I would like to ask a question for your consideration and study. After a sermon or Bible study or even a conversation with someone have you ever said, “that lesson or sermon was great, a very good presentation,” when really we thought the sermon or lesson was not as good as we indicated? Don’t we express our thoughts sometimes as positive when in reality our thinking about them may be more or less negative? We can voice our opinion about the matter and the person hearing it will think that is exactly what we meant when it really wasn’t. Will they know that what we said was not really what we meant? No, of course not. We are not given the ability to know the thinking of others. Our thoughts are our own, unless we reveal them.
I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about my prayers to the God of Heaven, trying to search my mind and select the proper words as I approach Him in prayer, are they too long, too short or repetitive in content. Do we sometimes listen to the prayers of others and ask the same questions?
May we consider Prov. 23:7? “For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” I cannot know what is in a man’s heart; neither can I judge a man by his prayers. Notice with me what these Scriptures say. In Luke 24:38, Jesus said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” He knew the disciples thoughts. They didn’t tell Him; He knew their mind without them even speaking. In Matthew 9:4, “Jesus knowing their thoughts said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts?’” These Scriptures tell us that God knows our mind before we even express it.
Romans 8:26-27 is very comforting to us when we think of how we express ourselves in our prayers. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” As we pray, choosing words that we feel are appropriate for praying to the God of Heaven, it is a great comfort to be assured that the Spirit speaks to God words that cannot even be uttered by us.
May we search the Bible and apply the teaching that it contains to our daily lives.
–Jimmy Frasier
Sunday Morning In-Person Service is Canceled