A “Word” from the Pastor…
“On Getting God’s Ear”
Hi Saints,
I hope you found Wednesday’s class helpful in your daily prayer life. In case you missed a note
or two, here are the highlights of the class with a little extra information. For ease of identifying
the extra info, I will put that information in italics. I found much of the class not only to be
informative but somewhat entertaining as well. For instance, in the early part of the class when
Abraham addresses God:
Abraham appealed to God as the “judge of all the earth,” and reprimanded God somewhat by
telling him “that be far from thee.” What was important was that we come to understand that
God is not some distant, far off stranger. He is nothing less than our Father and for that reason
alone we should feel comfortable communicating with him. I was a grown man before I felt at
ease talking with my father but as I came to know him I was surprised that we had a lot in
common and more, I came to realize that he wanted me to talk to him and actually anticipated
meeting any request I made. I think about my own children. My concern has nothing to do with
denying any request they may make, I am concerned that I may not be able to accommodate
their needs. Our heavenly Father never has to concern himself with His ability to perform our
requests. If any, He might have to give some thought as to whether or not our request is for our
benefit or not. And that thought does not pose any problem for the one who asked Abraham “Is
anything too hard for the Lord?”
I was thinking over Abraham’s request about making the righteous exempt when destroying the cities. I think, without Abraham’s intervention that God may very well have destroyed the righteous with the wicked. But the destruction of the righteous would have ultimately been handled differently. We get a glimpse of what I am trying to say in the information surrounding the communion supper. We are told there, that because they did not take communion “discerning the Lord’s body” that many were sickly and further, some slept, meaning that some died. The same passage makes it clear that they did not die in the eternal sense but the euphemism ‘sleep’ was used to show that they would not be condemned with the world. Check it out in I Corinthians 11.
My point is that in the judgment of the righteous with the wicked God could have put the
righteous to sleep while at the same time putting the wicked to death.
Another point crossed my mind. Why did Abraham stop bartering at ten? The language clearly
shows that each time Abraham lowered the number he felt that he was pushing God so perhaps
he figured that ten was as low as God would go. But based on the logic of his argument, for
God to destroy even one would not have been just. What’s my point? Don’t pursue a course of
logical argument with God without taking it to the limit. In the case of healing, don’t settle for
less than what is actually available merely because we feel that we have pushed God too far.
Go all the way to the ‘one.’ As it turned out, God’s grace allowed for the escape of four before
destroying the city and they did not merit salvation. It looked as if God was willing to save the
sons-in-law as well if only they believed Lot’s warning.
Now let’s take a look at Moses. I enjoyed the part where Moses reminded God of his promise to
Abraham. He even went so far as to remind God of the oath He made in swearing himself by
himself to keep the promise made to the patriarchs What Moses did was to present
indisputable facts to God regarding his promises and character. The part about the Egyptians
was thrown in for good measure because, let’s face it, I don’t think the Egyptians would have
bothered to report on God seeing as how they didn’t have anything to gain by doing so. Such
an action would have probably worsened their already tenuous situation. It shows the intent of
God’s heart to have communication with his people.
After we came home Wednesday my wife asked me how can we approach God with something
that He hasn’t already heard. Good question! I think that would be a difficult task also. On
further consideration of that point I believe the Holy Ghost gave me this answer.
It’s not originality that God is expecting from us, although each of our situations being different,
originality is still an open option, but rather God will respond to our urgency and sincerity in our
petitions. I had someone come up for prayer a couple of weeks ago and in making their request
they specified that they had an emergency crisis. Naturally I presented the case to God with the
same urgency. And guess what? They reported that before they arrived home God had already
interceded on their behalf.
Let me remind you again what God said to Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” That
might be a line to use in reasoning with God when you present Him with a difficult, out of the
normal situation. Should you do so, please don’t forget the message about “What’s in it For
Him” and praise God in the congregation of the saints.
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