Better than, "Yes."

1 John 5:14-15 ESV
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. [15] And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

See, that's the kicker, discerning if my request is according to His will.

A lot of things seem "good" and "fair" and "just" and they well may be but that does not mean, at least in my experience, that they are according to His will.  They may be outside His will or even contrary to His will.  It depends on the circumstances and, well, His will.

Ephesians 5:10 ESV
and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15, 17-18 ESV
And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. [15] See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. [17] pray without ceasing, [18] give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

We always pray, "Your will be done." But all too often, for me at least, it's my way of confessing that I am absolutely clueless as to whether or not my request is in His will.

Then there is the kicker:

James 4:3 ESV
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

There's the.  I assume that many of my personal prayers are not answered in the way I hope because somewhere underneath all the solumn prayer words there lurks some selfish motive that thwarts, not His answer, but my asking.  I ask wrongly.

That's a tough nut to crack!  I can well understand why the Puritains were so determined concerning the need for self-examination.   We really do have to accept that our hearts are deceitful and that we are the ones we deceive most  often.  We can easily fool ourselves into thinking that we are being selfless and submissive in our prayer and that they are according to His will.

Right now I have a very specific prayer request before Him.  I've kept it simple, short and sweet.  I don't believe is it greedy or self-serving but rather fair, good and reasonable.  BUT there is a lurking doubt in the back of my mind because I will benefit from a "Yes  It is a prayer about me, for me.  It is a prayer and also a test.  I have asked for X which is a fair request and consider a "Yes" as an answer to another request/query.  In short I have figured if He grants X then Y is in His will.  Make sense?

But then that old....ask wrongly and don't test God thing comes up in my mind and I doubt not His goodness but the rightness of my prayer.

So I come to:

Philippians 4:5-7 ESV
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; [6] do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. [7] And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This does not promise a "Yes," to my prayer.  What it does promise is His peace in His answer which will in turn guard my heart and my mind.  And isn't that better than a "Yes"?

Finger Thinking through James 009 050313

Jas 1:2-3  Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  (3)  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

We need to look hard at these verses and grasp the significance of come finer points.  

"Consider," is an aorist imperative.  This means that we are to plainly and simply "consider"  It is a call to a definite preference in regards to trials.  We are to choose to do what James admonished us to do

Trials are blessings - period and we are to choose to see them as such.  We may not like them, we may struggle under them but they are always for our good and His glory.  Period.

"Joy" - this is not some weird sort of happiness.  Rather it is a confident sense of the valuable purpose and result of trials.  We express joy in giving thanks to God for His promise to provide and guide.  Usually, it is ONLY is trials that our focus is on our need for submission to His sovereignty and out desperate need for His providence and protection.  Sad fact but true.  However it IS a cause for joy to be lovingly found by the shepherd and cared for.

Gold or sivler ore has value but the value and beauty are diminished because of all the impurities in the ore.  It is only through refinements (the application of a catalyst and heat) that the true beauty and value of the gold or silver can be known and valued.  when we are in the refining trial we may and should rejoice in God's caring enough to provide for our refining.  Sure, it's usually not fun and we are not "happy" but we can rejoice in His love and desire for our sanctification.

"Various trails,"  there is not single method that God uses to purify us.  The purification needed in one life at any one moment way well be very different from any one moment in another's life.  So God brings only that trial that is appropriate for us at that time. 

Having said that let me add that God does not need our help in refining us.  I worked with a man who was in a financial time of trial.  One day he declared that he had decided to quit smoking.  I advised him not to.  That was not what God was focusing on in his life at that moment.  Also, as we talked, it became clear that he thought that if he quit smoking God would "fix" his financial issues -  In other words he thought that by doing a good work (quitting smoking) God would "re-pay" him or that he would "earn" God's relief of his financial issues.  This is simply "pagan" thinking and offensive to and in our relationship with God.

"Knowing."  Ginosko in Greek.  A knowing from experience.  In James the reference the readers would have thought of (since James is the most Jewish writing in the NT) would have been god's dealing with Israel and His discipline of them through trials in order to bring them back to Himself.  This frame of reference should move you and I to become as familiar as we can with God's dealing with His people in the OT.  It is here we will see clearly the lovingkindness of God even in the trials He brings to His people.  We will also see how they (and we) rebel against and soon forget the lessons the trials were intended to teach us.

"The testing of your faith."  Faith is used two ways in scripture.  It is used, of course, to refer to our trust in God as our good sovereign and it is used to refer to the content of what we believe the Bible teaches, the content of our faith.  Both need to be refined.

We sin, certainly, becasue the "principle of evil," as Paul says, still abides in us.  But we also sin because what we believe is, well, wrong.  God needs to refine both our trust and our knowledge and understanding.  Theology may seen like something only for the specialist but that is an arrogant error.  Theology is simply the rational and systematic study of what we may know of and from God.  Sure, it can be tough and even boring but it forms the content of our faith and that content needs to be refined just as much as the living out of that faith.  If our theology is off, our living can not be "on."

So we can view this testing as God inquiring whether we trust Him AND whether or not we trust Him appropriatly, according to His revelation.  Theology is an aid to our being able to plainly, "rightly divide" the Word and hence rightly live it out.

The result of these trials/tests of our belief and practice as essential and are great blessings.  The produce endurance, the ability to stand under a load.  The not only "clean us up," but they give us confidence and strength to stand.  And if ever we needed to know and practice right knowing and living so that we might stand, it is now.

Trails and tests are never pleasant but they are providentially productive in our seeking to glorify God and enjoy Him now and forever.