God's Got a Better Idea
Our Box Of Ideas Will Never Be Big Enough
But when evening was come, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is an uninhabited place, and the best of the day is now gone; send the people away to go into the villages and by something to eat.” Matthew 4:15 Weymouth New Testament
Instructional Meditation
I came across this yesterday morning and I thought, “what an example we have here of what it looks life when we try to prescribe what we think God ought to do.” And although I can chuckle at the disciples telling Jesus what they thought He ought to do, because I know the outcome of the story and they didn’t, I’m immediately reminded of how often I’ve done the same, particularly through prayer. And I don’t know if any of us are not guilty of this at one time in our lives or another. And oh how often I’ve mapped out, through prayer of course, what God might do in a given situation; how He might move on my or someone else’s behalf. I’ve usually got lots of good ideas, in fact, I never have a shortage of them. I am a recovering intellectual in fact, a college graduate; I know how to think, and my thoughts abound. I can also attribute this in part to my Creator, He Himself bestowed upon me, at birth, His motivational gift of teaching outlined in Romans 12, and with this gift comes the ability to learn and study and ponder and assimilate ideas with ease, for a teacher is first and foremost a learner.
And so I often catch myself in prayer with my thoughts or agenda directing the prayer. And when I do, I have to surrender it back to the Lord through various means, methods, and words such as, “not my will, not my understanding Lord, but Yours Lord.” And I’m reminded again that He is infinite, uncreated, limitless, and able to do things in an infinite number of ways that will always ALWAYS exceed my understanding. And then I’m encouraged, all over again, that He is able to do things that are always outside the limits of my understanding; and in turn I’m thankful, all over again, that He is not limited by the limits of my understanding. And I notice here how often I’ve used the word “understanding” and perhaps it’s because my life verse, since 198, has been Proverbs 3:5 (in connection to Proverbs 3:6). And this was birthed from an experience of wrestling with the Word one night with utmost levels of frustration, because the Word I was reading (I can’t remember if it was the Gospel of John or somewhere in First, Second, or Third John) was not submitting to my understanding! Imagine that!
God’s Mercy
But God in His mercy, while I was in the shower the next morning, broke through in a way I could not NOT recognize was Him. It was so startling. I felt the external impact of a thought literally drop though my skull and into my head, not once, but twice – “Lean not on your own understanding.” In this manner I was able to recognize it was not my own thought; the source was not internal. And Yes, He spoke to me in King James English because that was the Bible I read for the first handful of years of my walk with Him. And the thought was so strong I could hear the thought; it’s best described as an audible thought. I now understand (through Him) this was the voice of the Holy Spirit, and this is the backstory of how “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding” because my life verse and a strong part of the foundation of my relationship with my heavenly Father. And it has been a life-long lesson.
So the temptation, at least for me, is to resist operating by the “sight” of my own understanding and to allow Him to direct my paths – my geographical paths as well as the paths of my understanding and the paths of my prayers. And please don’t misunderstand, I have my moments when my prayers soar in the heavenly realms, when my words are not my own, but rather His, when my words are faith-filled and operating in a realm beyond my own capacity, when my spirit submits its own understanding to His. And I have this thought even now that makes me chuckle – perhaps I need to pray to surrender and submit my understanding to His before I pray. A prayer before the prayer as it were.
Man’s Meager Prescription
At any rate, man has his idea of how God could operate, how God “might, could, should” respond to prayers. And I wonder if some of these prayers give God cause for Holy laughter. I do know that His spirit often causes me to stop in my tracks when I’m praying and give me the course correction needed. So that He can do what only He can do and what He does best – to orchestrate things in such a manner that are always above and beyond what I could ask, think, or even imagine to pray in the wildest corners of my imagination. Oh, thanks be to God He gave us the gift of imagination, along with the gift of words, and a sanctified imagination can partner with God and with Faith to see great things accomplished. But there are also times we inadvertently get stuck in our finite imaginations and understanding. It is in these times that God reminds me to “let God arise” and let God be God. And it is in these times a switch is flipped and prayers of tongues are released allowing God to do the heavy lifting in my prayers.
So what does it look like when we allow God to be God? When we employ and exercise the truth that “nothing is too hard for the Lord”? Well, there’s no limit to how it might look, but here’s one example – an example which portrays man’s idea of what God “ought” to do (“send the people away) versus God’s idea, which is always a bigger and better idea, which cannot always be captured by man’s imagination(s) and which oftentimes has a far better result:
God’s Bigger and Better Idea:
“They need not go away,” replied Jesus; “You yourselves must give them something to eat.” “We have nothing here,” they said, “but five barley loaves and a couple of fish.” “Bring them here to me,” He said.” Matthew 14:16-18
Here we see God’s better idea - “You give them something to eat” meaning “You take some responsibility!” Oh but that is another topic. But you know the rest of the story, the miracle multiplication of our daily bread the disciples were to witness and partake of for the first time. But they didn’t do it independent of Jesus, they did it with Him and through submitting their understanding – or perhaps it was their lack of understanding - to His unknown and mysterious ways. And herein lies the key: Anything we do, anything we pray, must be submitted to His ways and His understanding, not our own. This requires faith, and in this way we partner with God for the outcome that often exceeds the bounds of our understanding. Because we cannot operate in the strength of our own understanding. This would be to operate independent of Him and miracles and miraculous answers to prayers can only accomplished through dependence on and partnership with Him. To God be the glory.
Let us pray
Lord Father God,
May we pray the prayers that please you, that delight Your heart; may we pray the prayers you can work with, may we pray the prayers of faith. May we prayer according your will and your way. May we lay down all selfish ambition in our prayers, and prayers of our own understanding. May we pray the prayers that are free of our own limitations, restrictions, and self-prescribed prescriptions that would try to control You or the outcome. May we pray in faith, and may we pray in love, a sacrificial love willing to submits to that which is Greater.
In Jesus precious Name, Amen.
Hello friend, I pray this has blessed you and I have more messages on prayer and the Word (always the Word) forthcoming on a weekly basis. I am a Minister of the Gospel and a gentle reminder here - this is my ministry, my means of support, and that there’s a promised blessing in giving. Would you prayerfully consider sowing a one time seed at this time? In His Love, Your Fellow Sojourner