usadingo said:
I do think there's a big difference between witnessing and saying what good things God has done for us, and praying things like, "God, you said in your word that I can have whatever I ask, so Lord, I need a Mercedes."
You're absolutely correct dingo. . .there is a big difference.
Jesus said, "if you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask what you will and it will be done unto you."(John 15:7) In James 4:3 it says, "you ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts."
To abide means:
1: to wait for:
AWAIT
2a: to endure without yielding:
WITHSTAND b:to bear patiently:
TOLERATE
3: to accept without objection
4: to remain stable or fixed in a state
5: to continue in a place:
SOJOURN
If we are abiding in Him, we are waiting patiently for whatever need we have. We endure without complaining and becoming weary.
We accept without objection, Him. We remain stable on Him and His word without stumbling and mumbling and complaining. We are not our focus, He is our focus. And we continue until the end.
In order to mature in our walk with Him, there will be times of chastening. There will be times of grief and suffering wrongfully. There will be times of hardness, and persecutions and tribulations. I personally have gone through all of these things and God used them but He did not cause them. They were caused by either my sin or someone else's.
If we abide in Him and He abides in us. . . it is impossible to ask amiss. God said we can have whatever we want but only when our want for Him is bigger than our want for ourselves. Him alone.
There is an intimate love relationship going on in this scripture. I in Him, He in me. . .and somewhere in the middle of all the passion, He whispers to His bride, "ask whatever you want and I'll give it to you."
The one focussed on Him won't ask for more than needed to accomplish the job He as given them to do. The one focussed on themself will ask according to their own lust and won't recieve and will go in want.
When I sought healing, I sought God for my part in the problem and He faithfully showed me and I changed. As I changed the problem changed. He showed me how to stand against the enemy in a way I had never done before. He showed me how to keep the enemy away. He showed me the doors that I opened here and there with my words and my actions, and He showed me how to change that.
God desires that we be whole. The most important issue to Him is our soul and once that part is taken care of then He can start work on the rest. We are not left to grovel in whatever bad circumstance we find ourself in. He has given us a way out and we can learn it, put it into practice, and then live in it.
All of that does not happen overnight. It is a process of time. It was nearly 20 years for me. And now He's showing me more stuff I need to learn. Oy vey! Always learning. Always growing. Always changing. More and more each day being conformed to His image.
What a great and mighty and awsome God we serve. That He would even care boggles my mind.
(us and Jesus)
(Rev 3:20) Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sug with him, and he with Me.