Praise the Lord for the way He is immanent and transcendent at the same time. The Greeks thought of gods as those who made the earth and the human beings and then took off and watched from a distance. As Beth Midler sang, "God is watching from a distance". The Greeks thought of gods as having holy ethos but no pathos. The Greek gods would not touched by our infirmities. They could not be moved by human emotions of pain, sorrow and tribulations. The Lord God who is revealed in Jesus our Savior and Lord is known as a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He has Holy ethos and has holy pathos. He hears us when we call on Him. He knows our name. He sees every tear drop. He answers prayer. He intervenes in our lives and circumstances and performs miracles.
Less than 6 weeks ago I had my surgery. All of you around the corner and around the globe prayed for me. The Lord Jesus who is mighty and merciful has heard and has answered. He has healed me. I am cancer free. Thank you Jesus. Jesus reigns. He answers prayer. As we read in Psalm 103, He forgives all our sins and He heals all our diseases. He redeems our lives from destruction and the pit. He crowns us with tender mercies and loving kindness.
I read about a ship that was engulfed in fog off the coast of Newfoundland on a Wednesday night. It was moving very slowly. The Rev. George Mueller, who was aboard the ship, went up to the bridge and said, "Captain, I have to be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon."
The captain said, "Pastor, that’s impossible. We're not going to make it."
Then Mueller said, "Let’s go down to the chart room and pray to God."
The captain said, "Are you crazy? I can’t go to the chart room right now! Do you have any idea how dense the fog is?"
Mueller said, "No. My eye is not on the density of the fog. But on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life." Once they got to the chart room, Mueller got down on his knees and prayed "Lord, you’re the one who made the arrangements for me to preach the gospel in Quebec. I really believe with all my heart that you want me to be there on time. If it is consistent with your will, please remove this fog in five minutes. In Jesus’ name, amen."
They went back upstairs to the bridge. Within a matter of minutes, the fog lifted! It was a miracle!
Beginning in verse seven, of Mathew 7 Jesus is saying, "Ask, and it will be given to you! Seek and you will find! Knock, and the door will be opened.” The verbs "ask, seek, and knock" are in the present tense, suggesting persistent prayer over a period of time. In other words Jesus is saying, “Don’t just pray one time and quit! Keep on asking! Keep on seeking! Keep on knocking! Whatever it is that God has placed upon your heart, keep praying until you get a definitive answer.” The Lord calls us to pray with expectation and with holy persistence. Our problem is that we give up too quickly. Jesus says “Don’t give up!”
He tells a story in Luke 18 about a guy who needs some food for his houseguest. So he knocks on his neighbor’s door again and again until he gets the help that he needs.
The Bible teaches us that persistent prayer pays off. We see a beautiful picture of persistent prayer in Exodus 17. The Amalekites are attacking the children of Israel, so Moses tells Joshua, “You guys go out and fight. I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” Verse 11 says that as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. When his arms got tired, he got two of his buddies to hold his hands up, one on one side and one on the other. Because of this, the children of Israel won the battle. Persistent prayer pays off.
We see this again in the New Testament. In Matthew 15, a Gentile woman goes to Jesus and says “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! Please heal my little girl!” Jesus doesn’t answer her right away. He’s testing her to see if her request is borne solely from desperation, or if it comes from personal faith in who Jesus is. So she says it again, “Lord, please heal my little girl!”
Then Jesus says to her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
But this woman doesn’t take no for an answer. She gets on her knees and says, “Lord, please heal my little girl!”
And then Jesus says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to their dogs.” That answer would discourage a lot of people. But not this lady! In verse 27, she says, "Lord, you’re right. I’m a Gentile dog. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table." In other words, ’Lord, you can call me what you want, as long as my girl gets better! All I need is a crumb of your blessing. A crumb of your healing power! Please heal my little girl!"
You can see that the Lord Jesus is deeply moved by this woman’s persistence. You can see the love and the admiration he has for her, as he says in verse 28, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted!” At that exact moment, the little girl was healed.
The story teaches us that all of our asking and all of your seeking can move the heart of God to act on our behalf. Persistent prayer pays off!
Sometimes God says no to the good things we want because He has BETTER things in mind! 1 John 5:14 says, “this is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything in accordance with His will, He hears us!” Confidence in prayer doesn’t come from believing that God is going to give us whatever we want when we want it. Confidence in prayer comes from believing that our prayers will be answered in accordance with the will of God. It’s possible that God still wants to heal us. Keep praying. But it’s also possible that God is using the pain in our lives to teach us that His grace is sufficient in all circumstances.
Jesus goes on to give an illustration of God’s fatherly provision in Matthew 7:9. He says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? If he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?”
Jesus is saying, “If that’s how you feel about your children, then how much more does God feel that way about His children? If you would do whatever it takes to provide for your kids, then why wouldn’t we expect Almighty God to do whatever it takes to provide for His children.
Whatever our pressing need might be, let us take it to the Lord in prayer.
In His grace and Mercy,
Brown
Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn this art of being thoughtful, you will become more and more Christ-like, for his heart was meek and he always thought of others. Our vocation, to be beautiful, must be full of thought for others.
... Mother Teresa of Calcutta
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