Nostalgia: विगतलाई सम्झँदा

Nehemiah 2:11-20 Are you for, against, or in between for God?

Pray and Obey: Difference between success and failure

Although childhood was robbed from me, I experienced God’s grace early in life.  At 19, I was in the full time ministry and by the time we were married in our 20s; our roles in the ministry were that of the ministers in their 40s and 50s.  The Lord united my wife and me in such a way that our callings, giftings, and love for the Lord and his kingdom became one and the same for both of us.  From the time we answered the heavenly call, never thought about our future, our security, our needs and desires.  All we wanted was to see the glory of God and salvation of his people through our humble efforts.  Our house was always open, our hands always extended and our hearts always filled with pain when we could not help God’s children overcome their difficulties in life. 

Over the years, God blessed us with many friends and fellow believers who needed our prayers and ministry.  Grateful to God for the wisdom and grace we were able to impart.  In return, we have also been greatly blessed by so many friends who saw our needs as if they were theirs too.  To this day, we have a visible and an invisible list of names that we pray for regularly. 

In this short span of our ministry, we have seen God’s children enjoying abundant life and at the same time saddened to see some simply giving up on life all together.  Some of them were younger than us and others like our parents, even grandparents.  We witnessed some making remarkable progress while others plunging in the ever expanding patch of quicksand of misery and agony.  In reflecting on this, two things come to mind.  These two things Jesus asked the disciples to do in the Garden of Gethsemane, especially to Peter.  He said; “Simon, are you asleep?  Could you not keep watch for one hour?  Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The Spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Mk. 14:37-38). 

The one thing that keeps a person on the path of progress, blessing, peace, victory, joy and life of abundance is the path of prayer.  When someone says “I am praying”, that person acknowledges God’s existence and rule over his life and future.  Prayer also acknowledges that God is a good God who rewards those who seek him diligently.  That’s why the book of Hebrews 11:6 says “without faith it is impossible to please God”.  You might as well ask “what to believe”?  The same verse gives us the content of our faith; “God is and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him earnestly”. 

A praying person has a sovereign God over his life who is also a good God who delights to fulfill the desires of his children.  Jesus personally commanded Peter to keep praying and watching but he did not do and soon fell away. 

So, the second thing that we saw making a difference in the life of God’s children is the obedience.  Jesus tells them to “watch” but they went back to sleep as soon as Jesus stepped away.  They did not obey Jesus, and specially Peter.  Had he listened to Jesus and obeyed him, kept a watch over his soul, kept a watch over his spirit and body, kept a watch over what was happening, he could have been spending more time in prayer with God the father as Jesus had taught them and possibly could have avoided the heartbreak he went through.  But he refused to heed Jesus’ warning to keep a watch and when the temptation came, he fell away.

Without putting God’s word into practice, all else will be of no use.  God will not do what he has asked you to do.  But if you do what he has asked you to do, he will do what he promised to do for you. It is that simple.  Some people keep complaining about God not answering their prayers.  The question is; are you doing what God has asked you to do?

In conclusion;

Prayer presupposes faith in God’s sovereign existence and goodness of his character.  Obedience requires humility of the heart and mind. 

When we have faith in God’s person and his goodness, when we are humble in our hearts and minds, our prayer life becomes vigorous.  We can’t imagine of going a day without a heartfelt prayer to God.  When such a prayer is birthed in our hearts, we experience divine favor in life.  We transcend our weaknesses, we achieve more than our natural abilities and talents would have allowed us.  We start living above our circumstances and take control of our lives.  And soon, we find out that the promises God made to the children of Israel can be ours as well through Christ.  God said, “if you obey my words and walk in my ways…then, you will be on top and never at the bottom, you will be the head and not the tail…God will chase your enemies seven different ways…you will be blessed when you come in and when you go out…you will lend but not borrow…everything you put your hands upon will be blessed…your property and your children will be blessed” (Deut. 28:1-14).

Those precious friends who took God’s word seriously and trusted God, started to pray.  When they prayed, they became more like Christ in their character.  Their faith strengthened and they began to take the step of faith in obeying God’s word.  When they obeyed God’s word, they experienced divine favor in their lives.  But those who refused to either pray or obey God found out that this life is one long miserable journey in which everyone else seems to be doing just fine but them.