God brought me to this scripture years ago....and again brings it to me today! I am so thankful for His faithfulness! He truly loves us and wants the best for us! We need to be obedient, regardless of how hard it is and how we feel!
Eternity is along time to think about what we should have done, is it worth it?
THE PRAYER OF UNBELIEF
You’ve heard of the prayer of faith. I believe there is a mirror image of
this prayer, a prayer that is based on flesh. I call it the prayer of unbelief.
I want to pose a question to you. Have you ever heard the Lord tell you,
“Quit praying—get up off your knees”? Has his Spirit ever commanded you,
“Stop crying, and wipe your eyes. Why are you on your face before me?”
The Lord spoke these very words to Moses: “The Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto me?” (Exodus 14:15). The literal Hebrew meaning of
the verse is, “Why are you shrieking at me? Why all the loud pleading in my
ears?”
Why would God say this to Moses? Here was a godly, praying man, in the crisis
of his life. The Israelites were being chased by Pharaoh, with no escape. Most
Christians would probably react as Moses did. He set out for an isolated
hillside and got alone with the Lord. Then he poured out his heart in prayer.
When God heard Moses shrieking, he told him, “Enough.” Scripture is not
explicit about what follows. But at that point God might have said, “You have
no right to agonize before me, Moses. Your cries are an affront to my
faithfulness. I’ve already given you my solemn promise of deliverance. And
I’ve instructed you specifically on what to do. Now, stop crying.”
As we face our own crises, we may convince ourselves, “Prayer is the most
important thing I can do right now.” But a time comes when God calls us to
act, to obey his Word in faith. At such a time, he won’t allow us to retreat
to a wilderness to pray. That would be disobedience and any prayers would be
offered in unbelief.
The prayer of unbelief takes into account only God’s goodness. It ignores the
severity of his holy judgments. Paul writes, “Behold therefore the goodness
and severity of God” (Romans 11:22). The apostle purposely mentions God’s
goodness and severity in the same breath here. He’s saying one can’t be
separated from the other.
In the Old Testament, Isaiah stated it this way: “Behold, the Lord’s hand
is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot
hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your
sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are
defiled with blood” (Isaiah 59:1–3).
Beloved, God didn’t change between the Old Testament and the New. He’s a
God of love and mercy, as Isaiah points out. But he still hates sin because
he’s holy and just. That’s why he told Israel, “I can’t hear you
because of your sin.”
Consider the words of the psalmist David: “I cried unto him with my mouth,
and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord
will not hear me: but verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice
of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away [ignored] my prayer”
(Psalm 66:17–20).
The psalmist is saying, “I saw there was iniquity in my heart and I refused
to live with it. So I went to the Lord to get cleansed. Then he heard my
prayer. But if I had held on to my sin, God wouldn’t have listened to my
cry.”
~David Wilkerson
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
""Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds"".
~ Albert Einstein
You’ve heard of the prayer of faith. I believe there is a mirror image of
this prayer, a prayer that is based on flesh. I call it the prayer of unbelief.
I want to pose a question to you. Have you ever heard the Lord tell you,
“Quit praying—get up off your knees”? Has his Spirit ever commanded you,
“Stop crying, and wipe your eyes. Why are you on your face before me?”
The Lord spoke these very words to Moses: “The Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto me?” (Exodus 14:15). The literal Hebrew meaning of
the verse is, “Why are you shrieking at me? Why all the loud pleading in my
ears?”
Why would God say this to Moses? Here was a godly, praying man, in the crisis
of his life. The Israelites were being chased by Pharaoh, with no escape. Most
Christians would probably react as Moses did. He set out for an isolated
hillside and got alone with the Lord. Then he poured out his heart in prayer.
When God heard Moses shrieking, he told him, “Enough.” Scripture is not
explicit about what follows. But at that point God might have said, “You have
no right to agonize before me, Moses. Your cries are an affront to my
faithfulness. I’ve already given you my solemn promise of deliverance. And
I’ve instructed you specifically on what to do. Now, stop crying.”
As we face our own crises, we may convince ourselves, “Prayer is the most
important thing I can do right now.” But a time comes when God calls us to
act, to obey his Word in faith. At such a time, he won’t allow us to retreat
to a wilderness to pray. That would be disobedience and any prayers would be
offered in unbelief.
The prayer of unbelief takes into account only God’s goodness. It ignores the
severity of his holy judgments. Paul writes, “Behold therefore the goodness
and severity of God” (Romans 11:22). The apostle purposely mentions God’s
goodness and severity in the same breath here. He’s saying one can’t be
separated from the other.
In the Old Testament, Isaiah stated it this way: “Behold, the Lord’s hand
is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot
hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your
sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are
defiled with blood” (Isaiah 59:1–3).
Beloved, God didn’t change between the Old Testament and the New. He’s a
God of love and mercy, as Isaiah points out. But he still hates sin because
he’s holy and just. That’s why he told Israel, “I can’t hear you
because of your sin.”
Consider the words of the psalmist David: “I cried unto him with my mouth,
and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord
will not hear me: but verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice
of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away [ignored] my prayer”
(Psalm 66:17–20).
The psalmist is saying, “I saw there was iniquity in my heart and I refused
to live with it. So I went to the Lord to get cleansed. Then he heard my
prayer. But if I had held on to my sin, God wouldn’t have listened to my
cry.”
~David Wilkerson
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
""Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds"".
~ Albert Einstein
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