Power when You Pray
- Thread starter stephen
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Coconut
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- Feb 17, 2005
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amen, loved that message!
Jas 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
2Co 12:8 Three times I [prayed] pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
2Co 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Notice the only answer to that particular prayer was "My grace is enough"
Grace IS the answer?
If you are looking for an answer to a particular prayer and it is not coming, perhaps God is telling you, 'I can do more, give you more, show you more, grow you more...' by leaving you with the problem, and letting you see what else I can do with this problem. You do realize that God by His power does not simply cause problems to vanish, but He can take them and work them into something for your good.
So there you are left sitting soaking in grace, (often--with a pity-party- pout lol) because if you are honest, that is not exactly what you were expecting....you thought that "great power" was going to produce some God action ...well it did, but Gods choice of action is rarely the same as the kind of action we would choose...because God is looking for different results that we would choose...(we want temporal solutions, He wants His work to have an eternal impact) so may as well get comfortable and enjoy the soak while God goes to work...
I want to share this quote here because it is simply profound...
"When one begins to practice simplicity, pride is deprived
of the very strategy by which it sustains itself. Nothing will deflate
pride more effectively than to be recognized for what it is.
...It lives by pretension. It dies when the mask is torn away
and the stark reality is exposed to the gaze of others.
Simplicity also avails in braking the tyranny of things.
Ostentation, artificiality, ornamentation, pretentious style,
luxury--all require things. One requires few things to be
one's self, one's age, and one's moral, intellectual,
or spiritual stature. What one is does not depend on what one has."
-Albert E. Day
Gods Grace IS sufficient-- the problem is we keep on praying God will give us things to sustain our pride; while His grace keeps on stripping us of things so our pride will die.
Let us not confuse the wait for an answer from God with there being no answer from God. Wait patiently for Him...
And I do want to say...while you are waiting ...focus on praying for other peoples problems...watch God answer them left and right...it`ll do wonders to make your faith grow.
"Problems are manure for our mustard seeds" - Coconut
Jas 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
2Co 12:8 Three times I [prayed] pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
2Co 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Notice the only answer to that particular prayer was "My grace is enough"
Grace IS the answer?
If you are looking for an answer to a particular prayer and it is not coming, perhaps God is telling you, 'I can do more, give you more, show you more, grow you more...' by leaving you with the problem, and letting you see what else I can do with this problem. You do realize that God by His power does not simply cause problems to vanish, but He can take them and work them into something for your good.
So there you are left sitting soaking in grace, (often--with a pity-party- pout lol) because if you are honest, that is not exactly what you were expecting....you thought that "great power" was going to produce some God action ...well it did, but Gods choice of action is rarely the same as the kind of action we would choose...because God is looking for different results that we would choose...(we want temporal solutions, He wants His work to have an eternal impact) so may as well get comfortable and enjoy the soak while God goes to work...
I want to share this quote here because it is simply profound...
"When one begins to practice simplicity, pride is deprived
of the very strategy by which it sustains itself. Nothing will deflate
pride more effectively than to be recognized for what it is.
...It lives by pretension. It dies when the mask is torn away
and the stark reality is exposed to the gaze of others.
Simplicity also avails in braking the tyranny of things.
Ostentation, artificiality, ornamentation, pretentious style,
luxury--all require things. One requires few things to be
one's self, one's age, and one's moral, intellectual,
or spiritual stature. What one is does not depend on what one has."
-Albert E. Day
Gods Grace IS sufficient-- the problem is we keep on praying God will give us things to sustain our pride; while His grace keeps on stripping us of things so our pride will die.
Let us not confuse the wait for an answer from God with there being no answer from God. Wait patiently for Him...
And I do want to say...while you are waiting ...focus on praying for other peoples problems...watch God answer them left and right...it`ll do wonders to make your faith grow.
"Problems are manure for our mustard seeds" - Coconut
Coconut
Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
- Messages
- 4,663
These are my thoughts this week...but you should have seen my thoughts a few weeks ago :embarasse
Truly the Spirit is a wonderful teacher, he makes His lessons felt as well as heard, to be sure they get right down into the heart of the matter; it is the only way to learn them well, otherwise we only have head knowledge, and its a poor substitute for experience ... I mean we can 'know' the rope will hold us when we are hanging over a precipice, because others told us so, but force us to go out on the rope, (probably not without much protest and pleading on our part that we dont want to go out on that rope!) ...only then we will know that we know that we know, it really does hold!
Faith that is tested, faith that must wait and wait and wait... is in no danger of failing, as Christ told his beloved "I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail" [Luke 22:32] He wont allow that rope to fail, even when we would swear we are hanging by a thread, and He will come...
"When you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers." [Luke 22:32]
... "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see..." [Job 42:5]
Blessings
Truly the Spirit is a wonderful teacher, he makes His lessons felt as well as heard, to be sure they get right down into the heart of the matter; it is the only way to learn them well, otherwise we only have head knowledge, and its a poor substitute for experience ... I mean we can 'know' the rope will hold us when we are hanging over a precipice, because others told us so, but force us to go out on the rope, (probably not without much protest and pleading on our part that we dont want to go out on that rope!) ...only then we will know that we know that we know, it really does hold!
Faith that is tested, faith that must wait and wait and wait... is in no danger of failing, as Christ told his beloved "I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail" [Luke 22:32] He wont allow that rope to fail, even when we would swear we are hanging by a thread, and He will come...
"When you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers." [Luke 22:32]
... "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see..." [Job 42:5]
Blessings
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