I heard an interesting story the other day:
There was a man who had fallen overboard a ship in the deep seas. As he held on to a piece of wood that floated by, he was praying and asking the Lord for help. Soon a ship came by an offered him assistance but the man refused saying, “The Lord will rescue me…”.
A few days later another ship spotted him in the water and offered to lift him out. Again the man said, “Don’t worry, the Lord is going to rescue me…”. Another few days went by and a third ship offered to pull the man to safety. He determinedly told the crew, “The Lord will rescue me…” Sadly a few days later the man perished.
How often do we pray asking the Lord to help us? God answers prayer in the most amazing ways but more than often, NOT the ways that we expect. In our story, the man was so intent on God saving him in a way that HE thought God was going to save him, that he missed the obvious. He stubbornly went on refusing the obvious and sadly perished as a result. Perhaps, had he ended his prayer by saying, “Lord let your will be done”, he would have seen that the first ship was the answer to his plea for help.
We expect God to answer according to how we think, it’s a sort of “don’t worry Lord, I’ve got the solutions for this…” type of attitude!
We’ve shared before how much more difficult it is to pray out of God’s character than out of our own – remember the scripture in Matt that says “ask anything in MY name…” in other words – ask anything in the CHARACTER of Jesus.
We really need to know and trust, that God has a perfect plan for each one of our lives – and I mean perfect!
Let’s look at some incredible scriptures: The Psalmist said that God saw us before we were born – imagine that – seconds before we were conceived we were substance, but God saw us and then we WERE, instant life! He goes on to say that God wrote all our days in His book, before we lived one of them – really amazing! (Psa.139:16-17).
Matthew says that God has numbered every hair on our heads (Matt.10:31).
The book of Ephesians tells us that God chose us and He allowed us to be adopted into Jesus Eph.1:4-5). Paul goes on to say that the Lord prepared good works for us before time, which we will walk in! (Eph.2:10).
Hence I’m sure you’ll agree with me – God really knows us! That’s why I say that we really need to trust that God has a perfect plan for each one of us.
Therefore, because God knows us so well and knows our path of life in every detail, we can pray with confidence…” Lord let your will be done”. As we pray this more and more often, we will begin to see God’s character outworking around us. We will then learn to see God’s answers to our prayers from HIS perspective, and not expect Him to answer according to our ideas or feelings.
If we can learn to trust and accept God’s will being done in our lives, we will have much more peace daily and not be so focussed on our perceived answers, that we miss the obvious – just like the man in our story.
As we’ve said before…nothing happens in our lives without God knowing about it. Everything…remember…EVERYTHING happens for the good of those who love the Lord (Rom.8:28-29).
So, let’s not go overboard – our Lord is not a complicated God… let’s look for the obvious answers to our payers and not let stubbornness blind us. Let’s not be consumed by thoughts of how God should answer us. He desires the best for us and we are walking in His perfect plan right now – even though we may not think so – hallelujah!
Bless you all, as the Master shares His heart with you this coming week…. until next time – stay safely in His arms.