#015 Prayer

Matthew 7:7-12

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened". Do you believe that?

Of course not, at least with your natural, logical and rational mind, the one you were born with. It makes no sense because your mind was made to work in this three dimensions environment and within the limits of space and time. To a mind like this the things that make sense are those that fit these conditions.

Now imagine if you had God's perspective; that you could see and evaluate things without the constraints of time and space; imagine if you could evaluate things using the eternal perspective. If something happened today or a thousand years from now, it would make no difference.

That's where prayer comes in. Prayer is to talk with God, to discuss, to argue, to plead; it is to invade the infinite. If you read the Bible you will see that these things were part of the prayers of men and women of God throughout the centuries.

Therefore, to pray is to ask and be sure of the answer, but an answer from God's perspective, not from our narrow minds. I'll give you an example.

Moses led the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years toward the promised land. But God did not allow Moses to enter the promised land. He was only allowed to see the land from afar before he died, and that for reasons that do not matter now.

Then you come and say, "So what's the point about asking and receiving, seeking and finding, knocking and opening? Wasn't Moses desire to enter the promised land?" Yes, he wanted it and God answered his desire almost fifteen hundred years later. In the Gospel passage known as "The Transfiguration" you will find Moses, Elijah and Jesus talking on the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem, right in the promised land.

Got it? God answered Moses' prayer God's way, in God's timing and from God's perspective. A father does not give his child a stone when he or she asks for bread, but may give it later or even give something better. Sometimes young children ask for absurd things, and it is not always wise to give them what they ask. Now, how tall you think you are before God?

So before you pray, before you ask, you must have God's perspective, and that perspective you receive thanks to a famous unanswered prayer: "Father, let this cup pass from me." If God had answered Jesus' prayer nobody would have been saved. He would not have died on the cross, would not have taken your sins away and could not forgive and save you. What would be your fate? Death and eternal condemnation.

But Jesus died, and now you can be saved by trusting him. And you can have your renewed mind to see things from the standpoint of eternity. Curious as it may seem, this large and comprehensive mind you can only get passing through the narrow gate and walking the narrow path, which is the subject of the next 3 minutes.