Father God, we call you Father because you care about us, because you love us, because you provide for us. Jesus, we call you savior because you have died for our sins and in so doing given us the gift of eternal life in your name. Holy Spirit, we call you Holy because you are set-apart from the rest of creation and you live in us and set us apart from the rest of creation because we are a redeemed creation. We love your wondrous works O God, and may we never forget the lengths you went to in order to grant us redemption and love. May your glory be reflected back to you through us, your instruments. In Jesus name, Amen.
We have often heard sermons on James 4:3 where it says "you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." This is a very important verse in the Biblical text. James is very boldly saying that sometimes we pray and do not receive because we haven't asked with the right intentions. As I'm sure most Christians know, God looks on the heart rather than what is being done. If God only looked on the action, the Pharisees would have been very righteous people, but God knew the intent of their heart and condemned them for their actions. It doesn't matter what your asking for unless your heart is in the right place.
Now the question arises, what's the right place? Where should my heart be when I ask God for supplication? Where should my heart be when I'm asking God to bless the food on my table? Where should my heart be when I'm asking that God speaks through me as I teach? My dear friends, I will tell you where your heart needs to be; it needs to be where God's heart is. Your will, as much as is humanly possible, needs to align with God's will. When you ask God for a blessing over your food, it should be a form of praise and a declaration that God is sovereign over your food and has provided it for you, that is where your heart should be. When you ask God to speak through you when you teach, your heart should be focused on those you are trying to reach, for God "wishes that all would come to repentance." You should wish for this as well when you teach biblical truths. My point is that when you pray, do not simply say a prayer you have memorized and has become devoid of meaning, but bring meaning to prayer by praying with your heart and your head.
Does this mean that your family member died because you didn't pray with the right intent? Or that your friend has cancer because you didn't pray with the right heart? No! I blatantly refute any such perverted theology. However, if God said no to a prayer of yours, does this mean that your priorities in life were different than God's priorities? Yes, absolutely. We are all guilty of such prayer, and it is not necessarily wrong to pray for something God says no to. It becomes wrong when you distort your image of God and fall away because he said no. This may seem contradictory to what I have been saying the whole time. One moment, I said you should align your will with God's when you pray, and the next I am saying that you should ask for things even if your will isn't aligned with God's. Let me put all of this more succinctly. When you pray, align your will with God's will as much as possible through theology, fellowship, and the Bible, but expect that your will can never be on the exact same page as God's because you do not know the beginning from the end as God does. Strive to align yourself with God's will, but expect imperfection in doing so. Pray for what you think will bring glory to God, but accept that which will bring more glory to God.
I must answer one more question. How do we align our will with God's? Think back to one of your relationships and how it started out. In the beginning of the relationship, you didn't fully understand the habits of that person, the thought-processes, or the overall analysis of who they were. As the relationship developed, you began to understand why they did what they did and why they thought what they thought, and eventually you may even be able to predict some of the things they would do because that was simply who they were. It is the same in our relationship with God, we must grow closer to God to understand who God is, thereby being able to partly know the will of God, but never the full will of God. As Paul says "For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:12.
"God answered Solomon, 'Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked long life, but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may govern my people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge are granted to you." - 2 Chronicles 1:11-12
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