Skip to main content

Deciding To Pray By Praying To Decide



    Abraham Lincoln was once quoted about prayer by saying:
I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day”

   I often have remind myself when I am faced with the confusion of choice about the old hymn, Did You Think To Pray?   Foolishly, I’ll wait till I have made up my mind to then go and ask for it from God. In all my debate and decision, I don’t factor in the Lord till the end.  But why wait?  The best decisions come when we let God make them.

    Consider what Jesus did when he had a big decision to make. In Luke 6:12-13, we read:
It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.  And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles

    What more important decision could Jesus have than whom he would appoint the task of spreading the Gospel, leading his Church, and being the witness to the world of his words?  I can’t imagine the thinking and analyzing that must have gone on.  Yet what did he spend the entire night before the appointing of the apostles doing?  Praying.  


    Every one of us will have big (and some not so big) decisions to make in our lives, but there is no better way to start that any decision falling to our knees in prayer.  I may not know what to do, but He does.  I can’t see all the twists and turns in the road I am about take, but He can.  Before I choose, would not the wisest thing be to turn to the one that sees all and know all?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mysterious Ways

    William Cowper didn’t see any reason to live.   He decided that he’d jump off the bridge over the Thames. So, he called a cab to take him there.   But that night in 1763, a thick fog enveloped London. It was so thick the cab driver couldn’t find the bridge and couldn’t even find the way to take William home. In frustration, he ordered the driver to stop and get out to get his bearings. He walked up to the nearest house to read the number and it was William's house. Gone now were William’s thoughts of suicide and instead a new idea came into his head. So, he went in and wrote these words: God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm.  You fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break In blessings on your head.     I sometimes wish we could see all the ways God watches over us when need it. There are...

The Gift You Give Yourself

    I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me.   There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15).  I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven.  So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives.  When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Canned Faith

  As Dale Jenkins wrote: “Faith is a little like paint. As long as it’s in the can, it isn't much. Left in the can long enough a gallon of paint will ruin. Faith left unpracticed and unexercised will too….  You can’t just talk about faith.  To be effective, you must be living it out. So take the paint out of the can and start painting.”   The Bible says in James 2:18,”  But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works . " Faith is something that only works when it is used. If our faith doesn’t do anything, is it really there at all?   Truly “ living by faith ” isn’t just a proclamation we make but one we live in how we walk and talk, how we live and interact, and what we say but also what we do.  Is our faith canned? Is it something we have if we go looking for it? Or is it something that is being used daily in our lives?   Does your faith color eve...