Luke 11:1 “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray”.
Do you wake up believing that God is more committed to seeing good success in your life than you are? I know I need to continually remind myself of the fact that the Lord is working in my life at all times independent of my performance or feelings on any particular day. His grace towards me is new every morning and He is faithful to his promises. So if God is always for us what is it that can thwart us at times from entering into the fullness of life that he promises?
It is important that we understand the way in which the Lord works and the process it takes for the word of the Lord to come to pass in our lives. When the Lord is sowing the word for the season to come into your life, picture it like Jesus taught us when he talked about the farmer sowing the seed. There are stages in the growth process which lead to new life. Remember the word is a seed, it takes root, grows in us and bears fruit. There is a time that a seed is sown, later there is a time that a seed is harvested but there is plenty of opportunity in the middle for that process to be interrupted. So what is it that gets in the way? I think one of the biggest battles we will face is DISTRACTIONS. Everyday we are plagued with multiple sources coming at us from all directions. Some are internal, in terms of our thinking, fears, insecurities, and others are external whether its Social Media, people, opinions, schedules all vying for our attention and our heart.
Therefore, if we agree that distraction is one of the primary tactics of the enemy to keep us from God’s best life, how do we ensure that the seeds that are sown actually take root? When we look to the life of Jesus we know that we can find help for every situation we face. The fact that Jesus came to the earth and took on the form of a man shows us that He knows what it is like to walk in our shoes. He understands the difficulties and challenges that we face. When it came to distractions he was a man who was constantly bombarded with the needs and demands of others and yet he found a way to stay true to his purpose and calling. So we should take a closer look and see what we learn from how Jesus lived his life. As I was writing this I felt the Lord prompting me to take a study of the disciples, they were physically closer to Jesus than any other people. They saw Him open blind eyes, raise the dead, cast demons and yet its only recorded that they asked Jesus to teach them one thing: Luke 11:1 ‘Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray’.
So why is it that this was the one thing that they wanted to learn about above everything else? I believe that they witnessed first hand what happened to Jesus when He went and spent time alone with his Father. Just take a look, for example, at the time Jesus hears about John the baptist being beheaded. The first thing Jesus does is leaves the crowd and goes away. Jesus was fully human and fully God. He felt all the emotions that we would have felt but He learnt to bring all that emotion, all of his humanity and come humbly before his Father to receive everything that he needed. Many times in my life when I have heard tragic news or have felt hurt and betrayed by others I have wanted to withdraw and but I have turned away from everyone including the Lord, or if I have run to the Lord I have put away all thoughts of continuing in his purposes and calling on my life. I have allowed myself to wallow in my pain or grief, believing I need time for me. Jesus operated differently. He had complete confidence and trust in the Father’s ability to sustain him. He didn’t allow the voices in the crowd or the work of the enemy to distract him from the call on his life.
Think about your life today. Where is the enemy trying to divert you from entering into your calling? What obstacles is he trying to put into your path? Take time to be with the Father. Allow him to still your heart and centre you again on your God given purpose and don’t let anything pull you away from what the Lord is planting in your life.
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Unshakeable Hope Series – Exchange Church Belfast 2021