Good Morning All,
“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 had come a little earlier? What
if you had trusted your instincts and bought the land your neighbor tried to
sell you a long time 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. The difficult part is accepting that
what God ordains to happen is the best for us. Too often, our sinful nature
will see it differently. 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 has chosen to give you wondrous gifts. Maybe
we don’t always recognize it, but this is God’s promise to us. 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. 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
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