Wait on Him and watch for the fulfillment of your prayers
Don't just pray and then forget about it. If you do, you may never notice God's hand in your life. When you pray for a special request, watch for God's manifestation in your life during the upcoming days. You may want to write a diary of your prayer requests and the date it was answered, and don't dismiss anything unusual as chance. God is at work on your behalf.
Ps 130:5 "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." NIV
Mic 7:7 "But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me." NIV
Story: "I have an important business meeting in the
morning. Would you please set the alarm for 5:30 a.m.?" I
said to my wife.
"Oh, that won't be necessary. Just tell the Lord what time
you want to wake up. He does it for me all the time," my
wife said.
I rolled my eyes in disbelief. "Well, I'd feel more
comfortable if we set the alarm."
"Okay, ye of little faith. But just to prove my point I am
going to ask the Lord to wake us up just before 5:30."
The next morning I awoke before the alarm went off. I looked
at the clock. It read 5:15. I looked at my wife, who had
just awakened at the same time with an I-told-you-so smile.
Sometimes we wrongfully view God as someone we go to for
only the "big things." The idea of "bothering God" for such
a trivial matter seems foolish and presumptuous. However,
when you were a child and had to get up in the morning for
school, didn't your mom or dad come wake you up? They were
your parents, and you could come to them with the most
trivial concerns or requests. Why would our heavenly Father
be any less approachable? Perhaps our problem is that we
simply have not developed a level of intimacy with God so
that we feel the freedom to approach Him at these daily,
routine levels. We often operate with an unwritten code that
says our needs must have a certain degree of importance or
crisis before we come to God with them. This is not God's
character towards us.
Does the Lord desire this level of intimacy with you and me?
The apostle Paul exhorted us to "pray without ceasing" (1
Thess. 5:17 KJV). There is never a caution to pray only
about matters of greater importance.
Today, go to God with matters that you might view as trivial
and would normally avoid bringing to God. Ask God to
increase your level of intimacy with Him. You may even be
able to get rid of your alarm clock.
Excerpted with permission from the book TGIF Today God Is
First, by Os Hillman, copyright 2000, Destiny Image
Publishers, Reprinted by permission. For free daily email
subscription to TGIF Today God Is First marketplace
meditations, visit
www.marketplaceleaders.org
P. S. By the way, this works! This is how I wake up every
morning. God is more reliable than an alarm clock, as alarm
clocks can become defective or there can be a power
shortage. Try it and believe.
