Presumption or Prayer 5-6-09

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I speak out Your name, listen for Your voice, and wait for the leading of Your Spirit. ... "Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name of was Tabitha.... She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her they laid her in a room upstairs.... Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs.... Peter knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, 'Tabitha, get up.' Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up" (Acts 9:36-40). Peter was not satisfied to come to Tabitha's house and honor her for a life of devotion to good works and acts of charity. He didn't settle for a ceremony around her casket, remembering with her friends and family that she was a faithful disciple of Christ. He did not passively assent to the finality of illness and death as if it were the sovereign will of God. Instead, "Peter knelt down and prayed." Some might say, "What was there to pray about? If it were God's will that she be well, she would not have been sick. If it were God's will that she be healed, she would not have remained ill. If it were God's will that she live, she would not have died. Nothing happens without passing through the hands of God. Everything that happens is God's will. Just abandon yourself to the will of God and just accept everything that happens because God is doing something in you that you should just accept. Don't be rebellious. Don't be prideful or full of your self. Just submit to your circumstances. There's a time to live and a time to die, so when it's time to die, just die." But that wasn't Peter's theology. Or his faith. Or his sense of obedience to the will of God. "Peter knelt down and prayed." What we may think is humility and submission to the sovereignty of God and His will is often just presumption. Humility and submission is to kneel down and pray. To say, "Lord, what is Your will? What does Your Word say? What is Your word to me for this moment?" It seems to me when Peter humbled himself to seek Your will and Your word for that moment, You may have shown him Your will by reminding him of Your words, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). You may have spoken to him by reminding him of what he saw You do when You were called to come to the bed of a little girl who became ill and died. You didn't accept her sickness and death as God's sovereign will; You didn't tell her parents to grow up in maturity through the experience and to be patient in their suffering because a lot of people would get saved at her funeral. Instead, You said, "Little girl, get up!" (Mark 5:41). That was Your theology about healing, death, and the sovereignty of God. That was Your sense of surrender and abandonment to the will of God -- the will of God to bring healing instead of sickness, life instead of death, victory instead of defeat. So Peter did what he would teach others to do, "You should follow in His steps" (1 Peter 2:21). You should pray and then obey. And when You move forward in obedience, by the gifts and graces of God, You should do so in faith, with the boldness that comes from a heart that seeks God's word first in prayer and then relies on His Spirit in power. "Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and power forever and ever" (1 Peter 4:10-11). Your name was glorified when Peter, Your servant and Your son, prayed and obeyed. You were not glorified through Tabitha's sickness and death, You were glorified by her healing and life. Peter didn't honor You by abandoning himself to the circumstances; he honored You by submitting himself the One who is Lord of the circumstances. Only as he knelt down and prayed could he hear for himself that Your sovereign will was not to accept the circumstances, but to change the circumstances. Give me wisdom and grace to go and follow in his steps and in Yours. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, please come join us for the National Day of Prayer at 6:30 pm Thursday Night May 7th at my home church, Centenary United Methodist, 2800 Tates Creek Rd, Lexington, KY (www.CentenaryLex.com). I will be helping lead our ecumenical gathering, jointly hosted with our neighbor churches, Immanuel Baptist Church and Tates Creek Christian Church. Please come and spread the word. (I mistakenly said 7pm in previous notes). Order our Ministry Resources or Contribute to our vision and calling: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org Subscribe by email to me at Messiah Ministries --MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502