Pray It Through: A Loving God’s Response to Our Requests

What are you asking of God today? What is He giving you? Do your requests match His responses? If so, have you noticed that He gives beyond what you asked for? And if they don’t match, have you noticed that He gives you even better things than you asked?

We live in a world of want. Whether it is the homeless man starving on the street or the CEO desiring a larger yacht, we all feel a desire for more than we have. I find this to be true of all humans at all times, independent of social status or upbringing, independent of life experience or education, independent even of character. Though some display and may even feel more want than others, I find this base desire to be present in even the holiest of mortal men. They may conquer it through the Holy Spirit, but it is still an intrinsic part of our flesh.

The root of this want is likely our separation from our holy Creator God. The homeless, starving man does not know he is starving in the pure presence of God (which will only be experienced by men in Heaven), and furthermore, he no longer is homeless or starving in the pure presence of God. Regardless of your perspective, the want is gone. The same is true for the CEO who wants even more, if he is so blessed to be brought to a place in which he turns to Jesus as his Savior. “It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven…” (Matt 19:23). There is much to this truth that I will not indulge in tonight, but one aspect of the rich man’s difficulty is that he has distanced himself from his most basic neediness that gets man in touch with his only true need, God Himself.

The same is true in the Church. And in fact, God has beckoned His children to ask things of Him throughout time. One of the greatest examples is Solomon. Solomon had the opportunity to ask of God whatever he wanted and receive it. Let me stop right now, and ask the question of you: If God told you He would grant you one thing, in addition to the salvation that you have already received as a child of God, what one thing would you ask of Him?

1 Kings 3:9-13 – “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
10 The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. 13And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days.”

Those who know Solomon’s story might jump into the question above with the idea of answering just as Solomon did. I would caution that although Solomon asked for a great thing, that is not necessarily specifically what God would prefer that you as an individual ask of Him. Treat the question seriously: What one thing will you ask of God? Seek His face, seek to be transformed into righteousness, and ask in sincerity with faith, and He will give you what your heart truly desires.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4

I would like to build upon the prayer request that we just formulated by examining the interaction of God and Solomon and seeing its application to us this very day. You see, Solomon did not ask for earthly wealth and riches, but that is what he received. He did not ask for greatness, but that is what he received. And in addition, he received a greater gift, that which he asked for: God’s wisdom. In this I see the generosity of God to give “exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20). And in addition, I see the power of a prayer when our hearts are truly set on God and not ourselves, delighting ourselves in the Lord, and therefore receiving the desires of our hearts: God Himself. (For more thoughts on this, see “Delight yourself in the Lord, and…”)

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you.” – Matt 6:33

I challenge you: whatever physical thing you are asking from God, take the request to the next level, just as Solomon did. Solomon likely desired riches and greatness, but he took his request to the next level, asking for Godly wisdom, and God responded by giving him all of these things. God’s response shows that He knows the heart of men! He knows that Solomon and every other man and woman desires well-being, greatness, and good and pleasant things. And so He poured out His kingdom on Solomon, giving him Godly wisdom as a main course or centerpiece, and adding to it the side dishes or garnishes of earthly riches and greatness.

Do you seek physical healing? I encourage you to take your request to the next level and ask for healing of your sinful heart and unrighteousness. Do you seek relationship with others, whether it be a spouse, friends, or family? I encourage you to take your request to the next level and ask for deeper knowledge and intimate relationship with Christ Himself. Do you seek to excel in your career? In encourage you to seek and request of God the highest position in heaven, which is the lowest of positions on earth as servant (“The last shall be first and the first shall be last,” Matt 19:30). Do you seek wealth? In encourage you to request of God heavenly riches stored up through trial and suffering and perseverance in Christ. I have a rare guarantee for you: God will absolutely answer these prayers with a resounding “Yes!” and you will please your Father in Heaven so abundantly! How then will He hold back the Kingdom of Heaven from you, His sincere servant after His own heart?

A note about sincerity. The above is certainly no formula. Take this as a formulaic approach without sincerity and you will by no means receive the greatest blessings that God wishes for you to ask and receive. However, if you are sincere, these things are yours. Perhaps with that conviction, you and I should start with the same prayer and ask for a heart that would change such that these prayers would actually be sincere. I believe this will please God, as well, and begin us both down the path of His good and pleasing will.

You see, I know something as your Christian brother. When we ask for physical healing or meaningful earthly relationships, when we ask for success and wealth, we attempt to express our deepest needs to God, but we do so inadequately. How great is our God, though?! Because in our meager attempts to dig at the root of our desires, failing to see that what we really want is Him, He sees and knows what we really need and want deepest in our souls…and that is just what He gives.

Luke 11:9-13 - “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

You see, when you ask God for a good thing that pleases Him, He gives it. And I see it one step further, especially as it relates to the rest of this conviction: We know that if we ask for bread (a good thing in God’s sight), He doesn’t give us a stone (a lesser thing in God’s sight). But I submit to you that when we are so blind in our humanness apart from God, such that we ask for a stone, He knows that we really need the bread, and that is what He gives anyway! Now, perhaps we are not ready to receive it just yet and we would actually reject the delicious heavenly bread, in whatever form it appears in our lives. But God continues to work in our hearts until we can receive that bread. His work is ongoing and He never ceases to do good work in you and me. It is simple, yet essential that He has given us the power to reject Him, and in that the power to choose Him. This is the essence of love: to choose someone when you have the power to reject them. After all, this is exactly what God has done for us in His love and grace in the wake of our sin. Without this choice given to us, there is no love to be shared and we are just robots. Though many will call the concept of freewill problematic, we can see clearly that freewill presents both extremes: eternal separation from God, or eternal closeness to God in love…in both cases, the result of our choosing. To eliminate the possibility of Hell is to eliminate the possibility of Heaven as it exists and has been designed as our dwelling place—love with God, of God, from God, and all because of the ability to choose Him and be chosen.

And so I implore you: choose God through His Son Jesus, seek His face in sincerity through the Word and prayer, search the desires of your heart and elevate them to a standard of righteousness. Take your physical needs and examine their parallels with your spiritual needs, then focus on the spiritual, attacking your deficiency in prayer. I know what awaits any man or woman who is in this place: the powerful, sweeping arm of God granting His will in the life of His servants in the most pleasing of ways. I pray that God’s power is so displayed in your life this very year, "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6). Amen.

Tithing – More Than Just Money?

If you have grown up in the church or have spent a long period of time there, you likely know the concept of tithing. As a refresher and for those who are eager to learn greater depth of their faith in Jesus and the Almighty God of the Bible, tithing is a basic concept prescribed for followers of God in the Old Testament and is certainly pleasing to God to this day. You can look up Lev 27:30-34 (and many others) to find where God made this requirement of His people.

Moreover, check out Mal 3:8-10 –

“’Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

That is very cool, as it is the only place in the Bible that I know of where God actually says to test Him, and what a great promise that follows.

Historically, economies were much more largely based upon the barter and trade system and less on common currency, so many people tithed of their crops, farm animals, or items they made and sold. Today, we mostly tithe of our incomes. In either case, we tithe of our wealth, whether it be money earned or possessions that constitute our means of survival and provision for ourselves and our families. It puts God first and us second, which is only natural, and is an expression of well-placed gratitude. Ask those who tithe and they can attest to the promise of Mal 3:10 being true.

The other day I got hit with another inconvenient conviction: what if we tithed not just of our money, but of our time? Immediately, I felt that familiar inner conflict, and as I did the math, I quickly decided that it might be too tough to consistently uphold such a commitment. But God wouldn’t let it go, so I am bringing this inconvenient conviction to you: what if you and I decided to tithe of our time for our Lord?

Here’s what it might look like: I’m going to throw out sleep and assume the average night’s sleep of 7 hours (individuals may vary). A week has 168 hours, less the 49 hours of average sleep, leaving 119 hours of work time, plus free time, plus all the other time we are awake. What if we tithed of that 119 hours each week? What if we spent 12 hours dedicated to our all-powerful Provider and all-loving Savior? After all, even 10% seems like a meager offering to a God who is to be my everything, to whom I am to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17). In fact, I’m getting convicted again that for most of us that call ourselves Christians, we spend only 1-2% of our weeks in time dedicated to God (1.5 hour church service only). Then we wonder why we have a hard time hearing him and why we feel distant at times and why we struggle with sin in the world around us. If only 2% of ourself is dedicated to God, then what is the other 98% dedicated to?

Now, if 12 hours of real, solid, genuine time dedicated to God each week sounds hard, I understand. You are not alone, for I have been a 2 percent-er for much of my life. So let’s examine a strategy together. Firstly, if you go to church each week, that is probably about 1.5 hours. If you attend a small group, that’s probably another 2 hours. So in that case, we’re already up to 3.5 hours and almost a third of the way there in our normal routine! That’s encouraging. So how do we get to 10%? I propose doing it in small steps. I want to challenge you: this week, commit to 5% of your time dedicated to God. This might be service opportunities, personal prayer time or Bible study, church related activities, or anything else that you can in good conscience offer to the Lord with a pure heart as your time set aside for Him. Each week, add another percent or another hour, working your way to 10%. Once there, it might look like this: 1.5 hours for church, 2 hours for small group, 1 hour each week day in dedicated prayer time or Bible study, and 3.5 hours of time on your weekends for serving or more prayer and Bible study or whatever God leads you to do (when you start seeking things, you’ll find them popping up at or beyond your full capacity to participate in them). Find your own plan that works for you, understanding that some flexibility from week to week will be necessary. I also encourage you to find 1 or 2 “accountability partners,” among whom you can each report, not only to stay the course but also to share the joy of the experience.

Before we dive in, let’s be careful to get something straight. This plan in no way makes you more loved or more “right with God” in and of itself. Do not let the desire to complete the goal get in the way of the purpose behind it: seeing Jesus. Seeing Jesus more personally and meaningfully each day is the desired outcome. Some will be too burdened by this challenge for it to be beneficial. That’s ok. This is certainly not a requirement of God’s. However, it is an opportunity as much as it is a challenge. It is true that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20-22), for true faith is belief that results in action. However, the converse is also true—action with a “quid pro quo,” or “this for that,” attitude is faithless, concerning the salvation of Jesus Christ, in whom belief leads to everlasting life and cannot be earned by any number of good works in themselves (I would cite verses, but this is basically the entire New Testament.).

And I know something that will happen to you as you approach this challenge in sincerity and with eyes fixed upon Jesus. Firstly, you will have weeks where you fail to reach your goal. Don’t worry, just get right back up and try for the next week. Secondly, at first this will be hard. It will at times feel like pure joy in discovering God in ways you didn’t know before, but it will at times also feel like strict obedience that you have a very difficult time upholding. Here’s the great part: at some point down the road, if you stay consistent and sincere, it will begin to feel less and less like a burden, and more and more like your highest priority in each week. The experience with God and closeness through time spent with Him and for Him is rivaled by nothing else in this world. You will begin to miss it when you have a busy week and can’t get the time, and you will begin to cherish the weeks where you spend the most time with Him, forgetting that it was ever a burden in the beginning.

So don’t be discouraged as you set out on this journey. I encourage you to start small and stay small, such that your commitment matches your sincerity and practical ability to meet the goal. Also, I encourage you to push just slightly past your comfort zone. If you say, “I already do 8 hours each week and could do 9,” go for 9.5 hours. If you’re currently at 1.5 hours each week with no confidence in any additional time, take just 30 additional minutes one day of the week for starters. Ultimately, your hour log doesn’t matter, and unless you are a statistics lover or find organization in writing such things down, I would suggest not even writing down your time. Keep it in your head one week at a time, not keeping a record of past weeks, and try not to be any more legalistic than matches your genuine sincerity, which is the desire to know God. Do not do this in order to meet requirements that make you feel good and as though you’ve gained favor through things you’ve done. Do it not to gain favor, but to draw near to the Lord. If this is your simple motivation, it will be your simple, yet incomprehensibly powerful and joyful outcome.

The overarching point is that we can each spend more time with God. Use your commute to work to talk everything out with Him. It may feel like you’re doing all the talking for a while—that’s ok, start there. In time, you’ll begin to learn how to listen. I think every morning when you wake up, God looks expectantly at you, eagerly awaiting your conversation. Do you even acknowledge Him as you “pass by?” Do you sort of nod or give a muffled “hello?” Do you stop and have a brief conversation, showing obviously by your posture that you’re busy and should be on your way and cannot spend time on Him? Do you perhaps actually sit down to have a meaningful conversation, knowing that He cares about your every care and is listening? Do you ever ask Him what’s bothering Him or giving Him joy and listen to His heart? Perhaps wherever we are on this spectrum, we should each desire to move to the next level tomorrow morning. Then in no time move to the next level. Or if you’re very convicted, sit down with Him right now, as with a best friend or dearest loved one. Just be yourself—He already knows and loves you. See if you can hear Him in those moments, or in reading the Word, or in those you encounter around you as you come to know His heart. Speak it back to Him for concurrence. I think you’ll find an amazing new friend, an amazing providing Father, and an amazing life-changing Savior who is “with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).

More ideas: if you find singing, or writing, or creating or any other gift an effective outlet of your worship, do those things in your 10% time offering to Him. Write Him a note, a letter, or a song. Sing to Him your favorite hymn or just make up your own words and tune, if you are so musically talented. Draw pictures of how you see Him and His relationship to you and those around you. Make something with your hands that is beautiful, if you are gifted by Him to do so, and give it to Him as an offering, perhaps as a gift to another friend or a stranger. I don’t know how you might worship and love Him, but I know He has gifted us each in specific ways and would be touched in His heart to receive such genuine gifts of our hearts and talents poured out back to Him.

Think of the child who has been given Christmas money by their parents. This child goes out and spends 90% of it on him or herself, but they take 10% and buy something heart-felt and meaningful for their parents out of love and appreciation. Would that parent’s heart not about melt in love? Or perhaps a mother taught her child how to paint, and the child immediately paints a picture of the two of them holding hands with a heart between them. How great that mother must feel. Or the father who shows his son how to fish at a young age, then when the son grows old, he begins to take his father fishing. That father will cherish a moment like that forever. When we turn back around the gifts of our parents, they are overjoyed…not by the gift, but by the sincere loving heart of their child.

Wouldn’t you love to make God feel that way today with even the smallest of gifts from your heart?

"Love your neighbor as yourself." An Inconvenient Conviction

Think about Jesus' statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 10:31) It can only be meaningful if the love of ourselves is quite extensive. If we did not love ourselves, then the command would be to not love others, or love them only so much, only as much as we love ourselves. However, I believe the truth is that for the vast majority of us, we have a supreme love for ourselves, to the extent that it is difficult to approach a place where we would love our neighbor so much. A spouse, sibling, parents, children, etc…maybe…I hope so, but look around: even this is only a maybe. But our neighbor—beyond our family—to love them like we love ourselves.

So how much do we love ourselves and how do we show it? Many, many ways, that start with thoughts of ourselves and end in actions. But let’s look at money, for an example. The first step financially as obedient Christ followers is to do our bare minimum duty of tithing 10% (Deut 14:22-29, Lev 14:30-31, Mal 3:8-10).

Mal 3:8-10 – “"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”"

If we obediently tithe, that leaves 90% for us. Most of us would feel good about that, and this obedience does feel good, especially since God rewards that faithfulness—look at v. 10 above. This is the only part of the Bible that I know of where God actually says to test Him. So what if you give an additional 10%? Now you’re giving 20% total, and we’re feeling really good about ourselves. But we’re still spending 80% on ourselves, family members, or saving for us. So what would loving your neighbor as yourself look like with finances? I think if I love my neighbor truly as myself, I would split my income 50/50 and give half of it away to those in need. Wow, what an inconvenient conviction.

But hold on: is that the extent of it? Let’s re-examine how we were loving ourselves: giving 10% and keeping 90%. Hmmm…so loving ourselves resulted in spending 90% on ourselves. So loving others at that level might actually be sharing 90% of our wealth and keeping only 10% for ourselves. Now that seems like a near impossibility for this self-loving man.

2 Cor 9:7 – “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

God loves a cheerful giver, and giving begrudgingly hardly meets both the action and intention of the heart that so pleases God. So I encourage you to find a way to give the maximum you can as a cheerful giver. If that’s 0%, then we’ve got some praying to do. Think about this: the tithe is an Old Testament law. Now realize that Jesus said, "I did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matt 5:17) In the same passage (the Sermon on the Mount), he describes several laws and broadens their application beyond strict legalistic obedience and into our very hearts. Meaning that Jesus came to fulfill both action and intent of the law, which is supreme Love. I think we can apply this easily to tithing and come to understand being a "cheerful giver" through the law being fulfilled by love. So let’s pray together that we would take on the heart to give in love, have the opportunities visible to our sight, and be able to do it joyfully. I long to be able to love my neighbor so joyfully, so fruitfully, so selflessly. I long to love the way Jesus invites us to, the way He loves us. No matter what we do with our finances, let’s look for every opportunity to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Jesus also said, “As I have loved you, so you must also love one another” (John 13:34). Jesus’ love was a perfect love, self-sacrificing to the point of grueling death that you and I might have the chance to be saved…the chance, not even the guarantee, that we would choose to be saved by believing in Him. So after we begin to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, let’s embark on learning to love them as God loves us. This is just the slightest glimpse at how deep God’s love is for us and how much we have to grow. Thank the Lord that He is with us to do the growing, if we’ll only ask Him with a sincere heart. Amen.

The Wealthy

I started writing down all of the ways that I am rich. This stemmed from the realization that I am so rich in so many ways. Our Life Group very briefly mentioned needs the other day. I got to thinking about what my true needs are—they are relatively few. When I wrote down a need, I asked “why do I need that?” Then after thinking about the answer I asked myself, “why is that a need?” Why, why, why, until I boiled down what I thought was a need into either want, or the true need…there are very few true physical needs. The spiritual needs list is actually much longer. Then I realized how extravagantly rich I am…so I was inspired to list all of the ways I am rich, and as a follow up, all of the ways I am poor. My rich list is long. If you’re like me, you’ll have a very hard time listing many things at all that you are truly physically poor in. I have heard it reported that if you own a car, you are in something like the top 5% of wealth in the world. If you own a house, you’re well within the top 1%. I don’t know the actual percentages, but a study by Branko Milanovic (World Bank research lead economist) in 2000 reported that the average American with an income in the bottom 10% of the U.S. population “is better off than 2/3 of the world population.” The gist of the message is this—if you’re reading this, you’re rich. Instead, to find any way that I am poor, I have to turn to my attitudes and weaknesses—if I am poor, it is spiritually. But even spiritually I have lived an advantaged life. Think about it—let’s make the analogy of spiritual wealth to monetary wealth. I grew up in a Christian home and went to church my entire life. I accepted Jesus and was baptized at 6 years old. I am the spoiled rich kid, spiritually. The one who did nothing on his own, but just grew up rich and didn’t appreciate it—I grew up introduced to God all around me…and I haven’t appreciated it. Going further, those spoiled rich kids are often the ones that end up not amounting to much, except that hopefully they won’t squander their father’s wealth too quickly—they don’t know how to make money themselves. Are we numb to God’s presence in our lives? Do we even realize how abundant He is in our lives, like a spoiled rich kid? Who are the men whom we admire, concerning riches? They are certainly not those who have inherited their wealth. No, they are the men who were raised in poverty, worked toward their goals, and became very respectable, hard-working, appreciative rich men…men of transformation. Is it not the same for God’s leaders? Don’t you admire those such as Paul or C.S. Lewis, who came from the poorest of spiritual backgrounds—one a chief persecutor of Christians and one an Atheist? Don’t we admire what God did through them, the choice they made for God? They changed their life directions…just as the poor man, turned successful business man.

I don’t want to be a spoiled, rich, church kid. There are those who grew up wealthy, who paid attention to their fathers, mothers, and mentors…and continued to do great things with their wealth. “To whom much is given, much is required.” I tell you, anyone who grew up a Christian in America has been given very much—and very much is therefore required! Lose your numbness! Appreciate what you have! For there are many in this world who have not yet heard the good news of Jesus Christ—they are poor, if not monetarily, certainly spiritually. But even worse, there are those who have had ingrained in them morals and beliefs opposite those of God. Just as we are to share our monetary wealth, we are to share our spiritual wealth. We have much to share. Look at those who had no spiritual advantages and what they have done with their newfound faith—do we not have the opportunity to do that, too? We do, and we have even greater opportunity. Unfortunately, many of us have settled into a life of wealth squandering—we are used to just sitting around churches and a Christian nation, content to progress our relationship with God no further. I say we must take the investment of our forefathers and the saints, and continue their work to do even more with it! This means a shift in the way we live, for those anything like me. What will you do with your wealth?