It would be crazy for a Christian missionary in a war-torn country to speak of how dependent he is on prayer for protection and provision while at the same time driving a guns-covered armored personnel vehicle back to his walled fortress where he and his bodyguards would unload enough freeze-dried food to last them a year.
The missionary would be demonstrating faith, all right, but not in God.
OK, so you and I aren’t driving armored vehicles filled with food. But do we ever send mixed signals about our measure of faith?
Do we tell people that we’re praying and waiting on the Lord to open doors for us regarding jobs or romantic relationships or church home selection and then they see us grabbing and shaking every door knob we pass?
Do we tell people that we’re praying and waiting on the Lord to convict a spouse of the need to change, but then they see us subtly trying to control or coerce that spouse into doing what we want?
Listen, if we tell people that we’re praying for God’s help because He’s the only One who can do what we need, then we shouldn’t conduct ourselves as if God isn’t needed.
We’ve all failed in this way at some point, effectively telling God that we didn’t trust Him and communicating that message to people who knew us.
This, of course, was a very bad thing.
I’m glad that Ezra of the Old Testament didn’t do the same. Check out this passage below that describes his view of prayer just before a small group of Jews left captivity in Babylon and returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
“And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled. For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, ‘Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him, but his fierce anger rages against those who abandon him.’
“So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.” (Ezra 8:21-23)
People need to hear that we pray for God’s protection and provision.
More importantly, though, people need to SEE our trusting patience as we humbly go through daily life with eternal confidence that God will, in fact, work all things together for our good since we are living according to His purposes. (Romans 8:28).
As always, I love you
Martin
