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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion March 20, 2007 Cooperation With God |
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Frontline Devotion for Tuesday, March 20, 2007 by Don Kress
Mark 8: 10:32-45
“Teacher, we have something we want you to do for us.” That seems like an earnest and sincere statement made by two of Jesus’ first three disciples, his “inner circle.” Indeed, if you’re like me, you often join James and John in asking Jesus to fit into your plans. But those kinds of requests – prayers that say to God, “Do what I want” – don’t align us with God and often go unanswered.
Jesus, throughout his ministry, was used to people asking him to do something for them. And his response was often the same: “”What do you want me to do for you?” He often asked it before healing a person. It was never a superfluous question. Making a person clearly define exactly what one wants enables that person to explore and discover what one’s real desires are. When Jesus fulfilled requests during his earthly ministry, his response was often the same: “Take it and pay for it.” (e.g. “Your sins have been forgiven. Go, and sin no more.”) To James and John, he asks, “Are you able to pay the price?”
That’s still the question that Jesus asks you and me when we make demands of him. “Are you able to pay the price?...You are?...Very well, if that is what you really want, you can have it, but here are some of the costs: you must escape from the prison of self, you must have a childlike faith in me, your life has to stop spinning around your aches and pains or your gratifications, your life must find a new center. Your life must now be one of service, not of pride, ambition, or conquest. You must become a servant, a slave. Now, are you sure you’re still willing to pay the price?”
When our prayer makes a demand on God to adjust himself to our desires, we do not pray in Jesus’ name or spirit, and it’s unacceptable. It’s not unacceptable to make God aware of our desires, but we can’t demand that He fulfills our desires. True Christian prayer says rather, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done” and “Not my will, but yours.” Selwyn Hughes, a Welsh theologian, defines prayer as “cooperation with God.” Hughes says, “In prayer you align your desires, your will, your life to God. You and God become agreed on life desires, life purposes, life plans, and you work them out together.” Perhaps these are the “other arrangements” to which Christ refers in his conversation with James and John! When you go to our Lord in prayer, are you busy asking Him to do what you want, or are you entering into a cooperative relationship?
Prayer: Father, help me avoid making demands of you. Help my prayers to be acceptable in your sight. I want us to work out my life purposes together. Help me to pay the price, no matter what it costs. In Jesus’ Name I ask it. Amen
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