“Prayer must be in alignment with the will of God or it’s null and void.”

A thought by Mark Batterson, (2015-10-06) from his book, If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities (Kindle Locations 2607-2608). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

We have so many false ideas about a lot of different things and we don’t know it. Reading people’s comments on Facebook or listening to talk radio shows you that to be true. Our ideas about prayer shows this too.

Mark says, “Prayer must be in alignment with the will of God or it’s null and void. It’s not like turning your back to Trevi Fountain and throwing a penny over your left shoulder. If it’s not God’s will, you’re not going to get whatever you ask for. God loves you far too much to spoil you in that way. But if it is God’s will, God will make a way. Even if it’s out of your league!”

Right before this he says, “Our prayers are limited by our lack of knowledge— we don’t know what we don’t know. That’s why I trust His intercession more than my intuition. That’s also why I often preface my prayers with a preamble: Lord, I want what you want more than I want what I want. I first heard that prayer from one of our campus pastors, Dave Schmidgall, when he and his wife were making an offer to buy their first home. That prayer is the way they put the ball back in God’s court.”

Margaret and I in the past few months were about to make a major decision. We really wanted something and thought it was something that we really needed and would be the best for us to have at this point in our lives. But we quit praying that God would work it out and started praying that he would help us to make the decision based on his wisdom and his will not our wants. We didn’t do what we thought we wanted to do, we did the wise thing and we later down the road found that getting what we wanted would have been a wrong decision, that it wasn’t what God wanted us to do at that time. If we would have forced the issue we would have been in trouble. God’s way was defiantly the best way for us.

So what is it you are praying for?

Comments

“There’s a big difference between building a castle and building a kingdom.”

A thought by Bob Goff from his book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People ( p. 41). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Have you ever built a sand castle or maybe a Lego castle? Have you? Bob says, “We actually build castles all the time, out of our jobs and our families and the things we’ve purchased. Sometimes we even make them out of each other. Some of these castles are impressive too. Lots of people come to admire what we’ve built over the course of our lives and tell us what great castles we have. But Jesus told His friends we weren’t supposed to spend our lives building castles. He said He wanted us to build a kingdom, and there’s a big difference between building a castle and building a kingdom.” Bob goes on, “You see, castles have moats to keep creepy people out, but kingdoms have bridges to let everyone in. Castles have dungeons for people who ha...

“When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life.”

A thought by Rick Warren, (2012-10-23) from his book, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Purpose Driven Life, The) (p. 57). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. To realize that from God’s perspective life is a test goes a long way in determining how you handle your life. It is important to see that in testing your character is both developed and revealed. Rick goes on to say that “even the smallest incident has significance for your character development. Every day is an important day, and every second is a growth opportunity to deepen your character, to demonstrate love, or to depend on God.” So there is a God purpose behind each situation in your life. Even the bad ones are there to strengthen you and develop you. You see those bad situations are really good ones because they are there for your good. I start each day with a reminder that God is good. Not every situation that is going to come in my day is good but because G...

“Sometimes we think we’re stuck simply because things are hard.”

A thought by Matt Perman, from his book, How to Get Unstuck (p. 52). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the That is a possible trap for many, isn’t it? Matt says, “But if you’re continuing to make progress and aren’t experiencing huge snags, you’re not stuck. Rather, you’re in a dip. “A dip is a temporary hard slog that you will get through if you keep pushing and don’t give up. And pushing through the hard slog is actually the fastest route to the destination. In these cases, you will be especially tempted to bail. Be discerning and able to identify that you’re in a legitimate dip and you’re not a failure.” Matt says another trap to be careful of, “Some people are stuck and don’t know it.” He goes on, “Everything can be going your way, going smoothly, and going quickly. Everything feels and seems wonderful. Yet... you are still headed toward a dead end, a form of getting stuck, if you are leaving God out of t...

Just Continue That Thought...

Search This Blog