Category Archives: Submitting to God

God’s Wish List

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Every Tuesday morning I meet with several other women for a scheduled prayer time around what we call an altar. Actually it’s just a Formica-topped table, but to us it represents a place where God is present in powerful ways.

Table

During our time together we claim his promise to hear our prayers and then one-by-one hand him 200+ requests, each one with a name and situation connected to it. After everything has been covered, nearly 3 hours has passed.

Faithful prayer can be hard work.

But God steadily rewards that work with glimpses of the wonders he’s performing, some the culmination of years of prayer, others a total surprise party. We’ve watched him heal terminal diseases, reconcile warring spouses, save lost souls, rearrange careers, shelter refugees, sell houses, and much, much more.

All of us have mental wish lists of what we’d like to see happen within our families, our schools, our friendships, the government, and our world. We want harmony in relationships, financial security, satisfying careers, and global peace…. for starters.

None of us has trouble knowing what we want, but what does God want? Sometimes we have trouble being sure of that. Although he invites us to bring our concerns, he puts restrictions on which ones he’ll answer in the affirmative.

Scripture says, “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)

Big “if”.

He’s saying, “If you ask according to God’s will, you’ll get what you ask for. Outside of that, no guarantees.”

For example, we can pray for a raise at work, but God doesn’t promise a yes. It’s possible he will give it, but he might prefer instead to produce spiritual riches through the experience of financial hardship.

As our little band of praying women thought about all this, we decided the only way to be sure we weren’t wasting time on Tuesday mornings was to pray “according to his will,” and thankfully Scripture lets us know what that is.

20 topics

So we chose 400 verses from the Bible, 20 for each of 20 different topics, each one in accordance with God’s will for all people. We put them on cards stored in mugs, ready for pulling during prayer times. Based on the needs, we ask for:

  • Perseverance
  • Discernment
  • Faithfulness
  • Gratitude
  • Hope
  • Reconciliation
  • Obedience
  • Forgiveness
  • Redemption
  • Love
  • Patience
  • Healing
  • Peace
  • Wisdom
  • Strength
  • Protection
  • Salvation
  • Joy
  • Servant-hood
  • Trust

And because God wants to develop these things in all of us, he faithfully says yes.

“The Lord said…. I am watching over my word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:12)

Is ignorance bliss?

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Last night I wrote a blog about “staying green” through life’s changes, even into old age, being mindful that God wants us to “bear fruit” no matter how old we grow.

Green leaves

In hunting online for an illustrative photo of green leaves, I found a pretty one that struck my fancy and used it in the blog. Although quite a few comments were left, no one caught the fact that the picture I posted happened to be marijuana leaves.

I didn’t realize that, but it turns out the younger generation caught it (my kids) and asked if I was trying to send a secret message through my choice. After all, of the thousands of green-leaf-photos that popped up on Google, that was the one I picked.

Although medical marijuana is legal in Michigan, I can honestly say I’ve never tried it, not for medicinal purposes or any other. As for recognizing its leaves, I haven’t been to a marijuana farm, and didn’t know what the plants looked like. Ignorance ruled.

When I think of my limited knowledge of marijuana plants, I’m aware that there are more things in this world that I don’t know than I do. Among those topics are God the Father, Son, and Spirit. I may know some things about them, but these three Beings are so complicated and have such depth to them that what I do know is barely bare-minimum.

The Bible tells of a remarkable example of ignorance within an unusually godly man who thought he was knowledgeable about the Almighty. It was Job. He didn’t understand why God had allowed his successful life to take a sudden turn for the worse and had some questions for him. Since God had referred to him as “blameless,” maybe Job figured it would be ok to ask.

But the Lord stopped him cold: “Who is questioning my wisdom with such ignorance?”

Ignorance

Job answered, “It is I — and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.” (Job 42:3)

(I can relate.)

God follows that with a heated lecture detailing some of the unfathomable things he can do that Job not only can’t do but can’t even understand. And as we read through that long list, we nod in agreement with God. The Father, Son, and Spirit (and their ways) are, as Job says, “too wonderful” for us to understand. Next to them, we’re ignorant.

Yet despite that, the Trinity has chosen to share some of themselves with us, making a special effort to explain the intense love they feel for us. I may be ignorant, but “love” I understand. I also comprehend that this love makes all the difference in the world, both in this world and the next.

And ignorant or not, I know one thing: bliss is coming.

“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27)

 

Everything We Need

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We often hear Christians say, “God provides for my every need.” How can this be true when we see so much that’s still wrong in this world like poverty, abuse, and orphaned children? What about terminal disease?

Although these questions seem logical, maybe they’re the wrong ones. It might be better to say, “Can we point to situations where compassionate people are helping the poor? Do we see God placing orphaned children into families? Are there avenues of support for people fighting illnesses?”

The answers ought to be rooted in the good deeds of those who want to please God and people at the same time. And isn’t that the definition of godliness?

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Waterford bowl

More than 20 years ago, Nate gave me a beautiful Waterford crystal bowl. It came in a velvet-lined box and included a small booklet explaining the symbols cut into the glass. I don’t know if the Waterford people meant for this piece to be a lesson in godliness, but it certainly could be.

Although the explanatory booklet is long gone and neither the Waterford web site nor my Facebook friends could help me interpret the symbols, here’s one set of possibilities:

  • The heart = God is love (1 John 4:8)
  • The dove = the Holy Spirit (John 1:32)
  • The sun = Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2)
  • The wheat = prosperity (Psalm 147:13-15)
  • The bow = God’s promises kept (Isaiah 14:24)

The heartThe dove

A second option might be to associate the symbols with our basic human needs:

The sun

The wheat

 

 

 

The bow

  • The bundle of wheat could represent food.
  • The sun might signify the warmth of hearth and home.
  • The heart could be the love that all people crave.
  • The dove might indicate our need for inner peace in the midst of tumultuous circumstances.
  • The bow could symbolize the gift of life itself, since the other 4 items tie together to keep us alive.

Maybe the bow simply represents generosity. When I use this pretty piece, I always think of my generous husband. He knew I loved glass and made a point to give it to me, but despite the crystal being beautiful to look at, it’s good in another way, too. If I let its symbols nudge me into the godly behavior of reaching out to meet the basic needs of someone else, it can become much more than just a pretty gift.

“Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)