Complete the Assignment
“Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.” ~ Psalms 5:3
So story time…I wake up in the middle of the night probably around 2-ish in the morning. I toss and turn trying to get back to sleep, because like most of you I have stuff to do in the morning and I don’t have time to miss out on sleep. So after awhile of this, I surrender as my mind won’t shut off. I’ve gotten to know God just a little bit in this Christian walk, and normally that means God woke me up for a reason. I need to see what He wants.
So I get up and head to the dining room table quietly as to not wake my family (especially my wife, she absolutely hates being woken up, but that’s another story for another day). I take out my prayer journal and write my daily entry. In it, I thank God for the day to come, my family, people on my list that I try to pray for every day, personal prayers and more. I whip out my Bible and read a couple of chapters. Then I take time to pray and talk to God. And here is the big one, guys…I even pray in the Holy Spirit (speaking in tongues). I know… I’m a pretty good Christian. (that was complete sarcasm).
After ALL of this I said, “Great job Darron! God should be proud. Now, lets get back to sleep and prepare for the rest of the day.” So I lay back down and I bet you can guess what happened. I can’t get back to sleep. My mind just will not turn off. I even try praying in tongues in my head, because again I’m not trying to wake my wife up. So after a few more minutes of this, I almost get this pain in my stomach and I know then that I’ve missed it somewhere.
I lay in the bed perplexed and I say, “Ok God, where did I miss it? I got up, did my journal early, prayed, and even prayed in tongues! What did I do wrong?” And just like God always does with me, He calmed me and immediately that pain in my stomach dissolved. I felt God speak to me and He said, “ Don’t worry, you will get back to sleep, but I have to teach you something in this moment. He asked, “What didn’t you do?” I mean I just listed off ALL the things I just did, that it never occurred to me that I didn’t do something. He restated again, “What do you always tell others to do when they pray to Me?” I thought for a second and then it clicked.
I always tell people what God revealed to me. When you pray, sit for a moment afterwards and allow God the opportunity to answer your prayer. Give Him time to speak back into your life. See, God is always talking, but the misconception is that He is quiet. Let me tell you, He is not! God is not trying to confuse you, He is a God of order and it is never in His personality to confuse you.
So, imagine a good friend gives you a phone call. They are going through a tough time. Say they are short this month of money for bills, and they pour out they frustrations to you. They tell you what they wish they had, and just want some help. Now imagine after they tell you all this, they just say “ok bye”, or “talk to you later” and just hang up the phone. I mean what if you have the money to help them and you are willing to do so? What if you know of an opportunity where they can earn more money? They didn’t even give you the opportunity to tell them about it. Well, that’s exactly what we do to God every time we pray and end the prayer with “in Jesus’ name, Amen” and then we just get up and leave. Prayer is a two way communication, so we need to allow God to speak back to us when we pray. Let’s complete the full assignment and not just half of it. We need to make sure we are waiting expectantly for God to respond.
-Darron
