What If God Said "Yes" To Everything?
by Pastor Andrew Wolfenbarger
06/14/2023
Ezra 7:6 - “This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.”
As I was reading the book of Ezra, I came across this verse when the Holy Spirit convicted me. My attention was arrested when it said, “the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.” God used a pagan king to supply the great work that Ezra was called to without any restrictions. It was as if I heard the Lord whisper, “What if I granted you everything you were currently praying for?". I was convicted because I realized the meager scope and scale of my prayers. Allow me to expound on this statement.
The Scope
This was revealing because I do not pray about enough things in life. Philippians 4:6 reminds us “In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” It is easy to say we believe this, but what if we only measured our belief in a thing, by our participation in it? In other words, we may say we believe that everything deserves to be mentioned in prayer, but if we aren’t doing it, we are either foolish or a hypocrite.
We might think there is not enough time in the day to mention all that comes into view, but this is why we are reminded by our Lord, “that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;” (Luke 18:1). I believe this means we ought to always be in a spirit of prayerful inquiry of the Lord. We are to look for His leadership in all things, at all times.
Of course, we must not neglect the formal practice of prayer either. Jesus taught, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matthew 6:6). The Christian is never more productive than when he is in his prayer closet. Therefore, we conclude that the variety of our prayer life should be extensive to match God’s care about everything in our lives.
The Scale
It is this particular thought that hit me hard. If I were to inventory my prayer list and God granted every single thing that I asked, what good would be accomplished for the Kingdom of God? How many souls would be saved? How many missionaries would be strengthened and provided for? How much better condition would my family, church, and nation be in? If God said yes to everything as He did for Ezra (through Artaxerxes), how would my friends benefit? How might my children’s destiny be shaped?
I became very regretful of the prayers that I haven’t prayed. The book of James says, “yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” Because of this, the vitality of our prayer life ought to be an accurate depiction of the capability of the One to whom we pray. The great missionary to South Africa, Andrew Murray, said, “Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things 'above all that we ask or think.’”
How guilty I am of limiting God both by my unbelief and by my limited view of His greatness. To not ask at all is unbelief, but to ask too little of our mighty God is disbelief. God invites each of us into His presence so that we might experience His power. May we ask prayers of Him that are representatives of our belief in Him.
06/14/2023
Ezra 7:6 - “This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.”
As I was reading the book of Ezra, I came across this verse when the Holy Spirit convicted me. My attention was arrested when it said, “the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.” God used a pagan king to supply the great work that Ezra was called to without any restrictions. It was as if I heard the Lord whisper, “What if I granted you everything you were currently praying for?". I was convicted because I realized the meager scope and scale of my prayers. Allow me to expound on this statement.
The Scope
This was revealing because I do not pray about enough things in life. Philippians 4:6 reminds us “In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” It is easy to say we believe this, but what if we only measured our belief in a thing, by our participation in it? In other words, we may say we believe that everything deserves to be mentioned in prayer, but if we aren’t doing it, we are either foolish or a hypocrite.
We might think there is not enough time in the day to mention all that comes into view, but this is why we are reminded by our Lord, “that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;” (Luke 18:1). I believe this means we ought to always be in a spirit of prayerful inquiry of the Lord. We are to look for His leadership in all things, at all times.
Of course, we must not neglect the formal practice of prayer either. Jesus taught, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matthew 6:6). The Christian is never more productive than when he is in his prayer closet. Therefore, we conclude that the variety of our prayer life should be extensive to match God’s care about everything in our lives.
The Scale
It is this particular thought that hit me hard. If I were to inventory my prayer list and God granted every single thing that I asked, what good would be accomplished for the Kingdom of God? How many souls would be saved? How many missionaries would be strengthened and provided for? How much better condition would my family, church, and nation be in? If God said yes to everything as He did for Ezra (through Artaxerxes), how would my friends benefit? How might my children’s destiny be shaped?
I became very regretful of the prayers that I haven’t prayed. The book of James says, “yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” Because of this, the vitality of our prayer life ought to be an accurate depiction of the capability of the One to whom we pray. The great missionary to South Africa, Andrew Murray, said, “Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things 'above all that we ask or think.’”
How guilty I am of limiting God both by my unbelief and by my limited view of His greatness. To not ask at all is unbelief, but to ask too little of our mighty God is disbelief. God invites each of us into His presence so that we might experience His power. May we ask prayers of Him that are representatives of our belief in Him.
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