When my son was a toddler, he was very inquisitive and had a mind that wanted answers. He would ask how things worked (he's now a mechanical engineer) and why things happened like they did. He would follow one why with another. My father, who was a great and godly man that we all adored, would try to come up with all the answers for my little Robert. He would patiently try to explain, as well as he could, to a 4-year old so that his young, questioning mind would continue to ponder things. One day when Daddy had tried to explain another question and Robert was not tracking with his explanation and it had gone on long enough that even curious Robert was no longer interested, he said, "Grandpa, you can just say you don't know...that's what my daddy does." That was not an answer that we used much in my prideful, German family...we always had an answer!
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God invites Jeremiah to inquire of Him...He not only invites him to, He urges him to and promises reward. Our memory verse this week is Jeremiah 33:3, "Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come." We need to keep the verse in context and remember this is God's invitation to Jeremiah, but we also know that James tells us in his epistle, "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone." So while the specific promise is from God to Jeremiah, the principle is carried forward to all of us as God's children. He is ready to give us answers. He is ready to share His wisdom with us. Ask, ask and ask again. If something in His Word isn't clear to you, ask the Holy Spirit for revelation. Dig deeper in Biblical word study and cross referencing. And ask again. Albert Einstein once said, "It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer." Stay with the questions until God brings you His answer.
We wonder why our prayer time isn't what it should be...could it be that we're not asking enough? Or for the right things? Prayers for our earthly needs and protection are certainly warranted, but they shouldn't be the central focus of our prayer life. When you study what Jesus prayed for (John 17) and what the apostles prayed for (2 Corinthians 13:7-9, Jude 1:24-25) it most often isn't for anything of this world. It's prayers for the sustenance of their faith and for the faith of others, it's for open eyes and ears of the people they are addressing, it's to live lives of glory to God...it's asking for revelation to move out of our temporal vision and into eternal vision, where we begin to see the true Kingdom of God.
So let's ask, and ask and keep asking...we'll never get an "I don't know". We may hear, "Let me show you" as God takes our hand and guides us in His Word and in His providence to His true and perfect answers. Faith in Him - He IS eternal truth.
So, we wrapped up Week Three! We now are halfway through! Can you believe that? Our theme this week was listening. Have we learned what an important part of our spiritual discipline listening is? It is vital to our relationship with God. I loved how Melissa Spoelstra illustrated this when she pointed out that we would never go into a room where our spouse was, tell him everything we need from them for the coming week, and turn around without waiting for any kind of response. That would NOT be relationship-positive! We can't treat our relationship with God in that way either...using our prayer life to dump out all of our needs, worries and concerns, and then roll over and turn out the light without allowing God any time to take our words and speak back to us His words of assurance. Assurance that He hears us and that He is already at work on our behalf. Listen to Him through the Words of Scripture, again assuring us that He is our good, good Father. And as our good Father, there will be times He has words of discipline for us, and we must take time to listen to these all important words as well...even though sometimes hard to swallow, we must pay attention so that we can keep our lives in line with God's design. As C. S. Lewis said, "We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive." This is especially true when applied to our spiritual lives. And there are times when God, in His wonderful mercy, has to shout to us, "You're going the wrong way!" (Sometimes followed by "again".)
So our last lesson of the week is ask, ask, ask and the overriding theme of the week is listen, listen, listen! Why would we ask and then not bother to listen? But boy have I been guilty of that! Let's resolve to ask AND listen AND to know our God better through both tools. Let's be ready to have Him show us remarkable and amazing things and, going back to our first week's memory verse, start making His words our delight!
In His Amazing Love,
Janice
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