Cooperation with God

Good morning, dear friends!

Praise God for the wonderful day God has given us! Thank God for one more opportunity to be filled with His living Word!

Yesterday we discussed some important compounds of effective prayer. Effective prayer, first, includes worship and thanksgiving.

One more element of effective prayer is cooperation with God. Jesus said:

 «Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven» (Luke, 11:2).

When we continually pray and worship God, then our main desire is doing the will of God. Many prayers remain unanswered by God, because these prayers have a wrong foundation and demonstrate wrong priorities. For example, you may pray for a person with some serious problems. And you ask God to remove his or her problems or to solve them. At the same time you know that even if the answer to this prayer comes, the problems might return, since the cause of them has not been removed. That is why when Paul prayed he always asked for the people to learn the will of God and have a desire to do His will and be fruitful. This was the priority of Paul’s prayers. Focusing on God’s will helps the person not to fall into problems. So pray for the will of God to be fulfilled in your life, in the life of your family and your loved ones, in the life of your church and your town. If we do that, many problems will go away. But you cannot pray for the will of God to be done, if you personally refuse to submit to it. That would be hypocrisy. Make sure that you submit to the will of God and spreading of His will on the earth. That is what Jesus instructed His disciples to do in Lord’s Prayer.

Also you need to pray for better understanding of the Scripture and how to live according to it in your everyday life. God’s Word is the reflection of the will of God.

«For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God» (Colossians, 1:9-10).

Pray for better understanding of what God has given you in Christ and how much He loves you. When a person gains understanding of how much God loves him, he or she starts running to God and not looking for cheap substitutes of His love: alcohol, nicotine, drugs etc.

«Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power» (Ephesians, 1:16-19).

God created mankind and He knows that nothing else and nobody else – except God – can fill the void in us. David understood it and that is why he ran to God every time he faced difficulties.

«Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passed knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God» (Ephesians, 3:13-19).

Pray to have more love towards people, because it is the will of God. We must love each other.

«And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you» (1 Thessalonians, 3:12).

Pray for better understanding of how to show love to other people.

 «And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment» (Philippians, 1:9).

We will continue tomorrow.

God bless you!

Pastor Rufus Ajiboye