daily java

Daily Java:

And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled. For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, “Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him, but his fierce anger rages against those who abandon him.” So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer. (Ezra 8:21-23 NLT)

God is good and gives protection to those who serve him. However, sometimes our boasting about God overcomes our common sense.

Someone told me of a pastor who called a press conference of the media and all to witness him raising someone from the dead. It didn’t happen and, instead of glory, there was embarrassment.

I heard a man, a well-known preacher, say that the Lord had told him that he would see the end of days before his death. He is dead and the end of days has not yet come.

We read of people like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who, in the book of Daniel, defied the Babylonians king’s order to worship a gold idol. Their comment: our God will deliver us, but even if he doesn’t, we will still not worship that thing (Daniel 3:16-18).

They were smart. They gave a caveat. They said, we believe God will respond miraculously, but even if he doesn’t, we will still serve him.

Sometimes God doesn’t respond to our requests for divine intervention. In the passage above, the Jews had been in Babylonian captivity for 70 years and not had, not only opportunity to go back to Israel, but also executive permission and funding.

Ezra, the leader, a man of such respect that King Artaxerxes of Persia knew of him, was full of the knowledge of God and confidence in God. He told Artaxerxes that they didn’t need any protection on their trip, even though they were carrying a lot of gold. He said God would protect them.

Then he got to thinking about it. That was a rather audacious claim and one that he began to have second thoughts about.

He couldn’t ask for troops from the king without looking like a welsher, so the only thing to do was to make sure God heard that they needed him.

He and his people fasted and earnestly prayed for divine help and God heard them.

Sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he protects and sometimes he doesn’t.

He sent an angel to let Peter out of jail rather than be killed, but allowed James, another apostle and one who was a close friend of Jesus, to be killed. And things like this happen all the time.

He raised Lazarus from the dead, yet allowed others who were just as holy to stay dead. He healed people who had no idea who he was, yet allowed the apostle Paul to remain ill. He does one thing, yet allows another that seems equally important to remain undone.

Someone thanks God for the fact that they had a major auto accident and that they lived through it, yet the occupants of the other car died. And it goes on.

The winter before last, Ella and I drove through a blizzard to get to Lincoln, going very slowly and barely making it. But we did. God was with us. Yet that same weekend, the pastor of another church in Lincoln, one who was a good man and loved and respected by a lot of people, flipped his car on the ice and was killed.

That doesn’t stop us from asking or having faith, but we have to realize that God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. it is what pleases him, not you.

Your requests may be the best in the world and have a great desire to serve him. But it is he who will ultimately decide to answer or not.

But he is God, no matter what his answer may be.