Sunday worship 10 May
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The Word for the day yesterday quoted John 16:24
"Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full".
Expectancy is the name of the game here AND there are many examples.
"If you ask for anything in my name it will be done for you by our Father in Heaven". – John 14:14
"You have not because you ask not". - James 4:2
Do you have a similar verse that comes to mind? As you ponder this, I have a story for you.
It is pure fiction but only because there is no proof to the contrary.
A man died and went to Heaven, there he met God who welcomed him with open arms and the two set off together so God could show him round. The streets, paved with gold, the brightness of the sky reflecting God's radiance. The wonderful bejewelled buildings, it was mind blowing! Then every now and then as they went round, the man caught sight of a truly huge building. He asked God what was in it, but God just changed the subject. Then on the next corner they saw it again, so the man asked once more what it was for and God replying that the man really didn’t want to know. Eventually, God took the man in to show him and there inside were racks of shelving miles high and as far as one could see in every direction. Each and every shelf had boxes tied with ribbons, some red ribbons and some blue ones. When the man pushed God to explain, he was told these were treasure boxes into which God placed special things he wanted to give to each of his children. The man asked if there was a box for himself, to be told there was. He then asked God if he could look inside? So God took him to his box, opened it and when the man looked inside, he fell to the floor almost in-consolable. There inside were all the things he had longed for since his early childhood. Eventually the man stopped crying and asked why. God's response set him away once more. My son, God said, I have always known the desires of your heart and my heart has longed to reach out and bless you with them but you never asked.
The true nature of God, as far as any mortal can discern, will be to answer prayers that are in keeping with his good and perfect will, are a blessing for his children and are asked with a contrite and sincere heart. Last week I was speaking of “synchronicity”, we were looking at how our prayers might be in Sync with God's prayers.
This week we are looking at our prayers! Whether for ourselves or for others. If we don't or can't trust God for the things of our heart for ourselves, by what stretch of the imagination do you think we would be able to ask prayers for others with even the smallest hint of faith? Faith after all is the key here, Jesus said if we have faith the size of a mustard seed and ask that the hills will be cast into the sea it will be done for us by our Father in Heaven.
With that in mind, if you do the lottery and ask God to give you the jackpot, will he? What do you think? He wouldn’t for me, not that he couldn’t. I say he wouldn’t as I have always been a spender and not a saver, so to make me that rich would without question corrupt me. That said, knowing my limitations as I do, I wouldn’t ask!
As I said at the start, yesterday the word for the day was from John 16:24 which says,
"Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full".
What a promise!
What a profound possibility!
What an opportunity!
What a leap of faith!
If, even 1 in 100 requests asked in Jesus’ name were to be answered wouldn’t that be awesome!
You already know that toddlers get their balance wrong as often as they get it right. Eventually they do master the art of walking. It is the same in prayer, the more we try the better we will get, but there is also another dynamic too.
The first dynamic is to ask and then see, if on reflection your ask was honoured or not. Whilst it might be fair to suggest an answered prayer is down to luck, luck would also require prayers to be answered before they are asked, that is the way with chance. Also, if on reflection the answered prayers happen a lot, then that should help build your faith as you also begin to see that luck has nothing to do with it! For prayers to be answered there a need for us to do something and that is "Pray"! That need is always there!
I took out a gym membership both to get fit and to lose some weight. It didn’t work one little bit! In fact. my weight continued to increase! Do you think going to the gym might have helped?
Private, silent prayer costs nothing and is a good starting point. As your faith and expectation begins to grow, telling a person you are speaking to, that you will pray for them can help boost faith and not just yours. The person you are speaking to, sees your faith is real and that can encourage them to build their own faith too. That is the second dynamic growing an infectious faith.
I pray you are up for God saying no to your prayers as we learn what will be a blessing for his people. May you live in expectancy of God saying yes more often than not. If we listen for that still small voice of God speaking into our hearts and allow God to direct our prayers, we will find more and more answers where God is quick to say Yes. We will however in all likelihood have a good few NO's and some Not Yet's along the way. But as we learn God’s will, we will increasingly see the blessings God has for us as he says yes!
Who is up for a few NOs? Let’s ask more prayers than usual, let’s ask prayers in Christ’s name, Let’s see more positive answers to our prayers and lastly, let’s see our joy being full as Christ urges us!
To the glory of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
"Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full".
Expectancy is the name of the game here AND there are many examples.
"If you ask for anything in my name it will be done for you by our Father in Heaven". – John 14:14
"You have not because you ask not". - James 4:2
Do you have a similar verse that comes to mind? As you ponder this, I have a story for you.
It is pure fiction but only because there is no proof to the contrary.
A man died and went to Heaven, there he met God who welcomed him with open arms and the two set off together so God could show him round. The streets, paved with gold, the brightness of the sky reflecting God's radiance. The wonderful bejewelled buildings, it was mind blowing! Then every now and then as they went round, the man caught sight of a truly huge building. He asked God what was in it, but God just changed the subject. Then on the next corner they saw it again, so the man asked once more what it was for and God replying that the man really didn’t want to know. Eventually, God took the man in to show him and there inside were racks of shelving miles high and as far as one could see in every direction. Each and every shelf had boxes tied with ribbons, some red ribbons and some blue ones. When the man pushed God to explain, he was told these were treasure boxes into which God placed special things he wanted to give to each of his children. The man asked if there was a box for himself, to be told there was. He then asked God if he could look inside? So God took him to his box, opened it and when the man looked inside, he fell to the floor almost in-consolable. There inside were all the things he had longed for since his early childhood. Eventually the man stopped crying and asked why. God's response set him away once more. My son, God said, I have always known the desires of your heart and my heart has longed to reach out and bless you with them but you never asked.
The true nature of God, as far as any mortal can discern, will be to answer prayers that are in keeping with his good and perfect will, are a blessing for his children and are asked with a contrite and sincere heart. Last week I was speaking of “synchronicity”, we were looking at how our prayers might be in Sync with God's prayers.
This week we are looking at our prayers! Whether for ourselves or for others. If we don't or can't trust God for the things of our heart for ourselves, by what stretch of the imagination do you think we would be able to ask prayers for others with even the smallest hint of faith? Faith after all is the key here, Jesus said if we have faith the size of a mustard seed and ask that the hills will be cast into the sea it will be done for us by our Father in Heaven.
With that in mind, if you do the lottery and ask God to give you the jackpot, will he? What do you think? He wouldn’t for me, not that he couldn’t. I say he wouldn’t as I have always been a spender and not a saver, so to make me that rich would without question corrupt me. That said, knowing my limitations as I do, I wouldn’t ask!
As I said at the start, yesterday the word for the day was from John 16:24 which says,
"Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full".
What a promise!
What a profound possibility!
What an opportunity!
What a leap of faith!
If, even 1 in 100 requests asked in Jesus’ name were to be answered wouldn’t that be awesome!
You already know that toddlers get their balance wrong as often as they get it right. Eventually they do master the art of walking. It is the same in prayer, the more we try the better we will get, but there is also another dynamic too.
The first dynamic is to ask and then see, if on reflection your ask was honoured or not. Whilst it might be fair to suggest an answered prayer is down to luck, luck would also require prayers to be answered before they are asked, that is the way with chance. Also, if on reflection the answered prayers happen a lot, then that should help build your faith as you also begin to see that luck has nothing to do with it! For prayers to be answered there a need for us to do something and that is "Pray"! That need is always there!
I took out a gym membership both to get fit and to lose some weight. It didn’t work one little bit! In fact. my weight continued to increase! Do you think going to the gym might have helped?
Private, silent prayer costs nothing and is a good starting point. As your faith and expectation begins to grow, telling a person you are speaking to, that you will pray for them can help boost faith and not just yours. The person you are speaking to, sees your faith is real and that can encourage them to build their own faith too. That is the second dynamic growing an infectious faith.
I pray you are up for God saying no to your prayers as we learn what will be a blessing for his people. May you live in expectancy of God saying yes more often than not. If we listen for that still small voice of God speaking into our hearts and allow God to direct our prayers, we will find more and more answers where God is quick to say Yes. We will however in all likelihood have a good few NO's and some Not Yet's along the way. But as we learn God’s will, we will increasingly see the blessings God has for us as he says yes!
Who is up for a few NOs? Let’s ask more prayers than usual, let’s ask prayers in Christ’s name, Let’s see more positive answers to our prayers and lastly, let’s see our joy being full as Christ urges us!
To the glory of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen