Monday, August 27, 2012

Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 154

Prayers of the Old Testament
The Prayer of Moses continued...

Isaiah 55:9, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

The ways of the Lord will always differ from the ways of man. The ways of the Lord will always be higher than our ways and as such our prayer must be that the Lord show us His ways, rather than accept or validate our own.

The way of the Lord is certain. There is no second guessing or confusion when we allow Him to lead us, and we follow after Him as obedient children. It is when man takes it upon himself to seek after a different way, or forge for himself a different path that confusion becomes a constant companion and second guessing a way of life.

Before the invention of the global positioning system, men and women alike actually had to rely on maps or road signs for their directions. Not that the global positioning system is a cure-all, because once in a while you hear stories of how some unfortunate soul or another ended up driving into a lake or a river because they were following their GPS. By and large however, the machine is accurate, and it will get you to your destination.

The difference between a GPS and God is that God is always accurate, and sometimes His way will lead us through places and situations where the flesh begins to scream, and reason begins to moan that if we continue to follow the course we happen to be on it will lead to nothing but heartache and sorrow. It is then that we must disregard our own senses, our own reason, and trust fully in God our Father.

We either trust God, or our flesh. We either follow the predetermined way God has set before us, or lean on our own understanding and veer of the path that has been marked and highlighted for us.

If the prayer of our heart is for God to show us His way, it’s not so we might analyze and compare it to our own path, it is not to have a second option once our first choice fails miserably, it is to follow it, and in following it we will know Him all the more.

The way of God is a holy way, it is a righteous way, and only the righteous can walk upon it, while the rebellious and duplicitous veer off and seek another way.

The way of God is singular. The way is Christ, and no man comes to the Father but by Him.

The instant we allow ourselves to be open to the possibility that there is another way to God but through Christ, we make Jesus a liar and His sacrifice of no effect.

Hence the reason we must desire wholeheartedly that His will be done in our lives, that His way be shown to us so we might walk upon it, and not attempt to impose our will upon God.

Moses prayed for God to show him His way that he might know Him, and find grace in His sight.

When we take into account that this was the selfsame man who heard God speaking to him in a burning bush, who by God’s command led His people out of Egypt, who had spent forty days in the presence of God, who spoke to God, and had a more intimate knowledge of Him than most men dare to imagine, it is humbling to see his desire remain the knowledge of God.

No man or woman living today can claim to know God on the level Moses did, yet few if any of us pray to know God more on a consistent basis.

We have other things we deem more important or time sensitive to pray about, and the knowledge of God, and the desire thereof always seems to get pushed to the back of the line, and the bottom of the list.

No matter how far along we think ourselves to be, no matter how much we know of God, there is always more of Him to be discovered. We grow in the knowledge of God by continually being in His presence, and desiring to know Him better.

When our desire is to know God, we are not distracted by other issues. We do not desire other things since our sole focus is the knowledge of Him. Once this occurs in the heart, we realize just how futile desiring anything else but Him truly is, and how much time we’ve wasted throughout the years chasing after something other than God.

Exodus 33:18, “And he said, ‘Please, show me Your glory.’

The knowledge of God stirs within us the desire to see the glory of God. There is no such thing as contentedness when it comes to our relationship with God. We never come to a point in our walk, in our knowledge of Him, or our relationship with Him, wherein we are satisfied, and desire no more. With each new revelation God pours into our hearts, with each new glimpse of Him, with each new whisper, our desire for Him and the knowledge of Him and the glory of Him only grows and intensifies.

If our desire to know more of God has waned, if we have substituted something else for wanting to see His glory, then it is incumbent upon us to search our hearts in the light of the gospel and see where we have strayed, and where we have allowed the enemy to sidetrack us, and detour our spiritual journey.

To desire to know God and His glory is the natural state of a child of God. We are neither abnormal nor aberrant in our desire for more of God in our lives. It is not wanting or desiring to know Him more, it is not wanting or desiring to see His glory that is uncharacteristic and anomalous, yet somehow we’ve twisted this aspect of our faith as we have so many others throughout the years.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

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