Lesson # 11 : Are You Impatient ?? - Trust HIM

How many of us have wondered why God doesn't answer some prayers? You know, the ones about getting that new home, or curing a sickness, or saving a person, or getting a job, or whatever it is. I have sometimes found myself bewildered that God doesn't open the eyes of someone lost in a cult, especially when all the evidence and truth are right there in front of him. Then there is the time when we have a sick loved one and we ask the Lord to heal and the healing either comes or doesn't come quickly. Sometimes, medicine is needed and much time. In each situation we have to wait to see what happens, to learn how the Lord has worked it out, to find out the method of His answer.

Noah had to wait 120 years while building the ark before the word of the Lord would be fulfilled. Abraham had to wait until old age before Sarah gave birth to Isaac. The Israelites had to wait hundreds of years to be delivered from Egypt. Ruth had to wait patiently for the Lord to provide Boaz to marry her. David had to wait until after Saul had died and the Lord had placed Him as king. The woman with the issue of blood had to wait 12 years to be healed by touching Jesus' garment. Jesus had to be born, grow, and wait until the age of 30 before he could begin His ministry and fulfill the predetermined plan of God (Acts 4:27-28). God has a plan and a purpose and they are worked out in lives, in history, in time. Therefore, we have to wait for the Lord to provide for our needs, healings, and hopes. We must be patient and not give up hope. God is patient. God has a plan in your life and the lives of others.

Waiting is a virtue. Its durability is directly related to its object of faith. If you trust the Lord and His goodness and if you believe that the Lord will provide what you need, then waiting for His answer and provision is an act of faith. Remember, faith is only as good as who you place it in. But, also remember that you must pray for God's will to be done, not your own. This is what Jesus prayed for in the Garden (Luke 22:42).

The resurrection of Jesus is the proof of God's love for you. The fact that Jesus has physically risen from the dead (John 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 15:1-4) is proof that God loves you and has provided for you. Even as Jesus had to wait three days to be raised, so too you must wait the appropriate length of time for the Lord to raise in you the work He has called you to do. You must wait for the answers to your prayers. But, you can patiently wait on God trusting that He loves you and wants the best for you.

So, labor patiently for the Lord. Pray always. Keep believing despite the circumstances and in spite of the long periods of time that sometimes wane between the request and the answer. Wait in faith knowing that the call of God will come as well as the answers to the questions of your heart.

Lesson # 10 : Praying for your Kids

Ephesians 1:15-17: For this reason ... I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better (NIV).  

Paul's prayer for the believers at Ephesus gives us a wonderful blueprint for how we can best pray for our kids. He starts by approaching God with a spirit of thanksgiving. How many times do we dive right into our needs and wants without first acknowledging our blessings and His glory? 

Paul knows that wisdom will give the believers' insight into the true nature of things and revelation will reveal the character of God, allowing them to know Him in a personal and intimate way. Paul prays that they may fully understand the hope and power that is their inheritance because this is how they will experience the peace in Christ that transcends earthly circumstances.

Thanksgiving, wisdom, knowledge of God, and peace. What more could we hope or desire for our children?

Lesson # 9 : "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them."

Is your righteousness showing off? Listen to His words

In other words, stop showing off! Stop calling attention to your righteousness! And then, to make the warning stick, our Lord gave three specific examples of how people show off their own righteousness so that others might ooh and aah over them.

In Matthew 6:2 Jesus says, "So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you." In other words, when you perform acts of charity or assist someone in need, keep it quiet. Remain anonymous. Jesus promises that "your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you" (6:4).

In Matthew 6:5 Jesus talks about "when you pray." He warns us against being supplicational show-offs who stand in prominent places and mouth meaningless mush in order to be seen and heard. A show-off loves syrupy words. He's got the technique for sounding high and holy down pat. But Jesus says: Don't show off when you talk with the Father.

In Matthew 6:16 Jesus says, "Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do." Fasting is when the show-off really hits his stride! He works overtime trying to appear humble and sad, hoping to look hungry and exhausted like some freak who just finished walking across the Sahara that afternoon. Instead, we ought to look and sound fresh, clean, and completely natural.

Our Lord reserved His strongest and longest sermon not for struggling sinners or discouraged disciples but for hypocrites . . . for glory hogs. Unfortunately, most of them never change because they don't hear what He says to them. Show-offs, you see, are terribly hard-of-hearing