Monday, July 8, 2019
660 - Who Asked You? Part 2
Spirituality Column #660
July 9,
2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Who Asked You? Part 2
By Bob Walters
“We do not know what
we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless
groans.” – The Apostle Paul, Romans 8:26
“Be still, and know
that I am God.” – Psalms 46:10
Probably
too often, we think of prayer as an opportunity to talk to God.
Not nearly often enough do we use
it as a profound opportunity to listen
to God. When we do – listen, that is –
it is quite possible to be stunned by the deep knowledge, creativity,
compassion, wisdom, and forethought God can offer each one of us in every
prayerful moment. God is always aware of
the big plan – His Big Plan – while rarely do we look beyond our present
circumstances, and then only dimly. God is big, we are small.
When Jesus
is minutes away from His arrest by Jewish guards, hours away from his trials before
Jewish leaders and Roman prelate Pontius Pilate, shortly after which He would
be crucified by the Romans, His startling last words to His disciples spoke of
nothing they could have imagined, asked for, or, until later, understood.
At that
juncture, which we see in John 15-16-17, did any single one of the disciples
have it in his mind to pray for all the things Jesus was about to bring into
their lives, or the work of salvation He was going to complete for all
humanity?
Who among the disciples would have
prayed that Jesus fulfill His mission by giving Himself up to His own humiliating
death? Who would have prayed for their
joy to be complete? Who would have
thought to ask for eternal life – for themselves? Or to learn the true and immutable name of
God in loving relationship as only Jesus truly knew each of them? Who would have prayed for Jesus to send the
Holy Spirit by which they later could understand many things, find peace in the
Lord, and be comforted?
Who would have prayed for Jesus to
be relieved of His loneliness as He was deserted by men? Who would have thought to ask Jesus to
forgive them for deserting Him? Who
would have known and prayed for the looming sacrifice of Jesus that would cover
all their sins and restore humanity’s relationship with God Almighty forever?
Likely someone would have prayed
for courage, but would they have included the prayer for the gift of conquest
over sin? There’s no record that any
prayer was offered by the disciples during this time: Jesus the son of God was
doing all the talking.
Simply enough, any Jew you asked at
that point in their history about what they expected of the promised “Messiah,”
would have responded, “To kill the Romans.”
The astute likely would also pray for the return of Israel with a King
and a Kingdom.
Absolutely no praying person looked
at Jesus and asked him to provide all of humanity with forgiveness, eternal
love, eternal life, and intimate knowledge of the good, loving, and righteous
God. No one prayed for their own pathway
of faith and hope into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Neither the disciples, family, nor friends who loved Jesus, nor the
greatest minds of Israel trying to kill Him, saw any of that coming.
This is all to say, then, that when
you’re not sure what to pray for, invite God to go ahead and do His thing. Then … be still and listen. You may be very surprised.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) notes that God and Jesus never asked a
question to which they did not already know the answer. That makes it hard to argue with them.
1 comments:
Wow....just WOW. I LOVE THIS. VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING.
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