Title: You Must Ask Me
Contents
♡♥♡ You must ask me / Ezekiel 36:33-38
*** Introduction
“Prayer” is both easy and difficult in the life of faith. Prayer is a conversation with God as if you were having a normal conversation with a friend, so it is not difficult or difficult at all. Nevertheless, what is the reason that the word “prayer” is still considered difficult? Perhaps it is because my own thoughts and life do not match God's will.
In this evening's text of the Bible, God also speaks. “Nevertheless, you must ask me to do this for the house of Israel to do for them.” What does this mean? Clearly, God has prepared something for the people of Israel, and he says that in order to obtain it, we must pray. Let's first look at the background of the verse to understand what this means.
1. Let's look at the background of the Word.
God's chastisement came upon the southern Judah, who disobeyed God's will and lived according to idolatry, pleasures, and his own good. God destroyed southern Judah in 586 B.C. through ‘Babylon’, which was growing into a great empire at the time. Many were killed, and the rest were taken captive to Babylon.
Ezekiel came from a priestly family and was called by God to become a prophet in the fifth year of Judah's captivity. And for about 22 years until the 27th year of captivity, he preached the word of God as a prophet and worked for the faith of the Jewish people who were enslaved in Babylon.
The prophet Ezekiel declared that the destruction of the people of Judah and their slavery was a punishment for their sins against God. And he proclaimed that God is sovereign over all the nations and peoples of the world, and that he is the sovereign ruler over human history. In other words, Judas declares that he must repent of his sins, submit to God's will, and return.
The reason for being disciplined and the prophet who urged repentance in the text prophesied that the Jewish people who were enslaved by God's punishment would be restored by God's grace. In other words, the Jewish people who are living in captivity in Babylon will return, Jerusalem will be restored to ruins, and it will restore the joy it has lost.
However, the reason for doing this is not because the Jewish people live according to God's will, but because God himself wants to accomplish it with God's exclusive grace. Because the people of Judah did not even have the strength to return to God. However, there is a work that the Jewish people must do. It is praying that God will fulfill His will according to His plan. In other words, just because God promises to restore you, you shouldn't expect that promise to come true. We need to pray that God's will will be done.
2. We must pray to live.
“You must ask me.” Don't forget these words. Saints are people who live only by praying. The Lord said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” He said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Then all these things will be added to you.” The Word and prayer are the lifeline of a Christian.
‘Henry Drummond’, a man of God, emphasizes ‘communion with God’ the most in his book. He said, “Every morning, five minutes spent in fellowship with Christ two minutes of face-to-face fellowship is fine. - will change the whole day, it will change our thoughts and feelings, it will make us able to do for Christ what we cannot do for ourselves or our neighbor.”
The moment when we say ‘Lord!’ even in the midst of our busy schedules is a time when our soul communicates with God and breathes. If that's not enough, the soul will turn blue and die of apnea.
The people of Judah had to pray until the end of their 70 years of captivity, saying, 'Please fulfill God's promise to restore Israel.' The reason God made this happen is because prayer is the channel through which God's will is accomplished. It is the necessity of prayer. In other words, it teaches that even if God's will and plan have already been confirmed, the responsibility to pray lies with the saints themselves.
Nevertheless, we are lazy in prayer. Sometimes I pray, but I have no confidence and no persistence. In the past, we asked the believers, ‘If there is a reason why you don’t pray, what is the reason?’ The answers are summarized as follows. ‘I can’t pray. ② I can't because I'm tired. ③ There is no time (because of the children). ④ I do not know how to pray. ⑤ There is no use in praying.’ and so on. This is the main reason.
Johann Wesley's mother, Susanna Wesley, raised 19 children. However, Susanna said that she had more than an hour of prayer every day. These days, people have one, two, or at most three children, and it is conceivable that they use children as an excuse to spend time despite the fact that they have all kinds of amenities.
Susanna had no place to pray. So it is said that wherever she was, she put on her apron and prayed. It is said that while Susanna wore her apron and prayed, the children would be quiet because they knew their mother was praying. It was because my mother taught me to be quiet during prayer time.
prayer,
(1) You must do it regardless of time and circumstance. - You must pray regardless of success or failure, time or absence, health or illness, or anything like that. Ephesians 6:18 says, “With all prayer and supplication, praying always in the Spirit… ” he said.
(2) Regardless of whether the answer is or not, you must do so. - Prayer is the breath of a Christian. Can you give reasons to breathing? A Christian's prayer is asking for God's will to be done, regardless of whether there is an answer or not.
⑶ Be patient. - No matter how busy, hard, or difficult life is, we must strive to come to the Lord and pray nonetheless. Rather, the busier, more busy, and the harder you are, the more you need to pray and persist until an answer is given. Like the Syrophonic woman who prayed while being reviled, like the widow who pleads with the unjust judge in Luke 18, we must persevere.
⑷ You must do it by faith. - The most powerful prayer is the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith heals the sick, washes away sins, and leads to salvation. In James 5:15, “The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If you have committed any sin, it will be forgiven you.”
I pray that through your awake prayers, the blessed life that God has established for you and for the church will be fulfilled.