Joy

A few months ago my pastor was talking to our church about prayer.  He mentioned that prayer and joy should go together.  I have been struggling with this for some time.  How do I establish this joy in prayer? How do I make it fresh?  How do I trust in this God I pray to?

Reality deals with cause and effect.  If the reality is true the effect will occur.  If I plant a seed a plant will grow.  However, there is much within the reality to reach the true effect...the right seed, the right ground, the right weather and so on.  Many of our decisions have already been cased out so I know how to plant the right seed in the right ground at the right time, enabling me to know the expected effect.  But I know that often my cause does not bring about my predetermined effect. 

Is prayer much different?  Prayer is reality!  The cause part of prayer is usually not difficult to decipher, because it happens.  My car dies, I get cancer, my house burns down, my child rebels....it is what it is.  The expectation of the effect is what steals my joy.  I determine the effect before it is reality.  My car dies....I pray....I expect a car.  Have I a right to expect a particular desire as something certain?  What if God may see fit for a different answer?  Maybe the breakdown is for someone else...the man at the shop or the person I may be riding to work with.  Maybe God is forcing me to get a closer job or go to a church nearby.  If I am unwilling to accept my God's answer my joy is stolen.  No, this doesn't mean I can't express my desires to God.  In Matthew 26:39, even Jesus asked that His situation would be different.  However, we see God's answer was to provide a sacrificial sin replacement as our way to a predestined adoption.  I don't believe Jesus would have ever wanted to sacrifice our redemption for His escape.  Yet He asked, not demanded another option.  We only know what we know....we must ask. 

My faith must know that God will supply an answer!  My joy then comes in watching this great God supply the solution of reality, and I will not be disappointed that I did not receive my expectation.

I do fear this will be a struggle for me because I often have a flimsy faith.  I struggle to find this joy when I don't see my friends brother healed of his Alzheimer's,  my niece not finding this precious God of mine, old friends unable to resolve their marriage or a brother continuing to stray from Jesus.  The more I believe in this God the more I kneel before Him the more answers I wait for.  Often my desires are not God's answer, I understand this and wish I was more spiritually in tune. I have, at times, experienced this joy and though impatient I know His power is unimaginable and His answer is on the way.

In 1 Corinthians 2:5, Paul is talking about his conversation ability.  Prayer is not much different than Paul's words being effective, "Our faith may not rest on man's wisdom but on God's power."  Man's wisdom does not bring the joy we desire, God's power brings this joy.  I must not determine an answer but wait on my powerful God.

My faith falters when my prayer expectations are not met by God.  I believe that my faltering faith is a lack of trust that my expectation of need is more difficult to establish than God's promise of power to provide.  This non-reality of expectation causes me to miss out on the reality of God's true and powerful answer and the establishment of His great joy. 

Answered

Do I feel prayer is answered based on how life intersects with me?  If I pray for a car and a car is received do I automatically think that's the answer?  A month later the car breaks down.  If the answer was the car, why would God allow it to break down?  Is the car only a part of the answer?  Maybe the car was to build trust for the next life occurrence, the breakdown. God brought me through the receiving of the car, why would he not carry me through the breakdown?  Maybe the answer was not the car, maybe the answer was faith building.  Its much easier to pray for a desire than for faith building.  My character is too fragile to anticipate faith building, which is most always difficult, than to look forward to something which makes my life easier, a car.

 Am I willing to change my prayer habits to include Christ's desires instead of my longings? Am I willing to do anything for the sake of God's glory? This doesn't mean I ought not pray for a car, but am I willing to walk if God so wills it?  My pious self says, "Of course", but will I chortle in disgust if my way is not granted?  Should I not be willing to do anything or give up everything for the cause of Christ? 

If I could only meet God for coffee each time I had a need or question it would be so much easier.  He could look at me and say,

                           "You want what?  That's a little selfish don't you think?"
                    Or
                           "If you did it this way, things would work out much better."

But God decided we should live by faith.  He wants us to realize that life will deal us crap but he will take the crap we are dealt and fertilize our life into something pleasing and good if we stick by Him.

Yet, my piece of pie falls in my lap, my boss irks me, my car breaks down and I get annoyed.  Why the dilemma, the mockery, the scandal in my soul when, in reality, the pie,the job and the car are all blessings of which I should be thankful. 

Is the implication of rebellion the course of a heart gone cold?  Is this heart salvageable?  Is it yet pliable enough to be kind and not spiteful, generous and not selfish...at rest in the arms of Jesus?

                              My God will supply all my needs.....do I believe it?

                              My God will always be there....do I feel it?

                              My God will not forsake me....do I know it? 

Prayer predicates itself on a God who will answer or it is not prayer at all, it is a gambling percentage based on bad probability.  God is there, he will answer. Though, I must expect only His answer, not my answer.