"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Matt 9:36-38)
Jesus spent a lot of time focusing his disciples on God's agenda. I call this a divine perspective. As an under shepherd of God's flock I am always asking God to give me a clear "divine perspective" on everything. I am always asking him to "Open MY eyes!"
In the above passage, Jesus' directs the disciples to pray. I wonder how many of them actually prayed and how many of them said, "Yeah Jesus, I'll pray about that" then went about their business? It would seem that the answer to my question is that Jesus would not allow them to do this. In the very next verses he commissions them to go out and begin harvesting.
"He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority..." (Matt 10:1)
It seems that at least one of the reasons he told them to pray was that they would consider whether they might be the answer to the prayer. How often do we see that? How often do we pray for something or someone without seeing that God wants us to be the answer to our prayers?
James put it another way,
"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?" (James 2:15-16)
It's much more convenient to pray for our brothers and sisters in need then to act on their behalf. It's much easier to pray that God will remove a trial than it is to see what he wants you to do in the midst of it.
On a more personal note, I am the pastor of a one year old church plant. When I share the vision and work of Lighthouse Community Church with others I always inform them that there are three ways that they can partner with us. (1)Prayer (2)Presence (3)Financially You can guess the most popular option. Understand we need and covet prayers, I'm just wondering out loud if any of our prayer partners have ever thought of being the answer to their prayers for us?
How about you?
Do you find yourself giving people the "prayer blow off"?
Do you tell people you'll pray for them then not do it?
Do you tell people you'll pray for them without considering how you can be an answer to that prayer?
I'd love to hear your comments.
2 comments:
Just last night Audrey said her family and friends were praying for me. I then inquired what exactly are they praying for me. I quickly decided you know I don't even need to know. Am I wrong in thinking all prayer is good prayer? That is the stance I ended up taking for myself.
Ant, as you know we saw each other and had a great discussion about this comment yesterday. So I wanted the rest of those who follow the blog to know that I wasn't ignoring your comment.
To summarize what we discussed, I said that all prayer is good but not all prayer of effective. God answers prayer according to his will and so one of the major reasons that answers to prayer can be delayed is that we (our hearts) are not in alignment with God's will.
Example = I keep asking God for a Corvette. After some time of praying a realize that all I really need is reliable transportation. God provides a vehicle.
It's good to be specific in our prayers. I would have actually shared some things that she (Aud) could be praying for.
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