Jesus’ Unlimited Certainty About Prayer: My Utmost For His Highest Excerpt
Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer, He had the boundless [i.e. unlimited,] certainty that prayer is always answered. Have we by the Spirit the unspeakable certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when God does not seem to have answered prayer? “Every one that asketh receiveth.” We say – “But . . . , but . . .” God answers prayer in the best way, not sometimes, but every time, although the immediate manifestation of the answer in the domain in which we want it may not always follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?
The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with common sense; if it were only common sense, it was not worth while for Him to say it. The things Jesus says about prayer are supernatural revelations.
PAGA Pondering
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer!
Do you believe that the things Jesus says about prayer are supernatural revelations?
Do you live that way? Do you pray that way?
What would happen if we took Jesus seriously?
What would happen if we took Jesus at His Word?
Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for.
Keep on seeking, and you will find.
Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives.
Everyone who seeks, finds.
And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8, NLT
“Yes—But…!”
Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but…”. Luke 9:61
“Yes, I will obey God if He will let me use my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands of the man who trusts Him the same reckless sporting spirit that the natural man exhibits. If a man is going to do anything worth while, there are times when he has to risk everything on his leap, and in the spiritual domain Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold by common sense and leap into what He says, and immediately you do, you find that what He says fits on as solidly as common sense.
At the bar of common sense Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad; but bring them to the bar of faith, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit that they are the words of God. Trust entirely in God, and when He brings you to the venture, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis, only one out of a crowd is daring enough to bank his faith in the character of God.
PAGA Pondering
Will/Would/Can you defy common sense and test Jesus’ words at the trial of faith?
Are you willing to change the odds of those in the crowd daring enough to bank his/her faith in the character of God?
