The Short Prayer List . . . 2 thessalonians 1:11-12
Sometimes I have a tendency to create a wish-list for God as if I were going to the shopping mall at Christmas time to sit on Santa's lap and ask for all the toys that I've seen advertised on television. Sometimes those are things that I think would be good or helpful in one sense or another like maybe praying for someone's health, or traveling "mercies", or that someone get off of drugs or other addictions, or that God would ease the pain someone is going through in a hurtful relationship or an unfulfilling career . . . all these would seem to be things that I might wish that God would change.
But if I really could see from God's heavenly perspective as to what is the best plan that God has for everyone's lives, then maybe I wouldn't be praying for healing if I knew that God was using the illness or sickness or physical impairments to draw that person closer to God in their spiritual walk. Or maybe the drug dependency and prison is being used by God to break the strong will of the addict into seeing Jesus' saving mercy. Or that God is using the difficult trials of life to strengthen a person's character into Christlikeness.
So if I don't fully see how God is working in my life and other people's lives, if I am prone to petition God on things where His plan and purpose are too great for me to comprehend, then what can I pray for someone with assurance that God will listen and heed? I can and ought to pray in accordance with His Holy Word.
Paul demonstrated that in his prayer for the saints at the church in the town of Thessalonika. Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 thessalonians 3:11-12
I can always pray for these three things. I can pray: (1) that a person will develop and maintain a spiritual walk worthy of that person's calling from God; (2) that the spiritual walk will fulfill all the good pleasure of God's goodness; and (3) that the person's spiritual walk will be manifested with faith and power to the glory of God Almighty.
© S. Chan, 2004. All rights reserved.
But if I really could see from God's heavenly perspective as to what is the best plan that God has for everyone's lives, then maybe I wouldn't be praying for healing if I knew that God was using the illness or sickness or physical impairments to draw that person closer to God in their spiritual walk. Or maybe the drug dependency and prison is being used by God to break the strong will of the addict into seeing Jesus' saving mercy. Or that God is using the difficult trials of life to strengthen a person's character into Christlikeness.
So if I don't fully see how God is working in my life and other people's lives, if I am prone to petition God on things where His plan and purpose are too great for me to comprehend, then what can I pray for someone with assurance that God will listen and heed? I can and ought to pray in accordance with His Holy Word.
Paul demonstrated that in his prayer for the saints at the church in the town of Thessalonika. Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 thessalonians 3:11-12
I can always pray for these three things. I can pray: (1) that a person will develop and maintain a spiritual walk worthy of that person's calling from God; (2) that the spiritual walk will fulfill all the good pleasure of God's goodness; and (3) that the person's spiritual walk will be manifested with faith and power to the glory of God Almighty.
© S. Chan, 2004. All rights reserved.