If you read
my Pondering from yesterday, you will know that I was quite taken with Jesus'
answer to his disciples about why they could not drive out a demon from a boy.
His answer was, “This kind cannot be
driven out by anything but prayer” (Matthew 8:29).
This morning,
God continued to drive home this point, that there are things in life that are
of the "cannot be driven out by
anything" variety, hence our frustration when trying all kinds of "anythings" to get things
done.
On the other
hand, the "but prayer"
clause covers absolutely "everything".
Whatever needs to be done, including all the things that can't be done by
anything, can and must be done through prayer.
Now bring
this to what Paul says in Philippians:
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4)
What has
become so clear is that anxiety is just a way of handling other things. Our
problem is never with anxiety itself. There are other problems, and we are
choosing anxiety as our preferred method of coping with whatever else is going
on.
Of course,
anxiety is of the sark, so it will always be wrong, think wrong, do wrong, act
wrong, feel wrong (even though it feels so right). It always connects to the
side of "cannot be driven out by
anything." It is one of the "anythings"
we try to drive out the demons, or the problems, or the feelings. But it is one
of those "anythings" that
cannot drive out the thing.
When we are
called to prayer, it is not just God's preferred way of doing business, but it
is the only way we connect to him so he can do his work. He wants us to have
freedom from anxiety (in the negative), and to experience "the peace of God" (in the positive), so he has to teach
us to do the one thing that connects us to him.
Right at the
end of my prayer time I was reminded of that verse that talks about "you do not have because you do not
ask." When I looked it up, and was reminded of the context, I realized
that this is the loving reproof we need. I include the whole passage below, but
I wanted to focus on the central statement: "You
do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you
ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions" (James 4:2-3).
There are two
reasons we do not see answers to prayer. One, that we don't pray. Two, that when
we do pray, we are driven by our sarks, our passions, our feelings, our flesh.
Bottom line is, we want it our way, and our praying is just that, a childish
way of telling God that we won't be happy until he does things our way.
God, of
course, tells us we won't be happy until we see what he is working in us to
will and to work for his good pleasure, and we join his work with fear and
trembling.[1] In
this case, we look at how God is working in us both to will and to work a
change of focus from anxiety to prayer, and so we work this out with fear and
trembling. We seek to expose every selfish thought and motive, every anxious
feeling controlled by the sark, so that we can literally throw off anxiety as
the preferred means of handling what we are going through, and choose to keep
banding together as the church to pray the way God wants us to pray.
When I look
at the things we express about our frustrations, the aim is not to force
ourselves to deny how frustrated we are, but to submit to God's work of getting
us to so pray, and petition, with thanksgiving, laying every imaginable request
before him who does so much more than all we can ask or think,[2]
and find that peace of God that comes from waiting on him, rather than trying
to figure out how he ought to do things.[3]
I love the
way God leads us through passages of Scripture that we have been through
before, but this time it feels like we have just moved up one grade level, and
now we understand it better. At the same time, there is that immediate
awareness that, to whom much is given, much is required.[4] As
I "get it" more about prayer, there ought to (and there will) be more
prayer of the kind God teaches.
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 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. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4)
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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