It's Already Alright (Part I)
When you look around what do you see? What are you hearing? Does what you see and hear concern you? It may be politics, career concerns, family issues, death of a loved one, having enough money or a health report that wasn’t good. Each day we are faced with something called, “Circumstances”. And, it is true that how we respond to those circumstances is more important than the circumstances themselves. But how DO you respond when faced with things that make you afraid, tremble or confused. Even if you know it is just a trying of your faith and you refuse to fear, how DO you deal with that thing?
Many people will say to just pray. As an intercessor, I totally agree. But you have to pray from the right posture. You see some prayers are heard and others are listened to. God can hear you when you pray but whether or not He listens is up to your posture in prayer. Now, I know some of you are thinking that I’m going to say that God won’t listen if you are engaged in sin. That can’t be true because then no one could be saved (Think about it).
The posture I’m speaking of is the posture of faith AND trust. Faith is KNOWING who God is, who you are in Him and What He will and will not do. Trust is having the CONFIDENCE that He will listen and respond accordingly. Faith is given, trust is built. You see, babies KNOW when they are hungry or wet and, so, they begin to cry out. They cry because that is the only resource they have since they have not grown to the point where they know how to address the issues for themselves. They don’t have to see diaper or food. But they hope someone or something will bring them what they need. If no one ever responds, they will cry until they can cry no more. Then with a broken spirit, they will sob and fall off to sleep until they have the strength to cry out again. But the next time they won’t cry as long or as hard, and eventually the spiritual death will turn to a physical one. This topic I will take up in another blog because as it is with physical babies so it is with spiritual ones.
Fortunately, most babies do get what they need. If the same someone keeps bringing them the diaper changes and food they need, they will learn to trust in that person. Even if they don’t know who the person is but each time they cry their need gets met by someone, they will learn to trust that crying out when they have a need will cause someone to meet their need.
In the same way, it takes faith in God to pray and be heard to the point that He listens and it takes trust in Him to receive the answer. Hebrews 11:6 addresses both faith and trust and bears this out. The first part says, “Without faith it’s impossible to please the Lord, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists...” If someone is not pleased with you they don’t want to be in your presence let alone hear anything you have to say. And it takes faith, not perfection to be pleasing unto God (As a side note, if you truly have faith you’re not going to run around living a life of sin-look above at the definition of faith). If you truly believe God exists, then you have to operate and pray from a clear definition of who He is, which then leads to an understanding of who you are that leads to an understanding of what He will and will not do in your life.
The last part of that scripture says, “…and He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Those that earnestly seek Him are those that trust in Him. Your best friends or those who you want to spend your free time with are those you trust. You know they will cover you, correct you, support you and help you if needed. You are confident of that. You go out of your way to be with such people over anyone else. Those that trust God get the rewards or the answers they seek, as I said above.
So, when you pray for answers, pray knowing who He is, what He does and trust that He will do for you AND through you what needs to be done to cause your circumstances to change and come into alignment with His will. Next time I will discuss WHO HE IS so you can ensure your prayer posture is effective.
