“I want it now!” is often a phrase many of us with children have heard often. If you don’t have children, you’ve probably listened to the conversation between parent and child, too. Everyone knows that children can be impatient at times. Whether it is a toy, a stop at a restaurant, or to go outside, children are often anxious and unwilling to compromise on their demands. For a parent or any other caretaker, this becomes a lesson in patience and determination. We often see that what a child wants and what they need can often be two different things.
As Christians, at some time in our relationship with the Lord, we’ve been impatient. It happens to every Christian, both young and old. “Lord, I want… now!” may not be the exact words we say, but if we are honest, we know it is what we have felt.
“I want… now,” but the Lord says…
I think this is one of the things James was referring to when he said, Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (James 4:3). At times in my prayer life, I will ask for things that at the time I think I need. But the problem is during those times we ask amiss, to us, it seems like a reasonable request. Within my own life, there are times I prayed the “I want…” prayer. Sure, I didn’t literally pray for now, but we all know that’s how quick we would like our prayers to be answered.
I shared before in a previous post about hiding from the Lord’s call to service by being active in another ministry. Sure, I knew the Lord was calling me to follow Him into the full-time ministry. But what I was doing was trying to tell the Lord where I wanted to serve instead of allowing Him to lead me. I prayed for things I knew I needed for that specific ministry and wondered why the Lord did not bless. The explanation was in the Old Testament: And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood (Isaiah 1:15).
Our demands are “full of blood.”
This teaching is a hard thing to accept. Whenever we begin to assert our will over the will of God, it becomes sin. We all know the wages of sin is death. And all sin can be defined as rebellion against the Lord. I’m not writing this as anything biblically based, but more from a sort of spiritual curiosity. We’ve all head the teaching that when we sin as Christians, our sin is covered by the blood of Christ. But what if when we ask “amiss,” our heavenly Father sees the blood of Christ, too. After all, when we ask for things based on our own selfish desires we are asking for the benefit of our lusts.
Even being involved with the wrong ministry, I was praying for things needed to continue to make that ministry grow. But even in my own heart, I was rebellious. And what made my prayers especially grievous to the Lord is I was claiming I was doing His ministry the entire time! The Bible tells us: But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth (Psalm 86:15). I wonder if He ever shakes His head in disbelief when I’ve prayed so boldly while in a state of disobedience.
We can’t understand the end from the beginning.
Earlier as I was preparing to share this post, I thought of another verse of Isaiah: Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure (Isaiah 46:10). Yes, the Lord does know the end from the beginning. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he told his disciples: Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him (Matthew 6:8). If we are honest, there is a stark difference between our lusts and our needs. And the Lord knows our needs and He knows our hearts.
Our view is linear but in one direction. With great ease, we can look back and see the many mistakes we have made. We can see where our decisions have led to more hardship and struggle than we ever dreamed possible. But the Lord’s vision is much superior to ours. Not only does He see the immediate results of our choices, but He also sees every possible long-term outcome, too. We rarely make one isolated decision. Each decision we make leads us to another set of circumstances, which, in turn, leads to another choice. One wrong decision can impact the rest of our lives. Knowing that the Lord knows our situation, our needs, and even our desires should comfort us.
