There's a theme running through certain Christian publishers and it's a bit like a Cause and Effect mentality. Do this, your end result will be that. Not guaranteed, but almost a sure thing. Treat your man like this and he'll react in such-a-way. Pray this Scripture and you'll see that happen. Raise up your children in a proper, Christian home and they'll soar. Tithe and you'll have more than enough to pay your bills. You get the idea.
I just don't buy into it.
I think it's always been this way. My dad was a great believer in Oral Roberts and the returns in planting a seed. And they called it Seed Faith. Mostly related to tithing, but referring to other things as well. We like to get involved and I believe God knows that. Be part of the answer.
Had a wild thought yesterday. At least to me. (John MacArthur wonders where I've been all this time.) What if God's will, without our involvement, always comes to pass. Do people actually believe that? If really, prayer is unnecessary and what He wants will occur no matter? If our prayers are important only as giving us a belief that we are indeed part of the process, and as fellowship. Linking us to the Father. Touching base. Feeling Heaven pass through our spirits.
What if those situations that happen, when we hardly pray at all and things come about, are a result of being so tuned into God's will that we pray His desires for us, and there they are, because we're paying attention.
Those pleading prayers. I always wonder. So much energy and tears for the seemingly unattainable. Then while we might not see answers, we do get downright chummy with our Heavenly Father. Maybe He allows the real painful bits of life to draw us near, knowing comfort often puts a barrier between us and Him. Then throws in what, to us, seems miraculous, but maybe only as knowledge that He's paying attention to the small things while we wrestle with what causes such misery.
I was praying for favor in my husband's work last night, rebuking the evil one in order that His will would be sure. Got to thinking about it afterwards, and it seems almost ridiculous to pray this way. Like the devil is so powerful as to thwart His wishes. That's where the idea came of God being over all, the sovereign thing, you know. Maybe I'm a bit slow, and all of you already know this.
Life is hard. It just is. And the Book of James does make me squirm since I do not count it all joy. I don't want to suffer for Christ. I just don't. But find it such a huge blessing, even when my life smacks me upside the head, that He will give me small gifts to remind me that He's still here---in the midst. I think He's okay with me not counting it all joy, knows I'm all gnarly inside, because He made me. He made me THIS way. I take great comfort in that. Ignorant, stubborn, a wrestler with truth sometimes....not all God-given traits perhaps, yet God-allowed ones, maybe just an example of sin stretching its reach, yet something to work with. Yes, He is Sovereign.
