Requesting - v - Demanding

It was the case of the missing computer that got my mind in a bit of a twist!

My 17 year old Grandblessing lost his work at school just the day before the pre-lims tests for the year 11 finals - as you imagine disaster struck.

Not only did the computer hold all of his work going back through the year but it also held vital papers he needed to complete studying that he had planned for that night.

Realising the computer was not at home, as he thought, a quick dash was called for as he and I zoomed over to school to search in vain with the help of one of the so-obliging cleaning staff.

Off home we set dejectedly to be confronted by a lecture from dad and a mum wringing her hands hoping it would help I presume.

The poor lad was, up to this stage, holding up so well. But then, overwhelmed by the circumstances of the events unfolding at home, just about lost it and went tearing off to his room, there to be flinging things around and hoping to 'remember' all the things he had documented in the folder inside his computer case.

That night was pretty hard on them all as they sat with him pretty well all night helping and encouraging him though it.

As it turned out, one of the teachers had locked the errant computer safely away in some obscure cupboard and he was able to locate it the next day - a tad late for the exam but nevertheless it was found.

My point through all of this was how I (of all people) reacted to this!

As soon as my grandson and I started off to the school I started to pray honestly and feverishly. The whole gist of my prayer centred on "Lord you know where this computer is - please find it for us" then as the night wore my prayer changed from 'Please find it for us "to "Why aren't you finding it for us"?

My prayer subtlety changed from a request in all humility to somewhat of a demand on God and a big question WHY?

You know we can often be demanding in our prayer life and in my opinion achieve nothing - God won't be dictated to and being able to go into the very presence of God does not give any of us a licence to be arrogant or rude in our approach to Him.

Yes! We can pray to Him with respect and honour remembering that here we are approaching the very God of Creation, the God who made us and created us all unique, who gave us life in the fist place.

My prayer to God on this occasion bordered on the DEMAND rather than the REQUEST made out of panic and somewhat anger rather than accepting His will in this situation.

When we pray, none of us have any real idea what God's plans are for us personally or for that matter any of us. His ways are far beyond ours in every respect.

So what have I learnt through this time? Well, not to be so demanding of God - accepting His will and trusting in faith that His will be done.

There is no doubt in my mind that someone who prays authoritatively is a person who knows that there is no need to be afraid to come boldly into the presence of God and ask with faith and expect what has been requested according to God's will.

That is so different to my prayers about the computer where I was demanding from God an answer. A person who demands something from God in this way in my opinion should expect nothing from God.

Often our answers from God are quite unexpected. But should that stop us from praying and keep on knocking at Heavens door to open wide and let us in? certainly not! That's the very time we should be praying.

When we pray we should be very aware that we pray according to His will and not some demand, stamping our feet and commanding that he do something right now!!

In prayer we can be bold and assert our FAITH, rather than assert our IRON WILL. If we assert our faith I really feel that God will move on our behalf, wanting us to seize HIS will for our lives rather that us demanding OUR will be done.

As a man, I often 'want' things done in my way when I want them done and not a moment before or after. I'm afraid God doesn't work like that - His way is FAR more superior.

I have learnt that to really feel the very presence of God in our prayers that we come to Him seeking His way, His kingdom FIRST, then everything else will be provided in His time in his will and His way.

Big thing to learn and in lots of ways I thank him for the "computer incident" which again showed up my futile prayers for what they were.

Just in conclusion let me reiterate that our approach to God MUST NEVER be rude or abusive, arrogant and self-filled.

Let's allow God to be the REAL authority, renewing our lives and our prayers in accordance with His will and plans, never being afraid to approach the very Creator of the universe but coming to Him with boldness and courage, full of faith and believing that his will for us is true and right.

As we come to God in prayer this week let's not hold off on our requests to Him - he really does want to hear them from us His children. But let's not presume we know better than him and try to take over His role, demanding and asserting our own authority and agenda.

And.....The cow tripped over the moon

Whatever would we do without our Grandblessings? That's  the question I asked my wife SueAnn as we both commented on Amelia excitedly telling us about this amazing book that was her reading material for the BOOK WEEK special.

Amelia is in Grade 2 at the local school and was so excited as she relayed all of the book and it's moral to us in graphic and a very amusing way.

THE COW TRIPPED OVER THE MOON was written by Tony Wilson and illustrated by Laura Wood and tells the story behind the famous nursery rhyme The Cow Jumped Over the Moon.

If you get a chance it is a MUST to read and is jammed full of great things to learn not just for the younger generation but for all of us.

The Cow tripped Over the Moon, is a story of perseverance, endurance, training and triumph.

Tony Wilson is a great author and on his website he has a video clip of him reading to his son Jack, who has cerebral Palsy. Indeed the book is dedicated to his boy with these amazing words "To my beautiful Jack - you will jump moons."

It's a very moving clip and I must admit that it made me fill up a bit.

The book explains how the cow tried and tried to actually jump over the moon and it took her eight attempts but hey! She did it in the end. She contended with meteorites, sunburn, tripping, and all sorts of hurdles in "moon attempts - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 "until at last on moon attempt 8 she made a successful jump just as dawn broke.

It's a very funny yet moving story especially when you know about Jack and his Dad and the special bond they have going.

So I thank our Amelia for bringing it to our attention and I am so glad that she did.

Perseverance, endurance, training and triumph - what great words and what great accomplishments - so what can we learn form all of this and through this amazing and thought provoking children's book?

I personally loved it - I loved reading it through the second and third time as well,  and the illustrations by Laura were magnificent and sort of said it all and enhanced the story greatly.

I would just like to share with you the very inspiration I personally took from the children's book - Those words of perseverance, endurance, training and triumph are all so important in our Christian walk with God. We certainly need perseverance and endurance to face the world out there, especially in today's world where Christianity is scorned, mocked and ridiculed as old-fashioned and useless.

In Romans 8 Paul talks about the feelings of perseverance and endurance when he describes the world as a pre-season workout.

We will have, and continue to endure, all kinds of pain, suffering, exhaustion and yes! even misery. But it's not for nothing.

Not only does God use our pain as a tool to make us stronger in our faith and character, but he also promises that our endurance will pay off.

Just like our Cow heroine, we will need perseverance and endurance to fight the good fight and to be victorious in the end.

God will use all of these trials for our good and we will, one day, reap the benefits of our patience, endurance and faithfulness.

The cow in our story trained hard to become an expert JUMPER over the moon - she failed many times but hey! she kept on training.

You know, as a Christian we have to train hard to counteract satan as he tries so hard to pin us down, make us fail and then spit us out broken and believing that we are just too bad for God, that "He couldn't possibly love us because look what we did here and or look what we said there."

We can't just keep on 'training'ourselves. We just can't do it by ourselves - many have tried to pull themselves up by their boot laces, and failed miserably - It is only when we become increasingly aware of the areas in our own personal struggles and start relying on God's strength and His alone that we can overcome.

In the end we will be triumphant IF we decide "enough is enough" and stop thinking that "we can do it." Unfortunately many of us Christians still think we can do it on our own and it's in those times when satan will target us because it's obvious he has had success there so why wouldn't he keep on keeping on?

It's a never ending cycle of trying so hard not to fall into the ditch of failure when all we really need to do is to believe that our God, our Saviour, who died for us, is way bigger than all of these 'ditches' that we keep falling into.

To break the cycle of continuing sin, we need to realise that we just can't do it by ourselves - what we have done in the past isn't working. Satan knows we will fail so he keeps on flaunting it at us.

I was told a story once of a guy, when he was off to work in the morning, fell down a ditch. He dusted himself off, climbed out and went on his way.

The next day, he went past the ditch, looked at it and would you believe it, he fell in again. Once more he clambered out, dusted himself off and went to work.

The next day, he walked around the ditch, and thought to himself  AHA I did it, patted himself on the back and promptly fell into the ditch.

The next day he went past the ditch, looked back over his shoulder, chuckled to himself, fell into a hole and ended up in the ditch.

Finally, the next day he walked on the other side of the street. What did he learn? That He couldn't do it.

Many of us, lose our triumph because we really do believe we can overcome the wiles and temptations of satan on our own - believe me we can't! Change your strategy, God is so much bigger than your stumbles.

God will give us the victory and the triumph, if we choose to believe that he can. But, if we choose to believe that we can rely on our own strength, then we will like that guy in our story keep falling into the ditch.

John 15:5 says:- "We can do nothing apart from God"

So when you have your own moon the jump over, you will only achieve success, when we truly believe that God is our strength and he is our mainstay. Through Him and Him alone will we have success. We can't rely on our own strength - there are far too many ditches out there.

God bless you this week as you hand your 'ditch falling' and 'moon jumping' over to your Creator God - the only one who is far far bigger than any addiction and continuing sin in our lives.