Monday, May 14, 2012

Branches Get to Pray to the Vinedresser

Scripture: John 15:7
"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:
  1. When you pray do you treat God like some kind of Jeannie in the bottle?
  2. 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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