Never Stop Praying – 7

 Never Stop Praying – 7

Subject – God’s Litmus Test

by Rick Welborne

1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NLT2) ¹⁷  Never stop praying.

Numbers 22:21-31 (NLT)
²¹  So the next morning Balaam got up, saddled his donkey, and started off with the Moabite officials.
²²  But God was angry that Balaam was going, so he sent the angel of the LORD to stand in the road to block his way. As Balaam and two servants were riding along,
²³  Balaam’s donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it back onto the road.
²⁴  Then the angel of the LORD stood at a place where the road narrowed between two vineyard walls.
²⁵  When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it tried to squeeze by and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So Balaam beat the donkey again.
²⁶  Then the angel of the LORD moved farther down the road and stood in a place too narrow for the donkey to get by at all.
²⁷  This time when the donkey saw the angel, it lay down under Balaam. In a fit of rage Balaam beat the animal again with his staff.
²⁸  Then the LORD gave the donkey the ability to speak. “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?” it asked Balaam.
²⁹  “You have made me look like a fool!” Balaam shouted. “If I had a sword with me, I would kill you!”
³⁰  “But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life,” the donkey answered. “Have I ever done anything like this before?” “No,” Balaam admitted.
³¹  Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him. 

--Some of our toughest moments as Christians is when you have prayed hard and believed God to do something in our lives and the answer is ‘no’ and we don’t know why. Maybe God is just silent.

--We are all so excited when God answers our prayers and gives us exactly what we wanted, when we wanted it, in the way we wanted it, but that is not how our lives normally go.

1. The Litmus test of trust.

Mark Batterson – Do you trust that God is for you even when He doesn’t give you what you have asked for? Do you trust that He has reasons beyond your reason? Do you trust that His plan is better than yours?

--I am sure, if we will all be honest, that we have questions or unanswered prayers that we really do not know why God did not come through the way we thought He would or the way we thought He should.

Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV)
²⁹  The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

--This verse tells us that there are certain mysteries that won’t be revealed until we cross over into eternity. I played tournament tennis in Texas. As you played and did well, you accumulated points. Major Tournament. 

--About two weeks before the tournament I started feeling bad and began to cough more and more. I kept pushing myself to train but found it more and more difficult…I was a sick puppy.

--I finally went to the doctor and he said I had pneumonia. What? You need bed rest for a couple of weeks and absolutely no tennis or any other strenuous activity. This couldn’t be true. 

--Being the compliant and non-competitive person that I am…I did exactly what the doctor told me…not! I played in the tournament thinking God would touch me and come through. He didn’t. I lost to a jerk.

--We don’t understand when God does not come through. We don’t understand when people die pre-maturely, we don’t understand when we lose a job, we don’t understand so many things.

--One of the hardest things for us as we pray hard and believe God to come through is enduring unanswered prayers. Hear me, there will be times as you follow God that trusting Him will be your only option. 

--If you can trust God when the answer is no, you are more than likely going to give Him praise when the answer is yes. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 

--When you don’t know what to do, you have to press into God and press on…by definition, praying hard is praying when it is hard to pray. 

Philippians 3:12-14 (NKJV)
¹²  Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
¹³  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
¹⁴  I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

--Our District Superintendent reminded us at Council that the only reason we can press toward the prize and hang in there when times are tough, is because Jesus has first laid hold of us.

--Because Jesus has initiated this relationship…I can lay hold of Jesus, I can lay hold of His promises, I can forget those things behind me and press forward. Can you let it go for Him?

--Sometimes what we perceive to be unanswered prayers are often God’s greatest answers for us. Our heavenly Father loves us way too much to give us everything we ask for.

2. Stop beating your donkey.

--Sometimes God gets in the way to show us the way. He sends or creates divine detours to get us going the right direction. This is absolutely His mercy to us. Thus, a talking donkey. There are many talking jack…

--A prophet named Balaam is on his way to Moab because he has been offered money to curse the Israelites. On his way, an Angel of the Lord gets in the way. Balaam does not see the angel but the donkey does. 

--Three times the donkey saves his life by running a different direction. Balaam’s response is to beat the donkey. Stop beating your donkey.

--Let me throw in here, if you are on your way to curse God’s people, the church, or even the pastor and someone is trying to stop you (you may consider them to be a donkey) listen to them!

--They are smarter than you think (obviously smarter than you are) and they are saving your life because God does not take it lightly when you curse or speak against his people. 

1 Chronicles 16:22 (NKJV) ²²  Saying, "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm." 

--We pastors love to use this verse to encourage people not to speak against us but if you read this verse in its context, it is talking about God’s people. We are all His anointed ones if we belong to Him.

1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV)
⁹  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people…

--Balaam’s donkey opens his mouth and says, what have I done to you to make you beat me these three times? Balaam’s response was that you made a fool of me, if I had a sword I would kill you!

--Wow! What would we do if our donkey or in our case, someone started talking to us? You know you are not thinking right or headed in the right direction when a jack…I mean a donkey, has to reason with you. 

--Finally, God opens Balaam’s eyes to see the angel of the Lord and reveals He would have killed him if it hadn’t been for his donkey. 

--Sometimes we get ticked off as much as Balaam when we can’t get where we want to go. We hate detours! They are frustrating. They are confusing to us.

Batterson: But the divine detours often get us where God wants us to go. The real miracle in this story isn’t the talking donkey; the real miracle is a God Who loves us enough to get in the way when we’re going the wrong way. These are the miracles we don’t want, but these are the miracles we need.

--I am so glad, when I look back on my own life when God got in the way of my own plans and rerouted me. My story of begging God to let me be a missionary to Mexico. God will give me the desire of my heart. 

--His re-direction was not easy. When I look at our Mission’s program now and realize that there was no way I could have influenced so many by staying in that village but now look what our missionaries are doing. 

3. Sometimes we need to just stand still.

--Have you ever had your back up against the wall with nowhere to go and there seemed to be no good options. Time was running out. It is almost like God is wanting to play the game of flinch. Israel knew this:

Exodus 14:13-14 (NLT)
¹³  But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.
¹⁴  The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

--I have used a phrase for most of my life…Do something even if it is wrong! When I said that to someone, it was to motivate them to not be passive but make a decision and go with it! Bad choice…oh well!

--I must confess that my phrase is not biblical…many times just doing something is exactly what God does not want us to do. He tells us to not be afraid and to stand still. 

--When the children of Israel were at the Red Sea they were completely hemmed in…no place to go and nothing left to do but pray. We love miracles. We just don’t like being in a situation where we need one. 

--We don’t like being between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea. It is bad to see the dust rising from the chariots and the horses who are in hot pursuit of you but now you can hear the sound of hoofs…when Stephanie rides or the horses run…sounds like thunder. 

--God loves to lead us into places where there are no options or no way of retreat…He becomes our only way of escape. Why does He do this? He sets us up so He can be glorified!

--Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today…The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Just stay calm and trust Me!

Psalm 46:10 (NKJV)
¹⁰  Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!