November 14
Ezekiel 34-36
Psalm 120
Proverbs 27:13-14
James 4:1-12
Motives
“You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:2-3 NIV
Motives are tricky things. I think we don’t even recognize our true motives most of the time. Our actions may be good, but the motive behind that action can be pride or jealousy or selfishness. It is difficult to sort through all the whys and hows of our actions. And it is even more difficult to sort through those things when it comes to our prayers. Why do we really want the thing that we are asking God for? Are we coming to God like Santa Claus with a list of things we want Him to do for us? Are we coming to God because we want a relationship with Him? Is our priority to get something from Him or to get to know Him? Do we only come to Him when we have a crisis or do we spend time with Him every day? Our view of God helps to answer those questions. Some people think of God as this Supreme Being who sits on a throne somewhere in the sky who has power to wave His hand and change things on Earth. They think that if we beg or plead with Him then maybe we can talk Him into intervening on our behalf or on behalf of those we love. They don’t want to bother Him so they only go to Him when they can’t handle something on their own. When they have run out of options, they pray and bargain and plead. That is not the God described in the Bible. And that is not how prayer works. Our God is not a disconnected dictator who rules from afar. He is not a king waiting in some throne room in Heaven for us to come to Him with a deal promising to serve Him or be good or stop being bad if He does what we ask. He isn’t up in Heaven waiting to see if we can offer Him something good enough for it to be worth His while to give us what we want. That is a very misguided view of God, but I think it is all too common.
Our God loves us. He wants to be a part of everything we do. He wants to help us with every single decision. He wants to walk with us and talk with us and lead and guide us through every minute of our day. He isn’t like Santa who is up in the North Pole all year making toys and waiting for us to send Him a list of the things we want most. He is with us 365 days a year. He doesn’t just come down the chimney and leave our presents and then go back up to the North Pole. He wants to be our best friend, our mentor, and our confidante. The way that prayer works is that we have a personal intimate relationship with Him, talking to Him every day. We talk to Him about our hurts, our fears, our concerns, our anger, our dreams, and our desires. Most people go to God with an agenda. They have a problem, and they know how they want it to be fixed and they expect Him to do what they want. God rarely goes along with our plans. The purpose of prayer is not to get God to do what we want Him to do. The purpose of prayer is to take our concerns to Him and ask Him to do what is best. Submission to His agenda always brings about the best result even though it may not be the result we think we want. When we are seeking Him, then He can shape our desires so that they match His will for us. When we submit to His will, He changes our hearts so that our motives are pure, and our prayers go along with His desires for us. That happens in relationship. The better we get to know Him, the more we realize how much He loves us and that we can trust Him. The more we trust Him, the easier it is to submit to His plans and let go of our own.
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