.us GospeLines Ministries®
Daily Devotional for Monday, May 3, 2010 Have you missed any of our devotionals? Remember they can be found in the Archive section of our Website http://www.gospelines.com * “Ask, Seek, Knock”* Matthew 7:7-11 NIV<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%207:7-11&version=NIV> Jesus grew up in a nation which loved prayer. The Scribes and Pharisees misunderstood the purpose of prayer and how to go about it, but no one ever accused them of not having a deep love for the practice of it. Here in Matthew 7, we have the inauguration of Christian prayer: what it is, our role in it, what God does with our prayers, and what we may expect from prayer. First, prayer is not a magician’s trick and God is not a Genie in a bottle. Just because we ask specifically for something and we do not receive it doesn’t mean that God didn’t hear and answer that prayer. Many pastors preach and people believe that all you have to do to have blessings, health and prosperity in life is to ask for it. If that is so, then why isn’t every Christian rich? Prayer engages the will of God in your life, leaps over the boundaries of your limitations and plugs you into the spiritual resources of the Holy Spirit. That’s what prayer is. Second, the real translation is, “Keep on asking and to you will be given!” This verse says that our role is to keep on asking and keep on seeking through prayer. Without that persistence, nothing happens because we have tied God’s hands. If we don’t pray we may as well gamble our way through life depending upon our own luck and good fortune. Third, it also says that God will answer our persistent prayers, because that’s what He does with our prayers. He answers them. But it does *not*say that His answer will always be, “Yes!” Sometimes God says “No,” or “Not yet.” Then sometimes God answers by saying, “I’ve got a better idea.” What we know is that without prayer, which is our part, God is limited to what He will do because He wants us to initiate the process of His work in our lives through prayer. Fourth, I believe some prayers go unanswered because they are not really prayers at all. Prayer without expectation is insincere. What do you expect to happen when you pray to God? If there is no expectation, there is no faith. If there is no faith, it isn’t prayer! God is our Father in whom we are to place great trust. Jesus gives us two illustrations which could have begun with something like, “What parent is going to hate his/her child?” What a silly question! Will a parent give a hungry child a stone that looks like a loaf of bread? If a child asks for a fish, will a parent give him an eel (which by Jewish law was unclean)? No parent would treat a child like that, nor will our Heavenly Father neglect our needs when we pray. He may not give us what we want but He will give us what we need, and we have every right to expect it. My daughter from Zimbabwe (she adopted Sherry and me), tells the story of being impressed one Sunday in the worship service to give her shoes to a lady who needed shoes. Happily, she walked home from church that day barefoot. Now she had no shoes so she prayed about it. God heard her prayer, but He gave a family in the church a car and my daughter and her children never had to walk to church again. Did God answer her prayer? Of course He did because that’s what God does! Beloved, God loves you so much that if you need bread, He will not give you a stone instead. It may not be bread that you receive from Him but it will be exactly what you need. Keep on asking, seeking and knocking…God will hear you and He will give you enough. On February 28, 1795, Governor Samuel Adams of Massachusetts proclaimed a day of prayer for his state: *“To pray that the Light of the Gospel, and the rights of Conscience, may be continued to the people of the United America; and that His Holy Word may be improved by them, so that the name of God may be exalted, and their own Liberty and Happiness secured.” ** If prayer could be so right then, how can it be so wrong now? God help us to pray with more boldness than ever before. *GospeLines Prayer**: Father, as Bruce Wilkinson said, may we learn to “attempt something so large that it is doomed to failure unless God steps in.” Amen and amen.* Tommy Harrison www.gospelines.com [image: 3 crosses] *Amen and Amen!* *_____________________________________________________* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "tribewithavibe" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tribewithavibe?hl=en.
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