God Makes His Own Decisions
So, I've been praying off and on for a particular person to join me at Bible study or something, as long as she started showing a sincere interest in growing spriritually. I had extended the offer to her on several occasions throughout this school year, and the other night she stopped by room and asked if she could come. SO, she went to Bible study with me last night, and it was so exciting! It was a really good study, and she seemed to get a lot out of it, and told me later that she was really glad she went. Praise God, God answers prayers!
But, please note that I only prayed "off and on" for this to happen. When all this came to me last night, I became embarrassed. Yes, I had prayed about it throughout the year, but I had not prayed diligently for her. And, although I prayed, I don't think I had a faith as big as I should have. But God did it anyways.
Some people might take that as "if God will do it anyways, why do I have to pray for it?" Causes some confusion doesn't it? God has His own plans, and doesn't wait on us to make His decisions. However, He also wants us involved with Him, in conversation in Him, and He wants us to be moving in His direction. When we pray diligently for something or someone, we are setting our minds on God, and putting our faith in God. And God rewards those things.
Any other thoughts on this that would clarify a point, please add them. I was having a little trouble getting my thoughts together.
love
JMM
posted by JtotheSstaff @ 3:50 PM
2 Comments:
at the crusade leadership conference one of the people gave a talk on this very topic as to why do we need to pray if God already knows what I need and He already has a plan. Well, he pretty much said the same thing you've already said BUT he phrased it as when we pray "we are aligning our will with Gods" by turning to God in prayer we are having an interactive relationship with Him through which He can better reveal His will to us. But overall prayer leads to a more intimate relationship with God, He doesnt need us to pray to Him and talk to Him for His will to be done, but it better prepares us to play a part in His will.
It could definitely be a confusing thing...i dont really have a good explanation, but here are some thoughts. First, we definitely know that God hears us. I think its a Proverbs verse (maybe Isaiah...) that says something like "The prayers of the righteous do not fall idley on God's ears". So i dont know....our prayers are powerful. I think what you said is that you didnt really feel that you had enough faith for it...which i definitely understand. It seems that sometimes God just does stuff without peoples' prayers...like how i've heard of a Muslim who had never heard of Jesus when He appeared in a vision and the Muslim eventually got saved. So that seems as if God just chose to do that...but who knows, maybe someone had been praying for Muslims in that country to be reached. So who knows, maybe there have been a bunch of people praying for that girl.
But i wouldnt underestimate the effectiveness of your prayers. Also, it seems like God might have chosen to do this to wake you (and others who hear your story) up to begin praying more diligently. Praise God for working in that girl's life!!! This is your fruit to bear, enjoy it!
Luke
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