If your house was going into foreclosure, do you think you would have the nerve to walk up to a stranger, on the streets, and expect them to bail you out? I don’t think so. You would have to be foolishly naive to think a stranger would grant such an outlandish favor.
How do you ask a stranger for a stupendous favor?
Sometimes when people go to God for a favor, they feel just as ill-at-eased as if they were talking to a stranger. And, in some cases they are. What a cold desperate situation to be in; backed into a corner pleading to a God that you don’t know.
A person can be a Christian and yet feel as though they are praying to a stranger because they lack the revelation knowledge of Who they are in Christ. They lack understanding His character, His desires, and His will for their lives. They might know of Him in a religious sense, but with such minimal insight, they remain feeling as if they were praying to a stranger. How can they take God out of the Sunday morning box and get to know Him in their everyday world?
It isn’t easy to apply the principles of faith when you don’t believe God even heard your prayers.
Think about how you would develop a secular relationship with a person that you were attracted to:
- You would find ways to be around them as much as possible.
- You would want to know everything about them.
- You would put your best foot forward to impress and please them.
- You would expect the faithfulness that you rendered to be reciprocated.
- You wouldn’t think twice about making the sacrifices that it would take to grow you two together.
As time rolls on, the person who used to be a stranger—you got to know pretty well.
These same concepts can appease the strangeness in a spiritual relationship. When we have a close bond with God, by faith we know that we are not praying to a stranger, but to our Father who hears and answer prayers.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15: 14-16)
© 2017
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