Tag: Prayer

“It gives Me great pleasure to see you prosper. It delights My heart when you find the rhythm that I intend for your life. So many of My children miss what I have for them because they will not set aside their desires long enough to find My desires for them. They do not delight in Me and allow Me to place My ways in them.

"Look what I have completed in you because you have come to Me. I have modified your cares and needs. I have eliminated strongholds that have hindered you from seeing clearly and have replaced them with cravings for heavenly involvements. Even your understanding of what is real and what is not has changed over time. You are on your way to prosperity as I see prosperity. You are placing your life focuses where they need to be - on My desires. In fact, My desires are becoming your desires. That is the path to prosperity. Step by step, I am taking you there as We walk together. Come closer to Me. I will give you more of My heart so that you can prosper.”

Exodus 33:13 NIV

‘If I have found favor in your eyes, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you….’

Psalm 37:4 NIV

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 

Two things come to my mind when I ponder what has been said above. First, I think of how much work has been done in my heart to modify who I once was and move me to what the Lord desires for me. I know how impossible it was for me to think clearly for so many years. What astounding patience on His part! What incredible mercy and grace I have received, instead of the judgments and wrath that I deserve.

My second thought centers on the verse in Psalms. He gives us the desires of our hearts. I used to come with my wish list, attempting to hold Him to His Word. I expected every desire I gave Him to be fulfilled. In fact, there are many cars (pretty old and rusted cars now) that had my handprints on them because I prayed “in faith,” knowing that they one day would belong to me, simply because I desired them. When most of my dreams and wishes fell by the wayside, I began to seek the Lord in earnest to know what that verse really meant.

I found out that the key to its fulfillment is certainly delighting in the Lord, but I had missed how that played out in God’s economy. As I began to delight in Him and take pleasure in learning His ways, I found that He planted His desires in my heart. What wisdom! As I began to pray about His desires and ways that were now in my heart - low and behold! - things started to happen. What an incredible God! (By the way, I am so grateful that He doesn’t give us everything we ask for!)

Teach me Your ways, Lord, as I delight in You,

Jim Corbett

“I love to have you come to Me for many reasons, the main reason being the interaction and intimacy that We share. When you pray, you are learning to submit. You are learning to admit that you have no control over your situations. You are acknowledging that you need Me to intervene in your life. That is very wise on your part.

"When you pray for others, you have admitted that you can do nothing for them in your own power and so you turn their lives over to My power for what needs to be accomplished. That is good for you and good for them. It is good that you are learning to need Me, rather than continuing to rely on your limited resources. It is good for them, because My unlimited resources work on their need. Come to Me often. Jesus won that privilege for you. Let’s share everything. Come mostly just because I desire to be with you.”

Mark 15:37-38 AMP 

37) Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed out His life.

38) And the curtain [of the Holy of Holies] of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

Luke 23:44-45 NIV 

44) It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,

45) for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

John 5:19-20 NIV

19) Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.”

 

Think of what true prayer is. In prayer, as we approach the Lord, we are expressing an understanding of His office as God. We are saying that we understand and fully submit to His sovereignty, His power, and His position as the ruler of all that exists.

As we lower ourselves in our own eyes, making requests or offering heart petitions of love, we are stating that He is God, and we are not. To do so moves us from our normal position of rebellious independence to one of humble submission. It honors Him, whereas our fleshly offerings cannot do so.

It might be noted here that the Bible records Jesus as stealing away for prayer often. He taught those around Him to pray – they already knew how to sing to the Lord in psalms and hymns. He even stated clearly the importance of doing nothing in our own strength and showed us the importance of submitting to His Father’s strength at all times. I am convinced that He was showing us how best to honor His Father by looking to Him for all things. That is called worship!

Teach me to need only You, Lord,

Jim Corbett