PUSH FROG!
Sunday, May 23, 2010 – AM
By Pastor James May
There are a lot of people in the church today who are facing some hard times and some hard decisions. Every day seems to bring more questions and fewer answers. There are times when troubles just seem to pile up on other troubles and we wonder, “Oh Lord, how long will you wait before bringing me the answers I need?” Sometimes it seems that we can pray and the heaven’s are brass. That’s the time when we need to learn to hang on keep bombarding heaven’s Throne with our prayer. If we really believe that God answers prayer then it is those times when we feel like just giving up, that we need to pray even more.
In Luke’s gospel Jesus teaches us a powerful lesson on prayer; one that will help us to realize that continuation in prayer is not a futile attempt, but actually moves the heart and hand of God. One of my favorite verses of the Bible can be found in Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
I know that most of you have experienced the tenacity of a child, or a teenager asking you for something that they really wanted. They just don’t know, or won’t accept the meaning of the word “NO”. They have figured out how the system works. “If I ask long enough, and keep bothering mom or dad long enough, they will get tired of me asking and something will happen. They will either say, “Okay, do whatever you want, just leave me alone”; or I’ll get sent to my room for the night. A 50% chance is all they ever see. The chance of getting what they want is too great to just let the request slide after the first no.
That’s the same idea that is pictured in my mind when I read these scriptures that Jesus gave us concerning prayer. First, we are to ask for whatever it is that we need or want. It’s not that God doesn’t already know what we are praying about, it’s that he desires to hear us learn to communicate with him.
I’ve heard people say that they have prayed for a long time for the answer to a certain prayer and the answer still has not come. It can get discouraging when prayer goes unanswered for a long time, but we should not quit praying anyway. We need to have the tenacity of a teenager who wants to use the car to go riding around on Friday night. They never give up; and we should never give up praying for our answer from God either.
The parable is given of a man who is sleeping in his bed in the middle of the night while his neighbor is entertaining guests from out of town. At midnight the neighbor runs out of bread and drinks so he comes knocking at the door of his friend. Now if you are like me, you certainly don’t want to get up to answer the door in the middle of the night. In our time, this isn’t a good thing. All kinds of thoughts run through your mind. Is it a robber, is someone sick or is it the police bringing bad news? First of all, your heart rate jumps, you get nervous, throw on a robe and go to the door. I’m probably already upset that my neighbor’s party has kept me awake late, and now he’s standing at my door wanting to borrow some bread. If you’re like me you would probably want to give him something alright, but it may not be bread!
Because he wouldn’t quit beating on the door, I would give him whatever he wanted just to get him quiet and get back to bed.
The idea that Jesus is trying to instill within us is that we must continue in prayer, keep on knocking on the gates of Heaven; continue to ask our Father in Heaven for whatever we need or desire; and keep on expecting to receive the answer from him.
Now God never sleeps; he doesn’t grow weary with our constant prayer; and he’s always ready to bless his people and answer our prayers. So why doesn’t he just give us the answer quickly and be done with it? We have to understand that God is always in teaching mode; trying to teach us to draw closer to him; to know him and to love him.
Quite often the answer to prayer is forthcoming simply because God desires us to learn to trust him for the answer even though it hasn’t come. He also wants us to continue to pray, not so that he can hear us repeat the same prayer over and over, but that we might grow a little more in faith, each time we ask.
Luke 11:10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Now the answer won’t come just because you ask. There are some qualifying circumstance that must be met before God will answer your prayer. First of all you must ask according to God’s will. If your request runs contrary to God’s will for your life, then all of the praying in the world won’t get an answer because God knows that what you want is not what is best for you; at least not at this time.
Sometimes we ask God with what we think are good intentions but God sees our hearts and he knows whether what we ask for will bring us grief later on. Sometimes it’s a wonderful thing when God says “NO”.
When we first formed Victory Temple Church, Bro. Kenneth Pack was the pastor for the first year. It was in his heart to build a church for the glory of God; and those of us who joined him in that vision were excited about the prospect of building a new PCG church in Louisiana. It was vision and a dream that was birthed in our hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost. We knew that we were walking in the will of God and praying according to his will.
Our little church quickly outgrew the pastor’s home; then outgrew the restaurant meeting room that we were using for services and the time came to try to find a building of our own where we could meet. We began looking for property and making plans for either building or remodeling whatever we could find.
The first property that we found was a great spot and a good price. It was on highway 74 not far from the Airline Highway. There was an existing building and plenty of parking area, and it seemed to be a perfect answer to our prayer. But the more we prayed and worked toward getting that property, the more it seemed that doors were closing in our face and that it would never happen. We didn’t get that location; and for some folks it was a real disappointment. It wasn’t until months later that we discovered what God knew all along. That property once held a gas station and there were underground tanks and oil contamination that had to be removed before anyone could occupy the building. Had we managed to make a deal, the church would probably not have survived the high cost of $40,000 that it would have taken to get the property ready for use and there would be no Victory Temple Church today.
You see, we were asking amiss – not that we were trying to, but we were not aware of what God knew and we just assumed that it was God’s will.
Now when we did find the right place and asked God about it; the answer was quickly given and we moved in. God knew what path we were going to take to become a church that would give him glory; and unless we asked for the right thing; at the right time; those prayers would have gone unanswered.
One of the reasons that we have to continually go to God in prayer over certain things is that we have to first learn the will of God, then we have to learn to adjust our prayer to match what God desires for us because he knows best.
Secondly, we must learn to believe him for the answer, even though the answer doesn’t come in our time frame; or when it does, the answer that God gives isn’t what we thought it would be. It’s a matter of seeking God, knowing his will and then waiting on God’s timing for the answer to come.
Some of you today are asking God for miracles. Perhaps you know what you want God to do and you are praying a very specific prayer for a very specific thing. God ahead and pray. Ask God for what you want and don’t’ quit. But be aware that the answer he sends may not be the specifics that you are looking for. Just trust God and go with it anyway and you’ll find out in the end that God knew best.
Some of you are asking God for a miracle and you really don’t know exactly what to ask for. If you don’t know what to pray about; how will you know when the answer comes? Learn to seek God’s will and then pray for God’s will to happen. That’s a sure way of knowing that your prayer will be answered.
The pattern for prayer is given to us in this verse. First you must learn to ask. Prayer is asking God to receive your praise; receive your worship and to listen to your petitions. It is communicating with God for every aspect of your life. Secondly, you must learn to seek. You have to seek God’s will. You have to seek the Mind of Christ. Seeking means more than just looking for an answer and begging God daily for that answer. Seeking also includes a constant searching for the heart of God so that you may know and understand the answer when it comes. Thirdly, you can’t quit knocking. Knocking constantly doesn’t mean that you simply repeat the same prayer over and over. It doesn’t mean that sheer repetition is the answer. Continual knocking gives us a picture of a man who just won’t quit. He comes time and again to the door of Heaven. The door is opened every time, and each time he learns a little bit more and a little bit more, until one day he finally understands the will of God and now his prayer can be answered.
God knows what we need, when we need it and he already has plans to give us what we need at the right time. But he still desires us to ask, seek and knock until the answer comes. This is so that our relationship with him, as our loving Heavenly Father, can grow.
Will God answer your prayer? Yes – of course he will! If we didn’t believe that; then why pray? Since there are a lot of people who don’t spend much time in prayer, perhaps it is because they just don’t believe God will answer, so why waste time asking.
What we must do is learn to trust God and believe that he will answer, and that the answer he gives will be the best answer for us.
Luke 11:11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Luke 11:12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Suppose my children were to ask for a piece of bread and I gave them a rock and said, “Here, take a bite out of this.” What kind of father would that made me? If they asked for I would raise kids that didn’t trust me; and didn’t desire to be around me.
That’s the same thing that would happen if God gave us everything we wanted because pretty soon we would self destruct. Sometimes we have to give our kids things that they really don’t want because know what’s better for them. All they desire is snack foods, energy drinks and such. But if you give them some mustard greens and squash they won’t want that. Have you received an answer that wasn’t what you wanted from God? Trust him anyway and you’ll learn that God knows best.
Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
There’s God’s promise to each of us. He will answer your prayer. He will give you the desires of your heart. The only question will be, “How long will it take to get your heart and your desires in tune with what God wants for your life?
So what we must remember about prayer is this: You have to PUSH, PUSH and keep on PUSHING! What does that mean? PUSH stands for “Pray Until Something Happens”. If you have been praying for a long time and the answer hasn’t come, just PUSH. If you PUSH enough, the answer will come.
Something else that we must do while we PUSH is learn to be a FROG!
Now that sounds strange I know but I know a lot of Christians who act like frogs. They go around jumping to conclusions, croaking because of adversity and jumping out of the frying pan into the fire because they don’t know to PUSH and try to figure things out on their own.
David said in Psalms 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Christians are sometimes called “Do Gooders” by the worldly crowd. I can think of no better name that we should live up to. We must all do good. Doing good means that we are living a sanctified life, separated from the evil doers. Doing good means that we are seeking the face of God and trying our best to follow in his footsteps. Doing good means that we are Born Again by the Spirit of God and dwelling in the land of promise with Jesus our Lord. If that’s what it means to be a “Do Gooder” then you can call me that all you want and I wont’ be offended in the least.
If you have committed your life to Christ, then don’t worry or fret over things that happen. Somehow God will meet your need.
The Psalms are filled with wonderful promises of God. Look at these next two verses and see what God has in store for you.
Psalms 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psalms 37:5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
No matter what you are praying for; or what circumstances your are facing in life right now, understand this. God will allow this time of hardship and trouble to pass. The answer is already on the way. This time of sickness will pass for healing is already ordained. The time of sorrow or grief, troubles and trials will all come to pass and the time of joy and happiness is already established. Somehow God will help it to all work out for your good in the end.
So in conclusion; how do you get your prayers answered and how should you live your life so that nothing will shake your faith? The answer lies in the title to this message: PUSH FROG!
What does that mean? It’s an acronym that means:
PUSH – Pray Until Something Happens
and
FROG – Fully Rely On God
Never forget to PUSH FROG and you will find that it will become a whole easier to cope with life and the troubles that come your way.
