Two thoughts are continually coming up in my times of reading, studying and learning. The thoughts are:
- To pray with expectancy
- When God speaks to me, my response should be immediate
While I am not certain how these two thoughts relate quite yet, or at least not how to articulate it, I am certain that both of these principles need to be carried out in my life. I've been reading through the book of Matthew in the Bible and a word that keeps jumping out at me as I read is the word immediately or phrases that mean immediate.
In Matthew 4, Jesus calls Peter and his brother, Andrew to follow him. My bible translation says that "at once, they left their nets and followed him." A few sentences later in the same chapter, Jesus calls James and John to follow him and "immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him." When Jesus spoke to them, their responses we're immediate. When I look at my life and the times where I have felt called by God and my response, I often find that my responses were not immediate. I often give opportunity to the enemy to convice me of all the reasons why I can't do something. More often than not, when I give opportunity to the enemy, he is the winner in the conversation or at least delays my response enough so that it is no longer relevant. I often hesitate long enough where the moment has passed. When I know that it is God who has called me to do something, my response needs to be immediate. I've recently heard the quote that "delayed obedience is disobedience." When I hesitate or reason with what God has told me to do, I am being disobedient. I am learning that trusting God with my whole heart and to surrender to His will requires my obedience. He is the creator of the Universe and holds my whole world in His hands, who better to trust and obey? When I look at the disciples when Jesus first calls them I wonder what their lives would look like if their response was not immediate? I think about the disciple who after being told to cross to the other side of the lake in Matthew 8:18, asks Jesus if he can first go to bury his father. Jesus reply is "follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." The cost of being obedient to Jesus is high, but the reward is great. I want to be someone who does not delay in their obedience, but rather responds immediately. I want to be a person who put their trust so completely in God that the only response I have is to immediately follow Him.
In learning about trusting Him and being obedient, I am also learning to pray with expectancy. There are several instances in the book of Matthew where coming before God with an expectant heart is demonstrated. In Matthew 8, a man with leprosy comes before Jesus and says "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." The man does not doubt that Jesus can heal Him, he expects that He can and immediately he was cleansed from his leprosy. In that same chapter, a centurion comes before Jesus and asks him to heal his servant. The centurion says "just say the word, and my servant will be healed." He expects that Jesus can heal his servant and Jesus response is " Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would. and the servant was healed at that very hour." In Matthew 9, a woman who had been bleeding for years said to herself "if I only touch his (Jesus) cloak, I will be healed. Jesus turns and tells the woman that her faith has healed her "and the woman was healed from that moment." So often, I pray to God with a back up plan. I pray "God, help me with..." and after I pray, I carry out my own plan to solve the problem or fix the issue. God has been showing me areas where I have been depending on me and not trusting in Him. He has been showing me that when I pray, I can come before Him with an expectant heart. He has also been showing me that His answers to my prayers do not always look like my answers. In a book I am reading, the author tells a story of a man who was a mountain climber. In one of the climbs, this man fell 32 feet a second and landed on a ledge. Upon waking up from the fall, the man realized that nothing was wrong with him and drove home. For three days, he felt perfectly fine, but on the fourth day, the pain came. His body had been in shock for 3 days. His pain never ceased and is continual to this day. The author talked about how people often come up to this man and ask don't you pray that God will heal you and the man's response is that God has already answered that prayer. They then ask the man what he means because they see that he is still in pain and the man's response is that God has healed him from the need of being healed. God's answers to my prayers are not always my answers, but I can come before God expecting Him to answer them.
I'm learning that trusting God means that I respond immediately to His call and I'm also learning that trusting God means that He'll respond to my cry to Him. I'm learning to come before God with an expectant heart and that when He speaks to me, He is expecting me to follow Him. I'm learning that "according to your faith, it will be done to you" and I am convinced that there is nothing I want more than to put my complete trust in God and to surrender my will to His each day. I'm thankful that God is in the business of using ordinary people like me to further His kingdom and that if I obey Him and come before Him expectantly, even my highest ambitions seem low compared to His will for my life.
week 10: Kalila's parents beat and ridiculed her for her Christian faith before kicking her out in Mauritania.
