“Sometimes regular duty provides the context for extraordinary visions” (Wright 7).
What would it be like to be going throughout your day doing the tasks, chores, and duties that you perform every day and all of a sudden an angel of the Lord appears before you and says “Do not be afraid. The most high God has sent me to deliver to you a special message. He wills that you….” We read about accounts of this happening in the Bible, but not in our modern day and age. The Lord doesn’t do stuff like that any more we say. That was in Bible times; that was then but this is now we think.
I have a feeling that Zechariah had similar thoughts at first. When the angel of the Lord appeared to him he said: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah: your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elisabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13). Sure, Zechariah was a God fearing man but an angel of the Lord had never appeared to him before and delivered to him a message that was specifically for him and his household. This could be why Zechariah responded to the angel by saying “How can I be sure of this. I’m an old man! My wife’s not as young as she used to be, either” ( Luke 1:18).
Do you hear the doubting in Zechariah’s voice? Do you hear the struggle that is going on inside of him?
Like Zechariah, I find myself praying that the Lord will do something specific. Like Zechariah, when the Lord has chosen to bless me with it I doubt. Why? Why, do I doubt the Lord when I have been diligently seeking Him for something that I am positive is His will for me have. It’s because I am either not praying in faith and not truly believing that the Lord can and will do what I am asking of Him or I am looking for it to happen in a specific way; my way.
What I have learned and continue to learn is that God is not so much concerned with what I want. Rather, He is concerned that I become more like His Son. Sometimes not trusting Him results in consequences. Those consequences are not so much to punish me but are like reminders that the next time the Lord speaks however He chooses to I better listen and pay attention.
Bryan Baxter
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5 comments:
Bryan, you were talking about doubting God even when He just answered a prayer. "It’s because I am either not praying in faith and not truly believing that the Lord can and will do what I am asking of Him or I am looking for it to happen in a specific way; my way."
I really liked what you said about us looking to God to answer our prayer requests according to how we believe He should answer it. It is amazing how God can answer our prayers and yet we don't even know it because we are essentially placing God in the finite boxes of our minds. God is not limited to only working through avenues that we are expecting. God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.
We need to keep that in mind when we are watching God work in our lives.
><> Josh
Bryan-when you talked about prayer where we doubt because God might not answer in our way of thinking but has another better way to answer our request, that is such a true statement for me.
Most of the time I like to plan things and expect it to happen on my schedule and my way that I lack to ask God or even forget about the ultimate plan of God for my life.Proverbs 3:5-6, compare to my own understandings of my life and the future, when I acknowledged WHO is in control and WHO actually plans what is going to happen in life, takes alot of burdens and worries away from us Romans 8:28.
Lydia
Brian, You stated, "What I have learned and continue to learn is that God is not so much concerned with what I want. Rather, He is concerned that I become more like His Son. Sometimes not trusting Him results in consequences. Those consequences are not so much to punish me but are like reminders that the next time the Lord speaks however He chooses to I better listen and pay attention.
Sometimes when we read the Bible we see a lot of months or even years in one chapter, this can create somewhat of an impatient spirit in us as we want things to happen in our lives as quickly as we read them. But notice, Zacharias and Elizabeth were in their 80's when God finally did something in their life regarding a miracle. Other couples have similar experiences with out the miracle. All that to say, you hit the nail on the head when you said God is more interested with us conforming to the image of His Son.
Andy
How often have I prayed for something with doubt in my heart. It is no wonder God doesn't seem to answer my prayers as much as I think he should. Not only am I not believing myself but I am often not in alignment to his will. Maybe it i snot God who is silent but my unbelieving heart is silent to God.
I think sometimes we pray about a particular thing and then we are so busy we don’t realize that God has answered our prayer. Sometimes we want a sign from God to be sure that the decision we are making is correct and fail to look around or into His word for a clear answer to our dilemma.
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