“You’ve not called Me, but I’ve called you, I have chosen you.”  What do you think?  “I have chosen you to be a pray-er.  I have chosen you to be My ambassador.”  What a responsibility, what an acknowledging of our own hearts and lives that God would entrust that to us.  Can you believe He’s given you that signet ring that you can say, “In the name of Jesus,” and just as though our mighty God, our Father, had spoken it Himself?  “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?”  Why would we face anything in our lives without invoking God’s presence?  The declaration of His will that we’re walking in His will, “You have not because you ask not and then too often when we ask, we ask amiss, James goes on to say, wanting to consume these upon our own lusts.”  Maybe we can understand lust here this way, anything that’s not the will of the Father, praying for anything that’s not the will of the Father.  What could we call the pride of life other than praying and trying to dictate God; amen?

All that’s in the world, the pride of life, and so many of our prayers are, “God, here’s what I want and here’s how I want it to manifest and I want it now.”  Well, James is very clear in that same epistle, one of the things he does is He doesn’t answer prayer when we demand or think it should be, but he says, “I want you to know that the temptations, tests, and trials will ultimately work patience in you.”  Amen?  Let it work in you.  Prayer necessitates patience.  Faith necessitates patience.  There is no faith, it is not biblical faith, if we’re not resting after we’ve prayed.  Prayer is being fully persuaded or faith being fully persuaded in God Who is going to perform His will, His purposes on our behalf.  Fully persuaded that what God has promised He is able to perform; amen?

So, we pray and then we rest and then we praise and in our prayer time and while we’re waiting on the presence of God, He gives us more Scripture to reinforce it.  More Scripture, and our faith is continually being built as we’re patient and waiting for the goodness of God, Who does good, praise God!  Fully persuaded, fully persuaded, “He that comes to God must believe that he is, (Hebrews 11:6) and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.”  Hallelujah!  Ask, seek, knock, and diligently seek Him, don’t faint, keep praying, keep praising, keep reading and getting more and more infusion of the Word of God and faith that begins to rise in us, hallelujah!  This great power and presence of God, so where does this happen?

In John 15:5 we see, “I’m the vine, you’re the branches: without me you can do nothing.”  There is only one way to get all of this stuff to work, and that’s to remain in Him, to abide in Him.  The word, “abide,” carries with it this very meaning, it has a permanency, we’re not renting.  We’re taking up ownership.  We’re not trying God out.  We don’t forsake Him when things are not going our way and start pouting and run off and try to feed our flesh or begin to look around for other solutions to our problems.  God will answer your prayer in the way that brings the most glory to Him; amen?  It’s not about you, it’s not about you, it’s about Him being glorified.