Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! - Psalm 90:16-17
I have recently began to live a little more expectantly. For so much of my Christian life I was unconsciously (maybe consciously) taught not to expect supernatural things from God. So we pray "if it's your will" or "Lord willing" or "please do this...unless you dont want to then do what you want." I think this is a cop out. I have come to see that at least in my own life what I was really saying was "I don't think you can answer my prayer" or "I dont think you will or even want to."
This is not the type of prayers we see in scripture, perticuallry as I have been going through the Psalms. Is this the God we are told to pray to? The God who can't answer, wont answer does not will to answer his children? This is not how Jesus taught us to pray saying in Matt 7 " ...which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" We are to ask with confidence, we are to ask expecting we are to ask assuming God desires to give good gifts, to make himself known and to glorify himself in answering our prayers and revealing his power.
Many people will respond saying the God doesn't do everything we ask - only according to his will. I would agree. But if I know Jesus, I will pray more and more according to his will and if I trust Jesus I will praying knowing he will respond in a way that DOES answer my prayer in a way that DOES bring him glory and accomplish his will. God's will should be a safe guard against our ignorance not a hindrance to our asking.
I have started to realize I pray week prayers. I pray me-centered prayers. I pray for God to give me the ability to answer my own prayers and accomplish my own will. The Spirit has been lovingly showing me my sinfulness in prayer. My unbelief in the gospel in prayer. My misunderstanding of grace and my projected fatherly issues attached to my prayers.
But God is a loving Father who desires to give good gifts. A mighty God who seeks to make himself known. A jealous lover who longs to save us from ourselves and sin.
What if we prayed like God could answer, would answer and wanted to answer? What if I prayed expecting his good, trusting is promises and pleading for his action so that we would see his glory, so that the world would see his power so that I could experience his love.
I'm starting to pray like that- honestly it's a little scary. It's a little odd. It's pretty exciting.
