Waiting Prayer is the only way I know to stay at rest in the midst of anything.
Learning how to wait in God’s presence daily in prayer is slowly producing some significant results in my life. I’ve so often had expectations in ministry that crushed as God had very different plans.
I would venture to say many of you also have battled unmet expectations in your relationships, finances, ministry callings… Many people get mad at God during these times. However, as we surrender and grow, we find God doing something so much more wonderful than we would have imagined.
Surrender in Prayer
It takes daily surrender to simply sit in God’s presence and love Him for Him alone, not needing a single thing from Him. There’s a time for petition and intercession. But we also need times to simply sit and love Him. Even if He isn’t answering our prayers as we think He should. Even if the prayer seems dry sometimes.
Ps.131:1,2 — Lord, my heart is not haughty, Nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Nor with things too profound for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Many of us would like to make a decent income, have a nice home, maybe even be honored in our profession. But what if God calls us to something very different than that?
Paul grew deeply in surrender to God’s plan. He was warned about going to Jerusalem and went anyway! Submitting to prison. There was nothing in this world he needed to be happy. God alone had become his contentment.
Growth
Life so often goes in ways we did not expect. When we practice a life of surrender to God’s presence, taking up our cross daily, we can handle these interruptions and watch God do amazing things with us as we launch out in these new and unexpected directions.
“The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness.” — A.W. Tozer
Brother Lawrence, (The Practice of the Presence of God) embraced being a lowly dishwasher, yet we know his name to this day.
Will you choose a life of surrender and allow God to direct you in unexpected and wonderful ways?
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