sovereignly rule the heart, but He let's you and me make a choice to follow or flee, to serve or to turn away, to confess Him or deny Him. In essence, we hold the condition of our heart in our own hand as the photo shows.

Physical Heart Disease is so rampant in the United States. The reason for this is largely brought upon ourselves as our eating is out of control or we do not get enough exercise. We have made a choice to damage ourselves. Without God's Son Jesus Christ in your spiritual life (your Heart) you're doing the same damage only the Eternal consequences are ultimately beyond repair and even beyond the imagination.

For a believer, sometimes we begin to desire to rule our own hearts with our own self advancements. It is important to note we cannot become eternally condemned, but we can become Earthly miserable. When we draw ourselves away from prayer, Bible reading and study, fellowship with the Saints, ministering to needs of others, our hearts get out of shape and even hardened.

Is it possible for a believer's heart to be hardened towards God? The simple and sad answer is Yes. When we sin and habitually desire to turn from what God prescribes we lose ground in ourselves. It's like cutting off the food supply we enjoy day after day. It is said that man can go without food for weeks, but without water for a couple of days before dying. Why do we desire to stray and inevitably starve ourselves from His presence? The longer we stay away, the harder and more selfish our hearts become.

What are some signs of a hardened heart?

• A lack of daily prayer



• Going long periods without personal Bible reading



• Having no song of praise on your lips



• Disgust for the preacher and the preaching



• Lack of church attendance



• Grumbling against God for whatever situation or reason

All of us have some form of the above in us now, its our sin nature at work, but we do not have to let it be dominate. Do you find yourself struggling in one of these areas? Has your love for God and His Word flickered? Such a sign is dangerous if it goes unchecked. The end result is a miserable hopeless life experience that has little to offer or receive.

It is good for us to examine ourselves in the Faith. Paul encourages us to do so in 2 Corinthians 13:5. We don't like to do that, lest we find something that doesn't belong in our lives. Christ wants nothing more than for our hearts to be like His. The Great news is, to be reconciled to God is simply a matter of prayer in genuine confession and repentance.

In this world our physical heart can be bypassed to be healed. Fortunately our God can take what is broken and restore it without bypassing any of His love, truth or holiness.

If you find your heart away from Him consider praying with me,

Lord Jesus, my heart is far from you and it is entirely my fault. I claim 1 John 1:9 and desire you to rekindle my desire for you to be Master of my life. Please forgive me from straying and having it my own way. Be my way and source of guidance from this day on. Amen.

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Photo by Jon Browning

Give and Take Prayers, Part 1 of 2

How much of your personal prayer time is consumed with the "taking" or the asking? Would you say 50% or more? I have to admit when I pray it is 80% my asking that dominates the subject of conversation with the Father. I heard a speaker say that we come to God with a grocery list and go up and down the aisles wanting this, asking this, begging for that. I think that some of that reasoning is OK but not completely accurate.

Some of those folks who complain about us seemingly always coming to God with our lists really have no comprehension of our Father's desire for us to do so. One thing we need to understand is that we cannot understand who God is by judging Him or comparing Him with anything human. When someone comes to us with a long list of topics to discuss, our first reaction is to get tired of hearing all this. Not so with God. We forget our Father's ear. We forget that the very act of us coming to Him with that scroll of a list it showing that we depend on Him. God delights when we depend on Him and not on some other "source." We also tend to forget that He has not only an infinite storehouse of blessings but can sovereignly arrange people, events, actions, etc. to meet our needs.

In defense of that speaker I told you about, a constant running complaining attitude of prayer does not delight God's ears anymore than it would our own. When we pray, it is key to remember that we need to pray "in His will." This simply means that what we ask of Him, it is our desire to have whatever He deems that is best for us rather than having it our own way.

When I think of folks (myself majorly included) who have complained and wanted their own way, I think of Israel. Israel so desired a King they couldn't stand it. God desired the rulers were to be His appointed judges, but after unending complaints they got a King in the person of Saul. Saul was just like any other worldly king, and that was the problem, what they wanted was the very thing that would destroy them, and it did. How much better would we be if we waited on God.

However, briefly back to the point of taking in prayer, look at the butterfly photo above. The bush it is attached to is a "butterfly bush" whose very name is because it attracts and supplies these creatures with good. God is like that bush. He doesn't mind how often we come to take of His Person, Time, Spirit, request needs. He is there for us as the bush is for the butterfly. Not to take Him up on His provisions and good nature is foolishness. Do you have a need today? Sure you do, we all do. Then be glad we have a Heavenly Father WILLING to hear us and being there to help us in place of us making it the best we can on our own.  Remember though, God does not respond to our cravings or will overlook things we desire that is not His best for us. We cannot come and treat Him like an ATM machine--push the right buttons and get what I want.  We should be so glad of this.  We don't always fathom the ends of our own desires, but He does, and answers for our good accordingly.

The Bible says in 1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Let's ask Him right now,

Heavenly Father, thank you for desiring to help me. Thank you I can come to you with my needs knowing that none are too great or too small for your heart. Lord, I desire your will in my need today. My need is _________________ and I am asking you to give the wisdom to know what you want and am asking you to provide a solution for me. May I have faith enough to believe you will answer and bring me the help I need. Thank you in your name. Amen.

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Image by Jon Browning