“And this is the confidence that we have toward (Jesus), that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
I don’t remember where I read this story, or who wrote it, but I want to share it with you and make a few comments on what it means. “A Lady was helping her nephew with his homework. He was usually attentive, but on this day he seemed unable to focus on his work. He asked his aunt, ‘Can I ask God to help me find my marble?’ She answered in the affirmative, so he knelt by her chair and prayed. Afterward, he focused on his homework and completed it. The next day the aunt was almost afraid to ask her nephew if he had found his marble, lest he had not found it and his faith in God was hampered. When she finally asked, his reply was ‘no.’ The aunt’s heart skipped a beat, then her nephew said, ‘But God has made me not want to.’” I write a lot on the subject of answered prayer, but I think that it is important that we understand the dynamics of prayer. Our text says something about this as well: “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” The story and text contain a good lesson about prayer for us. God does not always give us exactly what we pray for, but in many cases He changes our wants. I think of the young boy that I read about who misquoted the first verse of the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd, He’s all I want.” This is certainly one of the meanings of the correct translation, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” This doesn’t mean that He gives us everything that we pray for, but that He simplifies, and, perhaps, changes our wants. We can think of the girls who prayed that they would get a marriage proposal from such and such a guy, but he never proposed. Later, when they met the real men of their dreams and realized that if God had given them exactly what they wanted they would not have been as happy. I think of how many requests I have made to God over the last fifty-three years that I have spent in the ministry. I can remember times when I prayed that God would help me to move to another place. (They say that preachers love their churches – especially their next church.) More often than not, He didn’t give me what I wanted, but He did change my wants and made me realize that He wasn’t through with me at that church yet. I have written before on 'CouchPotatoRedux' that God has at least three answers to our prayers. One answer is “yes.” Another answer is “no” And a third answer is “wait.” But whenever God says “no” to our prayers, it means that He has something better for us than what we asked for. When God says “no,” He changes our wants at the same time. I think how my life would have been altered for the worse if God had given me what I wanted at that time. I know that it is difficult to accept that God wants something different from what we want, but He does and acts on it. I’m sure that you already know, but it doesn’t hurt to get a reminder of it, that God always knows what is best for us. He knows everything about us, past, present and future. God has plans for our lives, and we often have our own plans that might conflict with His. Since God knows what the future holds, and since He knows everything about our spiritual gifts, He knows when and where we can best do what He wants. If you are disappointed with God because He has not given you something that you prayed for, remember that He is God and He knows what answer is in your best interests. I certainly don’t mean to leave the impression that God never answers us directly to our given prayers, but I do mean that if He doesn’t answer in the affirmative to our particular wants, He knows what we need, and like the little boy in the opening story, we should understand that He may have changed our wants. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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