BridgeWay has launched into the deep of a 40-Day Prayer Adventure. Each day we’ll provide a variety of devotionals, verses, and prayer prompts to encourage you in your pursuit of the Lord. Dive in! The water’s warm, deep and inviting.
“So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” – 2 Corinthians 5:9
Because he was God’s friend, Moses’s instinct was to please God. And you can hear that longing in his praying.
In Exodus 33:14-17, Moses prays for God to go with Israel as she enters into the Promised Land. “Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us…And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.’”
Ephesians 5:10 tells us “Find out what pleases the Lord.” Sounds simple enough, but not every Christian has this mindset.
I was talking to someone once who was struggling with a moral dilemma. She more or less came to me looking for a pastoral blessing on a bad choice she was about to make. And the thing was, she knew what was right and wrong in this situation! In fact, she said at very beginning of the conversation, “Look, I know as a Christian that the hard way is usually the God way.”
Then she proceeded to beg me to help them take the easy way out. Well, physician, heal thyself! Clearly, her instinct was not to please the Lord, but to please herself. And when it comes to prayer, as far as God is concerned, that’s a dealbreaker. “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18).
The hard way is usually the God-way. But don’t forget this – it’s also the best way.
Many love to quote Psalm 37:4 that says, “Delight yourselves in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart”, but they place the emphasis on the second half of the verse, as if God is in the genie-business of fulfilling our desires. But the first half of the verse is the anchor of the second half. We first must train our hearts to delight in the Lord. Then once the will of God becomes our chief concern, our desires will begin to align themselves with God’s, at which point God gladly will fulfill them.
How do we get to this place where we can say like David, “I delight to do your will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8)? It’s a matter of something called consecration. To consecrate means “to set apart for God”.
Mark Batterson describes consecration like this: “Consecration is a complete surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We relinquish everything to God – our time, talent, and treasure…Consecration means we no longer call the shots. We give God veto power.”
Consecration isn’t a one-time event either, but a lifelong discipline of daily-dying to ourselves, and a daily offering of ourselves afresh to God. “Consecration is a process of surrender that never ends,” Pastor Mark adds.
Yet think about what we receive in exchange. Yes, it’s true that the hard way is usually the God way. But the woman I was talking to left something out. It’s also the best way.
All these silly sinful desires we crave, which we tell ourselves we absolutely must have NOW! to experience peace and joy, will all eventually dissolve into nothingness, and leave us barren. Meanwhile, the God we try to push away, whose way is hard, will give us in the end life that is eternal and more peace and joy than our hearts can contain.
And there’s even more good news. Though God’s way is usually the hard way, we don’t have to do it on our own. To come to the Cross is to agree with God that we’re powerless to live a life that pleases him. For those who own up to their weakness and smallness, Jesus will come alongside us, and inside of us, Spirit to spirit, and give us the strength we need.
Humble yourself before Him today. Cry out to Him today. Seek Him. Listen to him. Yield to Him. His arms are open wide. And His desire is for you.
Listen to this song, then hit your knees for a few minutes and cry out to God about where you need His help in your life.
Questions to Ponder
1. Find out what pleases the Lord. List 2 or 3 specific ways to do this.
2. The hard way is usually the God way. If I discover that I’m doing something that pleases me but doesn’t please God, what will happen next? Who will win the tug of war?