It is easier to resort to human reason and strength than it is to depend on what we can’t see.
"Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord." - Jeremiah 17:5 (NKJV)
We are creatures of the familiar. Our nature is to trust in what is known and fear or avoid what is unknown. This struggle manifests itself in prayer because the essence of prayer is faith. We are speaking to an invisible God asking Him for things that we do not immediately see granted.This requires blind trust. It also requires patience. In our trusting we must believe that God really does hear and that He really will answer, then wait in anticipation for Him to do so. This is much too hard for us who have been conditioned to rely on the visible; who have been trained from birth with the notion that if we want to get something done we must do it ourselves. Factor into this dilemma our cultural climate of independence and hard work and it is no wonder prayer is often our last resort. Our mentality many times is, “I will do all that I can do and then pray.” The reality of prayer however hinges on taking the opposite stance; “I will pray first and then do what the Lord says,” or as John Bunyan said, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you've prayed.” It is a difficult and sometimes scary process,but those who allow the Lord to reshape their thinking to align with this truth discover the secret of those who wait on the Lord. These are the people whose daily lives are full of possibilities; not the things that are possible with man, but the things that are possible with God.
"Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord." - Jeremiah 17:5 (NKJV)
We are creatures of the familiar. Our nature is to trust in what is known and fear or avoid what is unknown. This struggle manifests itself in prayer because the essence of prayer is faith. We are speaking to an invisible God asking Him for things that we do not immediately see granted.This requires blind trust. It also requires patience. In our trusting we must believe that God really does hear and that He really will answer, then wait in anticipation for Him to do so. This is much too hard for us who have been conditioned to rely on the visible; who have been trained from birth with the notion that if we want to get something done we must do it ourselves. Factor into this dilemma our cultural climate of independence and hard work and it is no wonder prayer is often our last resort. Our mentality many times is, “I will do all that I can do and then pray.” The reality of prayer however hinges on taking the opposite stance; “I will pray first and then do what the Lord says,” or as John Bunyan said, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you've prayed.” It is a difficult and sometimes scary process,but those who allow the Lord to reshape their thinking to align with this truth discover the secret of those who wait on the Lord. These are the people whose daily lives are full of possibilities; not the things that are possible with man, but the things that are possible with God.
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