9-4-2019

 Good Morning All,

Matthew 7:7; “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

    “Listen, do you want to know a secret?”  That is the opening line of a Beatle’s song.  It is also the source of many of our thoughts and desires, especially secrets about us.  Do you ever wonder about your future?  Do you ever wonder about times in your life when you made a major decision and wonder how your life would have been different?  What if the line would have been busy when you first tried to call your future spouse for the first time?  What if your job interviews would have been in a different order?  What if the rain would have come a little earlier or a little less of it?  What if you would have trusted your instincts and bought the land your neighbor tried to sell you a longtime ago?

    What about all the prayers that you thought went unanswered or at least not answered as you wanted?  What about the times when you prayed for something and someone else got it?  Did you pray to get a job that went to a friend?  Did you pray for a child only to watch all your friends having children?  We sit and sometimes think God just doesn’t listen or care.  Yet he clearly tells us something different.  He promises to tell us great and mysterious things.

   The thing is that we need to listen to what God is telling us.  Too often, our prayers are more a shopping list or a “honey-do” list.  We go to God with this logic, “These are what I need and want you to do; preferably right now!” Or we come to God with the attitude “well, I’ve tried everything else; I guess I’ll ask God.”  Neither of these are a very faithful or faith-based way to pray.  God calls us to come to him in faith and he will answer.  We pray according to his will and trust that his will is the best for us.  Sometimes what we want is not what is best for us.  Sometimes what God has in store for us is greater than anything we could even imagine.  God answers our prayers and always acts in our best interest.

    With this certainty, we can come before him and boldly ask for what we need and even what we want; we know that God’s answer will be what is best for us.  We can and should seek His truth in order that we may be a just and loving people.  This trust in God’s faithful answer will show us things which we do not know and cannot even imagine.  God answers our prayers because He loves us and He has promised to do so and He is faithful to His promise.

 Dearest Father, too often we look at the prayers that we want answered that we miss all the ones that you have answered.  Forgive us for missing the love and health of family and friends, the beauty of creation, and the wondrous gift of our salvation.  You answer all our prayers and give us peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret