As I was sitting in worship one afternoon in Riga, Latvia, I was watching some of my friends praying and begging God for things they have confessed to not truly believe are possible; those words from James started echoing in my ear. Obviously God was trying to tell me something. Graciously it didn't take long for God to explain himself. God wants us to ask for things – Jeremiah 33:3, "Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come." He also tells us we don't have things because we don't ask for them. James 4:2-3 describes this. Be careful with the second one though because there is the stipulation in which God will not grant your request unless it is what glorifies His name the most.� Crying out to God is not at all a bad thing, in fact it is great; pleading with your father shows intimacy.
But if there was ever a reason to not trust God, He would not be so confident and absolute in His word. I fully understand doubt, I really do, as does God. But do you really believe God is capable of doing the things you beg Him to do or do you need to see Him do them first then you will believe He is who He says He is? There is no denying God as God, Exodus 3:14, "The LORD replied to Moses, "I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE" or "I WHO I AM." Notice the period; the sentence, better yet, the statement is finished there. In Numbers 23:19 Balaam proclaims the character and demeanor of God by saying "God is not human and does not lie," change His mind, fail to act or fail to keep a promise. Our God is an absolute. God absolutely does the seemingly impossible. James 1:5-8 says the reason we don't see the results of our prayer is because we don't have enough faith and because we are selfish with our prayers. (Again, paraphrased version)
Now, back to the part about actions matching faith. In scripture it calls us to display our amount of faith by our actions. This is carefully worded to not say show our faith but to say show our amount of faith. Short version of this is something I have talked about before and can be described in one word, obedience. In the whole of the bible there is one overbearing calling to obedience. And here in this western world with distractions coming out of every crack of the nicely paved sidewalks and shinning off of every mirrored window of countless malls it is hard to keep focus on Gods commands. In certain places around the world, time with God can sometimes become your only activity to fill your time with. For some people, being comfortable can help their relationship with God yet for some it is another distraction.
While reading a book in Tanzania this piece of text stood out to me and hasn't left my mind since. It is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne who has an extremely exaggerated grammar choice but is nonetheless elegant.
"It was a folly, with the materiality of this daily life pressing so intrusively upon me, to attempt to fling myself back into another age, or to insist on creating the semblance of a world out of airy matter, when at every moment, the impalpable beauty of my soap-bubble was broken by the rude contact of some actual circumstances."
The reason this has stuck with me is because after watching people, myself included, become more comfortable our relationship with God has been altered. So many of us thought if we were more comfortable everything would be better, including our relationship with God; which has proven a falsehood for a significant number of people. Our actions progressively less and less match the words coming out of our mouths. Our actions don't match our faith. Prayer is a time to be intimate with the Father and learn His character better and to listen to His voice. Prayer is not meant for us to challenge God and His ability simply to be proven wrong so we might have slightly more faith than we had prior to the prayer.
Anyways, this is all I know. I believe in the word of God and the instructions He has placed in the bible. I fail miserably at most attempts to be Christ like but I am going to continue trying.
As He leads me,
Jason
