Why do we ask the sovereign, all-wise God to do things for us? Well, for one, Christians are commanded to pray. We clearly understand Christians cannot glorify God without prayer, for prayer is the means by which we communicate with God. Followers of Jesus reveal their dependence upon God through the activity of prayer. We worship God as we pray. We crucify their flesh through prayer. We hear God’’s voice if we are patient and persistent in prayer. Christians develop a heart like Christ’s as we spend time in prayer over periods of months, years, and decades. Prayer allows us to be seasoned with the character of Christ and we experience indescribable interaction with Him which truly transforms us into the image of God’s own Son. There are also the practical ramifications of prayer: PRAYER BRINGS RESULTS. James taught us that the effective prayers of righteous people achieve much. Yet my question concerns the bottom line of why Christians ask God to do things. These two passages intrigue me as I think on these things:
“LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, He is the God; the LORD, He is the God.” – 1 Kings 18:36-39
“It is time for You, LORD, to work: for they have made void Your word.” – Psalm 119:126
Forgive me but I want to see God do great things in my lifetime…and through my life. I long for a display of His omnipotent hand that stops the mouths of us all. I ache to be astounded by God in my generation. Though I appreciate the testimonies of those older than me concerning “what God once did”, I am utterly dissatisfied with flipping the pages of some spiritual memory book and reminiscing about past experiences with God. I am asking Him to do things now. But why?
Elijah’’s prayer above along with the Psalmist’s declaration which follows remind me why I should ask God to do great things. It is not for entertainment value. It is not so I can feel proud when God acquiesces to my request and reveals that He was listening to my voice. It is not merely for the pragmatic component of getting things done. There is really only one reason for me to ask God to great things in me, around me, and through me. The answer will dissatisfy many because it is not man-oriented. It has nothing to do with us. Here’s the reason…
So people will know who He is, and that He is.
We ask God to great things so that people’s attention will be gained and, once gained, there will be opportunity for us to say, “This is our God, and He is great.” The Psalmist cried out that God must do something so that people will no longer invalidate His Word (see above, Psalm 119:126). He knew that people were dismissing the eternal counsel and revelation of God Almighty and they had reached a point where God would need to do some work to counteract the devastating potential of despising His holy law. “Do something, O God!” he cried. This cry is not one of an impatient believer but one of a person who is thirsting for righteousness. In the 1 Kings passage Elijah was living among people who once held closely to their covenant with God. Now they had prostituted themselves at the altar of sensuality and idolatry. They had relegated God to some distant and dusty corner of their hearts. They brought home their lover (Baal) to eat at the same table as their Husband (Yahweh) and expected God to accept this. Elijah saw this crisis in Israel and laid his neck on the line. He set up some circumstances upon which God would reveal to his apostate brethren that God was God and Baal was a satanic deception of the heart who could not hear, could not move, and could not supply power in the contest of deities. Elijah says, in effect, ‘‘Enough of this blasphemous folly. God, they have denied you long enough. They have defied you one day too many. I am your servant and I will gather them together and I humbly call upon you to vindicate your most holy name in the presence of these godless priests and politicians. Do this, O Lord, for they have sullied their Savior!” Then the fire fell. The matter had been settled.
I’m asking for the fire of God to fall, brethren. I fully expect that it will. I am nothing but a voice calling out to God but I believe that He has prompted me to do so because He intends to do something undeniably Godlike. I am asking Him to reveal Himself to a backslidden, lukewarm, man-pleasing, alloyed church which no longer expects Him to be God. The church today politely apologizes for His absence because we don’t really think the God of Elijah is the same God we serve today. Since He is not showing up we do some clever religious maneuvers, bring in the lights, pat on the consecrated cosmetics and read the script. We have lost the boldness of the Psalmist who called on God to do something to wake up a slumbering people. I’ll say it strongly and then I’ll cease and desist: if God is not going to do something undeniable on Earth in my lifetime, then I prefer to die today and go to be with Him in a place where He is never denied or defied. I ache to see His glory and nothing else will satisfy the Christian’s soul.
Posted in FAITH
(To the Welsh tune “Trewen”)
We weep for Thy glory , O Lord –
Thine honour is now in the dust .
Around us we see nought but greed ,
Idolatry , hatred , and lust .
The church is beset on all sides
By cults and false teaching and sin ;
Division , formality , and
Hypocrisy rampant within .
The power to save souls is withdrawn ,
The glory no longer at hand ;
Eternity distant from view ,
Forgotten by most in our land .
The name of the Lord is a curse ,
The day of the Lord is ignored ;
The word of the Lord is despised ,
Thy people complacent or bored .
‘Tis not for our own sake we ask –
The glory is ever Thine own ;
Yet hear O Jehovah our prayer ,
For pow’r and Thy presence we groan .
Those called by Thy name come to Thee ;
We humbly would pray , and would seek ,
Repenting of our wicked ways –
O hear Thou the cry of the weak .
O wilt Thou not hear and forgive ?
Come down , O Thou Saviour Divine !
Rend hearts and rend heaven and come
To purify , chasten , refine .
Thy people are feeble and frail –
But Thou art unchanging above .
We long to see Gods hand at work –
Revive us in grace and in love !
© David Price 1996
I need more humility like a child to stop caring about what others around me think and bring myself to a place that all I care about is bringing praise to Jesus and the Father. I feel at time I lose this. With Gods help I’m going to stop caring, lift up my hands, and let tears stream down my face if it pleases Him. When Jesus said this, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it,” He meant it and I am trying to grasp that. Life gets in the way and I get disappointed over and over and I lose the expectation that God will show up and do something great and I will see it because He wants me to, I want to be like a child fully expecting and trusting and believing there is hope and miracles are real. In Church there is a sense that many but not all are too embarrassed to fully worship because some other sinner might see them and judge or laugh. I want to be like a child and have the intellectual honesty that they do and not care about what anyone else thinks but only about God and my Savior Jesus. I want to worship in the Spirit and not in the flesh, I have felt it before and now I long for it again and again, and I know God will pour out His Spirit upon us all if we can all get past this garbage in life and be more like a child looking up with eyes filled with expectation, hope, and trust. Forgive me for my ranting confession. I may even be far off from the whole point. I have much to learn and much to be grown in by God Himself so thank you Jeff for following the Lords lead and being humble at every turn and teaching Biblically.
I love your passion for the Lord, Jeff! I agree with everything you’ve said and want the same thing. You have described why I have such difficulty with the modern church: it is on fire for most anything but the Lord himself. Such a waste of resources, such a wound to God’s heart, such ineffectiveness in pointing both the church and the world to their Creator. I don’t know if I’ll live to see it but I believe God will reshape the modern church to once again be on fire for Him. It will be a great “calling out” and those called will create something new that does not obscure our Lord so that His Church and the world will know that He is the great I AM!