Maybe you guys have heard of a book by Terry Esau called Surprise Me. The general premise of the book seems to be to pray that God would 'surprise you'. Which to me is a terrific idea. You've got the creator of the universe listening to you when you pray. And it seems insane that we don't fully grasp the power that He holds. Ok, maybe 'fully' grasping might be asking a bit much. But you'd think we'd at least become greedy for God and want to see His power displayed. I doubt if I ask for something He's going to turn around and say.. well you know.. that's a bit hard to do.....Nothing is impossible.
Anyway, to carry on with this story, according to my information, this one church decided to see if it's members would follow the guidelines in the book. And ironically enough that same church made headlines not long after they began praying for God's "surprises". This is the church that had it's pastor electrocuted in the baptistry in front of the congregation.
Ok, now before you get mad at me, I'm not about to say God's judgement fell, or that the pastor was in sin. Nothing like that. But, I firmly believe that if you ask God to do something, you should prayexpecting. The bible says (James 5:16) - Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Granted, the actual verse is talking about sin and healing. But I believe it applies to anything. Effectual and fervent. I'm sure a lot that we do pleases God and I'm more than certain being fervent about anything concerning Him would please Him. I'm struggling to hold back a rant on the dispassion and indifference of Christians today as I type this. Staying on topic is harder than one might think. Anyway, one might imagine that there are bad surprises as well as good ones. When you're dealing with the Creator of the universe and you want him to 'surprise you', unless you're wholly willing to deal with the outcome, maybe you should pray for 'good' surprises'.
On the other hand, if you are wholly committed to seeing God move in whatever way His heart desires, to allow Him to teach you whatever it is He knows you need to learn in order to meet the challenge that will face you tomorrow, maybe you should simply pray God's will be done in your life. Either way, whether you're praying for a surprise, or God's will, if you pray it fervently, with your whole heart, God will answer. He truly loves you and He truly wants You to know Him. He is holy and we are unworthy, but that doesn't matter to God. God proved time and time again in the bible that He loves His people. And that all we have to do is call out to Him. Call.
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Wow. That's really good. So do you really think that God would be happy if we just got fervant about SOMETHING? God's mercy is great and he is very patient with slow children who never seem to get it. He does like people who are trying though. Look at his relationship with Peter. He made Peter the head of the church when he left, despite Peters many faults. Peter was fervant to say the least. It seems to me that we not only don't want to be fervant about anything ourselves, but we discourage others from getting all worked up about anything themselves. Ok, I'll quit, sorry I rambled on a bit.
Look back on old times, they mourned which meant they stripped naked and threw dirt on themselves. The celebrated and they, and their family and friends went dancing in the streets. They felt things passionately. Did you see the footage on when they were kicking the jews out of the Gaza strip? People there were mourning. And they weren't mourning because something was happening to their specific mothers or fathers, but because of their heritage, and culture. I'm trying to think of the last time I mourned for the American people as a whole, or mourned each supreme court decision that takes us farther and farthre away from "In God We Trust".
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