August 27, 2016

PRAYER THOUGHT:  "He who cannot pray in everything, as we are charged to do by Paul in Philippians, fourth chapter, has never learned in any true sense the nature and worth of prayer."  Andrew Murray

Matthew 6:31 NKJV - "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'"

Commentary:

Does God care about the basics?  We do.  What will we eat or drink?  What will we wear?  Where should we live?  How do we cover mortgage, car payments, and our children's college education?  We often ask the question, "How do I pay for all this?"  Ever think that perhaps the question ought to be, "How shall we PRAY for all this?"  Andrew Murray in his quote given above emphasizes that our ability to pray about spiritual things often depends on our ability to pray for temporal things.  His point is:  "He who does not cover and supply the wants of the body by prayer will never cover and supply the wants of his soul.  Both body and soul are dependent on God, and prayer is but the crying expression of that dependence." 

God WANTS us to pray for the basics of our lives!  He does care about them!  And He often helps us in our believing Him for great matters by showing us that we can believe Him for the day-to-day matters.  1 Peter 5:7 emphasizes casting "all our cares" upon Him.  Why?  Because "He cares for you."  Murray also said that the temporal matters of our lives are a very important part of our lives and God wants us to know that He is equally concerned about the condition of our bodies and our well being (our families' as well) as He is concerned about our spiritual condition.  

You've heard it said before but I'll repeat it again:  Pray About Everything!  As the "fix-it man" might advertise, "No Job too Big and No Job too Small" so God wants us to know that "No Request is too Big and No Request is too Small!"  Your prayer life will blossom when you see God answering the "small requests" and realize that's His way of saying, "I'll handle the big requests too!"