"If you abide in Me, and My words abide
in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Insights: Last week we looked at
our life in the Vine. This week we turn
our attention to benefits we receive as being a part of the Vine. The first benefit is we get to communicate
with the Father. We call this
communication prayer and it is one of the tools God uses in His Vineyard to
prune our old nature from our lives. As
a pastor I wish I had a nickel every time someone told me they “prayed all the
time.” The reason I say that is because
I then watch, as a fruit inspector, their lives and more often than not, the
decisions they make are not godly choices.
If a person truly had been “praying all the time,” then God would have
directed their paths differently. What I
think is really happening when people say statements like these is they are
telling God what their will and wants are as if God was some kind of Jeannie in
the bottle. After all the last part of
verse seven does tell us that if we ask whatever we wish, then God will grant it, right? Wrong.
That mentality negates the first part of verse seven which tells us we
must abide in the Vine and the Words of the Vine must abide in us. What is happening in our lives through prayer
is the pruning we discussed last week.
As we begin to spend time with God and His Word, the Bible, we begin to
learn His will and ways. As we learn His
will and ways, we begin to think and act according to His desires and our old
selfish nature is becoming more like Jesus.
As the old life is pruned we begin to ask God for things that bring Him
glory and as we make request of that nature, God answers our prayers. Beloved, spend time growing in the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ and allow Him to prune your life to be in obedience to
His will and ways. Enjoy your time with
Him in prayer!
Questions:
- When you pray do you treat God like some kind of
Jeannie in the bottle?
- Is your life characterized by continual communication with God through prayer?
Prayer: Lord, I want to be a dynamic prayer warrior for You. Continue to mold my life into one of
perpetual devotion through prayer. Amen.
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