We hear this all the time!
Pray!
Ask God for what you want!
Or we are drawn to the following scriptures:
I Peter 5:7 NKJV.
“casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
Or,
Mark 11:24 NKJV.
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
It sounds so simple!
Pray.
Ask.
Receive.
This makes God seem like the pizza delivery man, and if you call on Him and place an order, He will deliver your blessing in 30 minutes or less.
Sounds like a fun perk of being a Christian, doesn’t it?
Unless you have been a Christian for a while and you have realized that God is not a blue genie, granting three wishes.
If you have ever prayed for something that you really want…
Whether that be for an outcome that you want, a new relationship, a healing or even just for guidance on which path to take….
You know that God usually does NOT answer in 30 minutes or less.
There is a time in between the prayer and the answer!
This portion of time is where we all get stuck!
This is something that I like to call, the
“NEXT STEP.”
Or the moment after we pray, when we think,
“What now, God?”
Most of us pray for God to help us make a decision… which typically means it’s a time-sensitive prayer!
We don’t ask God if we should date this person, until we meet the person and they show interest in a relationship.
It’s only when our dream house becomes available, that we ask God if buying it, is the move we should be making.
Some decisions need to be made NOW or NEVER!
So, when we ask God to show us the way…
We mean that we need to know NOW!
We are on a road and we can either merge at the upcoming on-ramp or continue on the road that we are on, so our Holy Navigator needs to tell us now before it’s too late!
This is our fear!
We fear that we are getting awfully close to TOO LATE, so we need to know the next move now!
If you don’t get in that relationship now, they will choose someone else and they could be ‘the one’; so you need to know right now if you should date them!
If you don’t, you may end up with no one; thus having no children and no house with a white picket fence and a golden retriever named Bailey.
This is why our decisions paralyze us oftentimes!
We ask God,
“Should I take this job?”
We wanted to include Him but we are terribly afraid that if we don’t get God’s answer in the next 5 minutes, in a clearly written skywriting, we will miss the opportunity altogether and not even get to choose the job anymore, because we spent too much time waiting for directions!
I am right there with you!
I struggle with this a lot!
I want to share with you, what God has taught me over the years,
when it comes to taking the next step after praying for something that you want!
I was shown the perfect picture of this in scripture recently, and it’s modeled by Jesus Himself!
How did Jesus take the next step, after praying for something that he wanted?
Let’s read Matthew 26:36-47, to find out!
“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.” And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people.”
Matthew 26:36-47 NKJV.
Here we have Jesus, our Savior…
Expressing to God, something that He wants.
He was exceedingly sad and distressed.
He falls on His face.
In Luke 22:44, we learn that He was in such emotional and mental anguish, that his capillaries ruptured from the stress; so now, when Jesus sweated, blood flowed out of every pore, along with His sweat.
He prayed for something He desperately wanted…
He asked God if there was any possible way that he didn’t have to continue on the path He is on.
He knew abundant pain was coming!
He knew that the full weight of the sin of the world and death would be on His shoulders.
So, though He was obedient when God sent Him in the first place, He shows that what He was facing on our behalf was so terrible, that even He asked for another way!
He prayed that if it is the only way, He will do it, but if there is another way, could this story change course.
The hour was almost there!
If God was going to tell Jesus to turn, He would have to tell Him soon!
This is how we feel so often.
God, I need to make this decision now or never…
What is it going to be?
This is what I want…
What do you want me to do?
Go the way I want…
Or stay on the path I’m on…
Feel free to answer me anytime, God…
I’m waiting…
Still waiting…
We are waiting for God to send a sign or speak audibly, but we need to make a decision before it’s too late.
What if we ruin everything with one wrong decision?
What if we throw our purpose right off the tracks?
I need a clear answer so I don’t mess everything up!
Here is what Jesus shows us.
God did not send a skywriting to give Jesus the answer.
Though God spoke audibly for Jesus before, He did not at this moment.
Jesus asked God three times, which tells us that He either didn’t get a clear answer from God or that He was hoping for God to reveal a different way that He didn’t see before.
He was rapidly approaching the only opportunity to merge off of this road.
What did Jesus do?
Verses 45-46,
“… Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going…”
Jesus saw an opportunity to see where God would guide and He said,
“Let us be going!”
Jesus was not going to sit and do nothing until God put the answer to His prayer on a billboard!
Jesus saw that He had an opportunity to see if God had another way.
He was ready to step out and see if God was leading Him a different way.
He could’ve chosen a path that changed the story!
This is what we fear!
Jesus did not fear this!
He asked His question.
He knew that God heard Him.
He knew that if He asked His Father, His Father would guide Him.
So, He stepped to see if there was another way to save us.
Here is what we oftentimes forget!
God is GOD!
If we ask our Father for guidance, He will guide us!
This doesn’t mean He will always give us an answer in advance.
Sometimes, God will keep quiet and steer us where we need to go.
This is what He did for Jesus!
God didn’t give directions,
Yet, He still directed.
Verse 47,
Jesus didn’t even finish His sentence and Judas arrived with the multitude, to arrest Him.
He wasn’t afraid of ruining the plan.
He was getting His answer!
God answered just in time!
Jesus can’t ruin anything, because Jesus expressed that He would do God’s will!
Nothing can override God’s will!
Even if we feel that we have ruined our purpose, we can rest in knowing that it’s impossible to ruin God’s purpose, because we are not that powerful.
If we approach every decision that we face, expressing to God what we want, but also acknowledging that His will is more important than anything that we want…
Whether we choose to step out into what we want, or we choose to remain on the path that we may not enjoy at the moment…
If it is God’s will, He will guide us!
Even if it’s at the last minute!
God can close doors that you want to walk through if they are not suitable for your purpose!
Likewise, God can close the road you are on and direct you to merge off of that road, if you are not sure if you should choose a different path.
God’s purpose.
His will.
It’s much greater than we could contemplate.
God is God and we are not!
God perfectly orchestrated our lives for His divine purpose and no matter what we do, we can’t throw God off!
So, if God didn’t answer you with a word in a church service, a song on the radio or any other kind of sign, to tell you what to do…
Don’t stress!
You can’t ruin the plan of God!
Remember God’s word and don’t step out of obedience of His word, but don’t stay stuck in one place, out of fear that you could ruin God’s plan for your life!
You can’t!
So, if you try to step out into something new, God will guide you back if you were not supposed to steer that direction.
If you stay on the comfortable path that you’re on, God will close the path and direct you to make a turn, If that is what He wills to do.
That’s what a loving Father does!
That’s what the Good Shepherd does!
He won’t always give you the answer before it’s time to make a decision.
However, He will always direct His children in the way that they need to go, at the right time!
“A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?”
Proverbs 20:24 NKJV.
“Commit your works to the Lord, And your thoughts will be established.”
Proverbs 16:3 NKJV.
Disclaimer:
(if you do have children, a house with a picket fence and a golden retriever, named Bailey… It is purely coincidental, I was not writing about you… but that is so cool!)
Photo by Ilya Komov
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
