Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way.
I want to tell you a series of uncoordinated things that took place starting from last night all the way through this morning. I say they are uncoordinated, and they are, but they are in fact all very much related. I was laying in bed last night when I received a text from one of our members concerning her employer that she works for. Apparently, he had contracted Covid and is in very serious condition – so naturally she was requesting prayers for him, his family, and all those impacted. I immediately sent out an email and prayed for this man and his family. Then I woke up this morning, grabbed my coffee, and started catching up on some of the different pages I help to run or follow via social media. One of them is Dr. Kenny Embry’s group he started from his podcast, “Balancing the Christian Life” to which I am a subscriber and avid listener. In this group, we ask lots of different spiritual questions to generate conversation, study, and encouragement as we learn from each other. The question posed this morning was simply the following: how can we pray for you today? The idea was generated from another friend Colton McDaniel’s group on Facebook called, “Devoted to Prayer” where we do just that. Well, I was overwhelmed by the response. Immediately people started chiming in, asking for prayers for people they knew who were sick, people who had fallen away, prayers for boldness or wisdom, all kinds of things. So far there have been 28 requests, and I’m just trying to keep up with them all. Finally I got to my coffee shop to start my day off for work when I then received another text from another one of our members. She was asking for prayers as her son who they have discovered has potentially serious damage that has developed in his optic nerve and the nerve fiber for his eye. I again sent out an email, asking for the coveted prayers from out congregation. Needless to say, by mid-morning I was getting a clear sign that today I needed to talk about prayer. Just within 12 hours of each other, I became aware of well over 30 different needs and circumstances that I needed to bow my head and go to my Father with. I ended up back in a conversation with Dr. Embry a little later today discussing all of this when he asked me a really important question: “Does prayer change you, or does it change God?” I had to think about it for a few minutes. I gave him my initial answer but then I was really challenged by his response to me. “When my kids ask me for something, it's not like I couldn't see it coming. Before they ask, I know what they're going to ask for. It’s like how you love your kids…you're only going to give them good stuff. And when you say no...they need to change, not you. I think prayer changes us primarily and rarely changes God.” I started to think about this a whole lot more. We are told to ask, so in some ways our prayers certainly move God to action…but we don’t move God from his will. That is going to bring us to our text for the day the following thoughts.
Consider the following words of Jesus in Matthew 7:7-11, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or 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!” I have always loved this passage, though it is perhaps not one of the most visited places we go to when we talk about prayer. The Lord here is trying to make a point about the nature in which we pray to him and the nature with which he answers. First, he wants you to talk to him! The Lord knows what you need before you even ask him for it…so what are you waiting for? I don’t need to wait for my daughter to tell me that she needs breakfast to know that she is hungry, but when she asks for breakfast I am moved to action and start to make it for her! Second, the Lord knows exactly what we need even more than we do. Some people mistake this line dealing with asking for a fish and being given a snake to mean that God will always give you exactly what you want. No, that’s not the case. God is going to give us exactly what we need, and what he gives us is always for our good. For example, Ava might ask for breakfast, but she also might ask for a cupcake for breakfast. Being a good father who knows what she needs, I am not going to give that to her. But if she asked for something like oatmeal or cereal, I am going to give that to her every time – because she is asking according to my will and what I know is already best for her. This brings us to our second point today. How many times have you asked but not received what you asked for? The way that some people view God, it is as though he is some kind of magic genie that grants people whatever they wish. This is just not the cast. Consider John’s words in 1 John 5:14-15, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” Notice very closely what this text says. It tells us that if we ask anything according to his will that he hears us. I am again reminded of my daughter asking for a cupcake for breakfast (which actually happened this morning), I told her no. When I told her no – who needed to change: me or Ava? Because I am her father and know what is best for her, she needed to change what she was asking for. It doesn’t matter how many times she asks for a cupcake for breakfast, I’m not going to give it to her. Never mind the fact that I had French Toast sticks for breakfast, that’s another story for another time. But think about this in relation to our prayers to God. When he says no…who needs to change, us or God? Perhaps God has said no because what we are asking for is not necessarily wrong, but he knows he need something different right now. Perhaps God has said no because what we are asking for is selfish or prideful in nature. But whatever the case, our Father knows what we need…and when he says no, he doesn’t need to change his answer, maybe we need to change what we are asking for. This week as you go to God in prayer, do your very best to ensure you are praying things according to his will. And then, finally, trust that sometimes God’s answers are different than our requests and that he knows best. Allow prayer to change you and where you stand, and you might just find yourself better aligned with God’s will for you.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions that are uploaded on Saturdays. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.