Oh, don’t we Christians get excited thinking that we get to pray for whatever we want and we’re going to get it!?!
Wouldn’t that be nice?
Probably not. I’ve been around Christians a while, and let me just say that a group of people who can’t even agree on the color of carpet for the building in which they meet should not be praying for whatever each one wants and getting it.
We like to skip past the first part of Jesus’ words and land on the second. That whole “remain in me and my words remain in you” part often slides away without making contact with our brains, much less our attitudes and actions.
That part, however, is the IF that determines the THEN of the statement. As in, if that part isn’t true, the follow-up doesn’t happen.
We must remain in Jesus. Abide in Him. Stay. Exist. Be vitally united. As in, we can’t take a breath without Him. Along with that, His words must continue to abide vitally in us. They must be as much a part of us as our organs, living in us, providing life to us, working automatically to direct us as He would have us.
When these two conditions are met, we can ask for whatever we want and it will be done for us. What we gloss over is that these two conditions mean we will be vastly different than we are right now. We will be more like Him. We will be more in tune with the Father. We will hear His heart and know His will. Thus His desires will have become our desires and that is what we pray for.
Don’t be discouraged if you’re not there yet, Believer! Live toward it on purpose. Spend time in the Word, learning who God is. Lean into Him at every opportunity, every circumstance. Seek His face.
Remember, Jesus didn’t trust His humanity and prayed “Your will, not Mine, O God.” We are no different.
Let’s start today, diving into the Book, learning more than the words and concepts. Let’s learn the One who authored it, the One about whom it is written, and let’s move right in, abiding, living, breathing in Him.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
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Faye Bryant is an author, coach, and speaker who helps individuals escape the lies of the enemy, live into God’s truth, and build a better life by first feeling, dealing, and healing their way through a stuck future or an abused past, toward a deeper path of purpose, and into the unhackable life of their chosen legacy. Hers is a story of resurrection: from death to life!
