God’s Way Or My Way
God has reminded me repeatedly that I really do want to be obedient to him. I’ve found myself, from time to time, praying this kind of a prayer, “God, forget about what I’ve done and said in the last few months. I long to obey You. Help me to resist myself. Help me, Father, learn to obey You.”
He seems to be answering that prayer, because as I look at the characteristic of my life the last thirty-plus years, I find myself progressively learning to obey him. And it’s not so tough. Jesus said it would work out that way. He invited those who feel weary and burdened to come to him and take on his yoke, and then promised to give them rest and refreshment. Jesus then gave the reason why we can obey when he added, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” That’s Jesus’ perspective on life with him…and it’s truth.
For most of my life, I’ve been programmed to believe that if I really got my own way, I’d be happy. But the Bible and my experience have taught me that God getting his way makes me happy. And the truth is that I’m learning his way is the only way to go. Even though I really do want to obey, it is a continual struggle.
Jesus says he can do it. He can take you on, and do what you cannot do. He said he would initiate it and that he would finish it; that he’s the Author and the Finisher of your salvation. And he said he can save you in spite of yourself. I believe it for me and I believe it for you.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Have you ever had the thought, “Well, if the Father knows what I need before I ask him, why ask him?” Because it’s in the asking that you get to know him. It’s climbing up on his lap and saying, “Daddy, I’ve got something I want to talk to you about.” That brings you and God the Father close together in that intimate communication.
I like to think of one aspect of prayer as a release valve. It’s something that I do as a result of anxiety. Now I don’t know about you, but there have been times when I knelt down to pray and got up worse off than when I started. That’s because when I got through telling God about everything, I realized how bad it really was, and did not leave it with Him. By the time I got through laying out the whole story, I would say, “Oh no! There’s no way for you to fix this.” But there’s nothing further from the truth.
The Lord cares about your most anxious prayers, just like a father cares about his child’s anxieties. There are times when my prayers bubble up in desperation like a boiling kettle. I can pull the thing off the fire, cool it down, but if I put it back on the fire again, what’s going to happen? The heat’s going to cause it to boil again.
Sometimes, the fire of your life will cause you to boil. No matter how many times you take it to God, no matter how many times you take it off the fire, you’re still in it and it’s going to boil again.
That’s why Paul picks up this theme in Philippians 4:6, where he says, “Do not be anxious about anything…” What he says there is really better translated, “When you are overwhelmed with anxiety, and circumstances are so dire and so difficult in your life that they’re causing this overwhelming anxiety to rise, pray to God.”
That means when the pot’s boiling over, come and talk again.
John Wimber, Prayer: Intimate Communication (Anaheim: Vineyard Ministries International, 1997), 18-19.
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John Wimber on God’s Way Or My Way: “God has reminded me repeatedly that I really do want to be obedient to him. I’ve found myself, from time to time, praying this kind of a prayer, “God, forget about what I’ve done and said in the last few months. I long to obey You.””
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