Prayer Changes Things

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Philippians 4:6).

“Gram, you’re not listening to me. . . .”

Those were the words of a very disappointed four-year-old. John, my grandson, loves chocolate ice cream, or he did when he was four years old.

John and his parents had been over for dinner and he had eaten the last of the chocolate ice cream. He had made a special request for me to buy some before his next visit the following week.

Unfortunately I forgot, and the next week when he came to dinner with my son, Eric, my daughter-in-law, Kristin, and my granddaughter, Maci, there-was-no-chocolate-ice-cream.

John had no idea that I could possibly forget something as important as chocolate ice cream, so after dinner, he opened the freezer looking for some. When he couldn’t find it, he came into the dining room where his parents and I were and said, “Grammy, where is the chocolate ice cream?”

I said, “Oh, Sweetheart, I’m so sorry, Grammy forgot.” I then tried to interest him in something else, suggesting several things.

His disappointment was palpable. He reached up and put one hand on each side of my face and said, “Gram, you’re not listening to me. . . !”

It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. But he was so serious, I absolutely could not.
Instead I said, “Sweetheart, I am so sorry. I will be sure to buy some for your next visit.” He wasn’t a happy camper, but he accepted my apology with as much grace as a four-year-old could muster.

That was a few years ago. John is thirteen years old now and much more mature. But he and his sister, Maci, still light up my life and continually bring me incredible joy. What a treat they are, and what wonderful gifts from God.

I wonder how much we miss by entering God’s Presence with “politically correct” prayer, instead of entering His Presence as my grandson did, with the knowledge that I love him dearly and will supply his needs.

And the need of a four-year-old is chocolate ice cream!

It was inconceivable to John that I would forget something so important to him. He just knew that when he went to the refrigerator that his inmost desire would be provided.

Likewise, we are to enter the Presence of the Lord with steadfast faith that God is going to hear us and answer our prayer. The apostle Paul exhorted us (opening verse),

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).

Prayer is literally worship; the motion of the soul towards God.
Petition is to beseech God, which literally means to beg God.

The only political correctness to prayer is loving and worshiping God. We have the awesome privilege of entering God’s marvelous Presence and asking Him for anything. It is also our right as children of God to beg Him, beseech Him, to earnestly and fervently pray for something.

The prayer of a righteous man (or woman) is powerful and effective (James 5:16, emphasis mine).

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-12).

“Ask, seek and knock” are all in the Present Imperative Active voice. This means that Jesus was giving us a command to a continuous and repeated action. Basically this means to continue asking, continue seeking and continue knocking.

Remember, this is a command!

It means having a loving trust in God, as children have in their parents. Actually, we should have a deeper and more intimate love and trust for God than children have for their parents, because we as earthly parents cannot possibly love our children as much as God loves us.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:9-11).

Jesus was obviously asking a rhetorical question, because there is an exclamation point at the end of the verse—not a question mark.

Jesus was saying that God will give good gifts to His children who continually ask, continually seek, and continually knock.

Prayer changes things!

After the apostle Paul told us not to be anxious and to present our requests to God with thanksgiving, he promised that. . .

“The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

We are to present our requests to God, and leave them with Him, knowing that He will take care of them. Like my grandson with his gram, it should be inconceivable to us that God would not respond to our requests, perhaps even with chocolate ice cream, because God is a lavish God. He is a gracious God and He longs to give us wonderful things.

We should know God through intimate time with Him in His Word and prayer, so that we know He is going to speak to us, love on us, and yes, answer our heart’s desire. We should be steadfast in our faith, because He still works through our faith.

So, dear friend, do you enter God’s Presence with praise and thanksgiving, knowing that He is listening and He can hardly wait to respond to your requests?

Or do you pray by rote, hoping He will answer, but not really sure that He is going to, and sort of letting Him off the hook with, “I guess it wasn’t His will?”

Remember, Jesus said, “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:8).

The continual asking, the continual seeking the face of God and the continual knocking is key. We don’t have to “let God off the hook.” God is perfectly capable of saying, “No.” And He is capable of saying, “Wait.”

But whatever His answers are—He will answer.

The best way to discern the heart of God is to be in His Word. Pray with absolute surety that God will speak to you. God wants intimate conversation with us much more than we can imagine.

God went to a great deal of trouble to write us a Love Letter. And His Love Letter is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12), and it will penetrate your inmost being like nothing else.

God’s Word is inspired.

“It was written by over 40 authors, living over a period of 1600 years. It is one Book, not simply a collection of 66 books. Its authors came from all walks of life; kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, statesmen, a physician, scholars, poets, and farmers. They lived in different cultures, in different experiences and often were quite different in character. The Bible has continuity that can be observed from Genesis to Revelation.”1

God’s Word will speak to every situation we face.

It is relevant. It is fresh. It is real.

We can depend upon it—and there is nothing else on this earth that we can depend on.

When we pray about anything, we can ask God to give us several verses that speak to our particular situation—and He will. They will literally jump off of the pages of Scripture and into our hearts, so that we KNOW it is from God through His precious Holy Spirit.

God loves us much more than we grandmothers love our delightful grandchildren (Isaiah 43:4; 49:16). He delights in us and He even rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). But unlike earthly grandmothers, God will not forget. He will remember every prayer we utter.

So, go ahead, dear child of God, develop a close intimacy with your Creator. Remember, God personally knitted you together just the way He wanted you to be, and then died so that He would have you with Him forever.

Seek His face. Who knows, He may just give you what He knows your heart has been yearning for.

Prayer Changes Things!

This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him. (I John 5:14-15)

Recommended Reading
Isaiah 26:3, 9
Jeremiah 29:11-14
John 14:13-14; 15:7, 16; 16:23-24
I John 3:21-22; 5:14-15

Copyright © 2009 by Peggy Britt. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.

Where is Samaria?

Now he had to go through Samaria. . . (John 4:4).

She left the house in the middle of the day. There would be no one at the well this late. Everyone drew their water early in the morning, when it was cool. It was safe—she wouldn’t be seen now.

She had endured the stares, the snickers, and sometimes even blatant derision. She overheard the horrid gossip about her lifestyle from people who had long since ceased to care that she heard them.

Well, at least no one had tried to stone her—yet.

She should hurry and spend as little time as possible in the open. The gossip and finger pointing still had the power to hurt her. But today she was too tired and too weary to hurry.

As she meandered along she couldn’t help thinking about her life. She sure had messed it up. She was the talk of the town—and she deserved it. Married five times—five! One by one they had all left her for someone younger, prettier, less lumpy. . . .

She was alone now. Well, not exactly alone, she lived with a man, but he wouldn’t marry her. Why should he? He had choices—she didn’t. She was reduced to being a live-in—a sordid woman, tainted, condemned. Was there anything worse?

She might as well be a leper.

She hadn’t meant this to happen. What had gone wrong? She had been young and pretty once, but years of bad choices had hardened her. Oh well, no sense thinking about it again—it hurt too much. Besides, it was all water under the bridge now. Not only was she tainted, she was a woman and a Samaritan, the bottom rung on the social scale.

She had no hope now. She was too old and too sullied to change. Life was over for her. Now she would try to get through the remainder of her life one day at a time, sneaking to the well in the middle of the day and avoiding, as much as possible, all contact with other people.

Then she saw Him. No one should be there in the middle of the day. Now she had to face someone, and He was a Jew! How strange—Jews didn’t come to Samaria. Samaritans were a mixed race, Assyrians who had married Jews. They were considered impure by Jewish society. Samaritans had betrayed their race. They were considered half-breeds.

Respectable Jewish men would not be seen talking to a Samaritan, and certainly not a Samaritan woman! But this Man looked so at ease—as though He belonged there.

Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

She said, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”

He answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (see John 4:1-26).

Jesus had come through Samaria for one purpose, and one purpose only—to save this woman. He would lead her into a saving knowledge of Who He is—the One True Living God, the Messiah, Redeemer of the world.

He had to go through Samaria. . . .

And He would not allow cultural and racial bigotry to thwart His plan.
Bigotry.

Social customs. Cultural status. Peer pressure.

Is there anything more harmful to the body of Christ or to the human race?

I’ve never understood how any one person could decide in their heart that they are better than others just because they were born a certain race, or into a certain social group, or of a certain gender.

Weren’t we all born in the same manner? Do we not all come from dirt? Did any one of us do anything to assure our birthing status? It truly is the silliest thing. And it is born (pardon the pun) out of pride.

Some think they’re better because they were born into a family that has more money or influence than others. Some think they’re better because they have a certain skin color. Some think they’re better because they attend a certain church or worship in a particular way. And some think they’re better just because they happened to be a particular gender.

How foolish, and how prideful.

The Spirit of God said through the apostle Paul, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26-29).

Unfortunately we all buy into the lie of prejudice at some point in our lives. Whether it is because we have a better education than others, or we have attained a higher level of earning power than others, or we have a title over our door and on our business cards.

Or our pride may come from simply living above the level of the woman who met Jesus at the well. Whatever it is that makes us anything but poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3) is of the enemy, not of God—and it is pride.

I find it curious that there were five men who were living in rebellion to God’s laws by divorcing the woman who met Jesus at the well, and one man who was living in adultery with her at the time. They needed Jesus just as much as she—I do hope God drew them, too, but they are only mentioned in passing. . . .

It is curious that Jesus spoke so gently to two such women; the woman at the well and the woman the religious leaders caught in adultery (John 8). Where was the man? In order to be caught in adultery there had to be a partner. Mighty peculiar that they thought it necessary to bring only the woman to Jesus.

Jesus had no such prejudices. He lived His life in complete obedience and submission to His Father. He never once bowed to peer pressure. He didn’t succumb to the social status demanded by Jewish society.

He didn’t consider Himself too good to mix it up with the common people. He was even caught talking with a woman—alone. Wow! That one would really get many of us in today’s world. We don’t want to be seen talking to the opposite gender for fear of talk, or fear of jealous spouses.
Jesus bowed to no such rubbish. He ministered to each person as though they were the most important person in His world—and they were at that moment.

Jesus even touched the leper—a real taboo.

No one touched a leper, especially not a rabbi. The leper would contaminate them and then how would they minister? But Jesus touched them. All who were sick and diseased—physically, emotionally, spiritually, all who needed a Savior, He touched.

Jesus even allowed the woman with the issue of blood to touch Him (Matthew 9). He was God—do you think He didn’t know who touched Him? And He healed her just as He healed the leper, the woman at the well, and the woman caught in adultery.

So, who do you set out to touch that may be tainted or leprous in your world?

Think about it—God crossed every barrier—race, rich, poor, tainted, sinful, even the dead. He touched everyone who needed His touch. Do you?

He had to go through Samaria. . . .

Why? Because that is where the woman lived who needed His touch, and it was where God called Him to go. Has God called you to touch someone you find repugnant? Has He put someone in your world who bugs you? Is there someone in your life you are jealous of and so you treat them poorly because of it? Or perhaps there is someone who has a need?

Where is your Samaria? Who has God called you to touch? Whatever or whomever it is—don’t miss it. We don’t want to fail to realize God’s call on our life. Life is too short to worry about social status, peer pressure, or bigotry.

Peter made this mistake and was rebuked harshly by Paul (Galatians 2). Life is too short to be jealous of someone and allow that jealousy to thwart God’s blessing upon you. Life is too short to feel aversions toward others, whatever the issue may be.

We are children of God Most High. When we walk in absolute submission to Him, we are indestructible. Oh, we may have to endure gossip or slander, and we may even become outcasts. But I would much rather be an outcast in God’s Samaria than a religious person on the “right side of the tracks.”

So, where is your Samaria?

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

Copyright © 2009 by Peggy Britt. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.