ALIGN IN PRAYER
In prayer, we align to His wants for us.
Text: John 15:7
Prayer does not change the wil of God, it actually helps us see, understand and align to the will of God. We must ask according to God's will whenever we ask. Let's examine our text. It says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." We must not conveniently leave out the beginning part of this scripture and only run with "ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” The point is this: as God's word abides in us, it begins to shape our minds and transform our intents and motives such that God's will becomes our will, His interests interest us and His dislikes become our dislikes.
We must understand that the driving force of whatever we are asking for must be love. Our intentions must be deeply rooted in love. Let's see James 4:3-4. If says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." What is being brought to our understanding is the fact that if you are asking for anything to spend it on your passions, your motive is wrong, and you’re already asking amiss. The word "passions" actually transliterates to mean lust, and by lust, we mean everything that feeds our fleshly cravings or desires. Verse four then goes on to explain that if we make friends with the world (cosmos, meaning world systems), we are in direct enmity with God and are therefore adulterous, because we cannot claim to be married to Christ, yet frolic around with worldly desires.
The goal is to become less and less dominated and occupied by natural desires, and more and more occupied with spiritual desires. Our prayers must reflect and express this. Before you ask for anything, ask yourself “to what end?" In other words, "why do I really want this thing?” Remember that God sees the heart (See Proverbs 16:2, Proverbs 21:2). It's okay to want material things, but to what end?
STUDY THIS: Romans 8:6-10, Colossians 3:2, Matthew 6:20-21
DECLARE THIS: My mind is continually renewed and transformed, and my passions are continually purified. I am not carnally minded, I am spiritually minded. God's interests are my interests, therefore I seek the things that are above. I go after things of eternal value and spiritual worth, and my prayers reflect this. Glory!
SING ALONG: Longing of My Heart by Chimdi Ochei feat. Nathaniel Bassey