A waitress was having a bad day. The customers were
grouchy. The cooks had botched a
couple of orders. The tips had been small or non-existent. A really nice man sat down at one of
her tables. He was very polite, and then ordered a meal with a baked potato. When
she brought out his order he said, "Thank you," and proceeded to eat.
He began to butter his baked potato and found that it
was spoiled. He called the waitress over and said to her, "I don't like to
complain, but this potato is bad."
She picked it up and held it in her
hand and spanked it twice and said, "Bad potato, bad potato!" Then
she set it down on his plate again.
The bewildered customer watched her walk away
triumphantly, and then she wheeled around defiantly and said, "If that
potato gives you any more trouble, you just let me know.”
So many times we will allow circumstances to change us, instead
of being thankful for a nice customer, this poor waitress allowed the
circumstances to help her forget the grace of a nice customer. This is where
Grace can become a danger, when we become complacent to sin, because God shows
so much Grace. Jude warned about this.
Jude 1:4 For certain men whose condemnation was written
about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who
change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ
our only Sovereign and Lord.
There are two ways we mistreat Grace. First, we treat sin like
it is no big deal. We know we are forgiven – TRUE – but not EXCUSED! Secondly, we become
filled with self righteousness and our thoughts express this: My sin is not as
bad as _____________________________________
So what can we do to guard our hearts and continue to give
thanksgiving to our Lord. The answer is actually also the next item to be
thankful for: Prayer!
John Bunyan: "You can do more than pray after you
have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until after you have
prayed."
1. It is the POWER!
Exodus
9:28-29 Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let
you go; you don't have to stay any longer." Moses replied, "When I
have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD.
The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the
earth is the LORD's.
2
Kings 19:15-19, 35 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: "O LORD, God of
Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms
of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see;
listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. "It is
true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their
lands. They have thrown their gods
into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone,
fashioned by men's hands. Now, O
LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know
that you alone, O LORD, are God." 35. That night the angel of the LORD
went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the
Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning-- there were all the
dead bodies!
When God shows up like this…all mouths shut!
b.
Covert Power
Nehemiah 1:11
O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and
to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your
servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man."
I was cupbearer to the king.
Many times – our prayers accomplish what no one
obviously sees. Nehemiah chose to pray and step out in faith…showing
a sad face before the king, which could cause him his life. As we know from
Scripture the king’s heart was softened toward Nehemiah
John Guest wrote in Only a Prayer Away: "When we
pray, we change. More often than not we become the answer to our own prayers as
we open up ourselves to God in prayer."
"When a young man asked George Mueller to pray
that he might be able to rise each morning for a quiet time, the wise Mueller
replied, 'If you will get one leg out of bed, I'll ask the Lord to help get the
other one out.'"
c.
Invisible Power
We will never know how many times prayers we prayed for others
were the reason God intervened until we are in eternity!
Ephesians
6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all
occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert
and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Colossians
4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you
and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in
prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and
fully assured.
Mark
9:29 He replied, "This kind
can come out only by prayer. "
d.
Unlimited Power
Matthew
21:22 If you believe, you will
receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
No matter what it is, if God desires to accomplish something in
our lives, if we pray according to His will, NOTHING can frustrate it!
"Disturb us, O Lord, when we are too well satisfied
with ourselves; when our dreams come true only because we have dreamed too
little; when we arrive safely only because we sailed too close to the shore;
when with the abundance of things we are losing our thirst for more of God;
when in loving time, we have ceased to dream of eternity; when in our desire to
build on this earth we have lost our vision of a new heaven."
I will pick up next time with 3 more points.
Meditation: Have you ever given thanks to God in prayer, for
prayer? What causes you to pray? Big things only? Is prayer an after thought
many times? Sometimes, I have made the mistake to move in direction without
prayer, it has always come back to bite me! Have you ever done that?
