What Should I Pray For?

What is the one thing I should pray for? One thing over everything else?

·      Is it for mankind?

·      Is it for me?

·      Is it for my famiy?

·      Is it specific or more general

And, if I were to receive it, am I willing to give it back to God (reference Hannah/Samuel)

Yes? No? Why?

Dr. Michael Youseff challenged me to figure out what it is that I should pray for. What is it that I believe God wants me to know, experience over anything else in this life, and tell others about before I come home to Him? I feel like I am drawing a bit of blank here. I am not sure. Could it be at my life level (age group, other pastors,) is it for my community, others? My country, though I do not think it would be my country. I think if God wants me to think that big, He would want me to think Globally.

Then in my study it hit me. We are taking things too lightly. This is no joke and He is trying to get our attention. There are many verses that are warnings, but this one stood out to me. And at the risk of isolating a verse and then taking it out of context, let’s look at one (plus) verse, in particular James 4:8b – 9: 

‍ ‍Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 

‍ ‍9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Now the whole passage goes like this:

‍ ‍7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:7-10

When you look at vv 7 – 8a you see a hopeful, encouraging thought, as with v10. While the above is certainly all of that, hopeful and encouraging, I think we miss – often – the very important point James is making in the subject verse.

We tend to lessen the significance of sin. We want to gloss over it with “yes, but I am saved”. There is no lessening the importance of salvation. There is an idea here, however, that we take too lightly the grieving of God’s heart by our sin. The following story is not original thought, and I don’t know where to place the credit, but here is a story that makes the point to the grieving of God’s heart.

There once was a man who had the opportunity to get a few minutes one on one with Jesus before he passed into Heaven. He knew it would not really be an extended time with the Savior, but he was certainly glad for the opportunity for any time whatsoever.

When the time finally came, it was right after the man had made a bad decision and sinned.  Since it was so fresh in his mind and he was truly embarrassed about it he knew, he would have to mention it to Jesus in the meeting. So, the first part of the conversation went like this:

Jesus: “Hello brother, are you ok today?”

The man (M): “Well, I suppose so Lord, but I am wondering if you are mad at me right now?”

Jesus: “Why do you think I would be mad at you?”

M: “Well, you know, - in fact I know you know, I sinned, I am sorry, I wish I wouldn’t do those things. So, I just figured you’re mad at me, right now.

J: “No, son, I am not mad. A little sad, but remember, I know how hard it is on earth. I did have a little advantage, given the knowledge of the father I had, when I was there.

M: “well, aren’t you just a little mad about it?”

J: “Oh certainly, but I am not mad at you, you were set up. Satan sets up everyone to hurt me, so who I am mad at is him, not you. I am mad at the fallen angels who put that temptation in front of you and made it so easy to sin.”

You see, that is the point of verse 9 isn’t it? Do not laugh or scoff at your sin. Do not just “blow it off” as if it is just the normal course of business, no big deal, happens all the time. Though that may certainly be true, do not take it lightly. When we start to take our sin seriously, we teach ourselves or we allow God to teach us how to overcome the temptation, to repel the temptation. The result will be the first part of that verse:

‍ ‍7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. 

While picking apart scripture can lead to misunderstandings, or an emphasis on something unintended, sometimes we get a better picture of what God has been trying to tell us for millennia. This war in not to be taken lightly, the battles are as serious as if this were an earthly “shooting” war.  Casualties will be had, and lives will be lost.

2 Peter 3 tells us:

‍ ‍“11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. (emphasis mine)

Look, please do not mistake this for some shaming words to make you feel guilty. We are guilty, that point is moot. That ship left the harbor with Adam. We cannot do anything about it, we’re going to sin. What my point is here really is to not be numb to it. Don’t just chalk it up to “oops, missed again”. The more we allow ourselves to at least be sensitive to it, the less likely we will be to repeat, not that we won’t, just less likely. It has another bi-product to it. It keeps God in mind, the war is not being ignored, and our lives will be richer in spirit than ever before.

Blessings for your day.

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