“You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.” (Matthew 21:22 NLT)
What do you want most? What is your greatest desire? What is it, if it was yours, would cause you to feel content, complete, whole, like you needed nothing more?
A new house? Car? Education? Healing? Citizenship? A spouse? A child? A Grandchild? The perfect job? To own your own company? To travel the world? To fly to the moon? To ___________! Jesus said in the verse above, “You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”
Call me crazy, but I think Jesus meant exactly what He said. I believe it so much I’m asking Him for what I want more than anything else; that which, when I have it, will satisfy me, not only in time, but throughout all eternity. Yep, you guessed it: Jesus! He’s what I most want! To have Him is the answer to every other prayer we will ever pray.
So, since I have Jesus, do I no longer have any need to eat, drink, pray, and do all the other things Jesus followers do in the course of our day? Of course I do, but Jesus is the answer to every prayer. Do I need food? Check! Shelter? Check! Transportation? Check! Healing or anything else on my list? Check! If He doesn’t provide it, I don’t need it. HE IS my sufficiency.
Paul understood this as evidenced by what he wrote in 2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.” When I was scratching out an existence and didn’t have a penny to share, the Lord wasn’t foremost in my thoughts – I was. It was all about me! What I needed, wanted, had to have!
In this season, as the Lord has enabled me to right the proverbial “ship” of my life, I have more than I need, and plenty left to share. Why? Not because I have a lot of money. I’ve never made very much money. It’s because I’ve learned to live below my means and trust God for what I don’t have. But it’s also because my “want list” is very short – Jesus!
He’s who I long for day and night. He’s on my mind when I’m awake and in my thoughts as I get up in the night. Sometimes weird dreams awaken me, and I ask Him where they came from and to please not allow them to turn my thoughts from Him. David Mathis had it right when he wrote: “The heart of prayer is not getting things from God but getting God.”
If you’re struggling to make ends meet, working long, hard hours, believing there’s just not enough hours in the day, will you please pause long enough to ask the Lord to give you more of Himself. Does that sound silly? “What’s He gonna do, get me a new job with fewer hours? Get me a raise so I don’t have to work as long or as hard?”
Maybe! Or He might just make a new you that learns to trust Him with every detail of your life so work comes easier and is actually more relaxing because the outcome isn’t dependent upon you, but Him working in and through you.
The heart of prayer isn’t us spending our day on our knees, it’s us spending our day in His holy presence, whatever we’re doing. He never leaves us, we just have to train our mind and heart to never leave Him. That’s when we reach the heart of what prayer is and why it’s so vital to EVERY believer.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 