21 Days: Day 19

Devotional: Hello and welcome to another day of prayer and fasting! I pray that over the last couple of weeks you have been able to hear God speaking to you like never before and have seen where He is working throughout your life. The past 3 weeks have been focused around “First This, Then That.” This week we are honing in on “First Ask – Then Receive.” The verse for today comes from Matthew 6:33 where Jesus tells his followers, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” What are all these things that Jesus is referring to? This message was part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. He was addressing large crowds of thousands and preaching of issues that pertain to all aspects of life. If we look on either side of this specific passage, we see where Jesus is addressing worry among his people. His followers were asking questions like “what will happen tomorrow?”, “what will I wear?”, “how will I be fed?”, and “how long will my health last?” These are all concerns that many of us deal with every day. Often, these questions can completely consume our lives especially in times of tragedy, loss, and loneliness. In this passage Jesus is telling his people that they should not worry about such things. Their attention should be on God’s kingdom and as long as they place that first, He will provide for all of those things. If we ask for His will to be done in those areas of our lives, He will follow through and take the burden from us. In my life I have seen this time and time again, but rarely how I thought He would come through for me. I can’t count the number of times I have been paralyzed by my fear and worry about what was to come, how my family would pull through a situation, where I would live or how I would put food on the table. If I wasn’t paralyzed by the fear, I was fighting for what I thought was best to be the result. When I would pray, my prayers were not for God’s will to be done, it was for mine. I was praying for a specific ending to a situation but not seeking first His kingdom and asking for His resolution to the situation. I spent nights stirring in anguish because I wasn’t seeing my desires being fulfilled. Even though I felt I was striving for what was best, I wasn’t asking for what He knew was best. I will never forget about 8 years ago, while sharing some of my frustrations, an extremely wise friend turned to me and told me to stay out of the O-Zone. I paused and looked at them perplexed as they elaborated that the O-Zone is others, outcomes, and old stuff - the 3 things in life that we have no control over. Those were the things that I had to hand over to God and let Him do as he saw best. I was stuck in the others and outcomes zone. I was trying to control and dictate things that I was powerless to manage. While I was asking God for a result, I was asking for MY result. I had to let go and pray that God would work in those situations, that His outcome would be achieved and that I might be relieved of the weight from those burdens. The first thing that happened was the weight was instantly lifted. I no longer felt stuck in a powerless situation. God removed the burdens from me, not by changing the circumstances as I was demanding, but by assuring me that He had it. It was no longer my responsibility to carry the load. Then, as time progressed, while I thought I knew the best possible outcome and had been using my energy to make it happen, God showed me that He had something even better in store. All I really had to do all along was to first ask for His righteousness, and then receive His promise of provision in my life. While the result was not what I thought I wanted or when I wanted it, it was better than what I could have ever put together by my own two hands. What areas of your life have you stuck in the O-Zone? Does your frustration and worry keep you up at night? When you ask God for resolution, are you asking for your outcome or for His? It is hard to let go of control and allow God to take the wheel. When you do give it over to God, and first ask for His will, He will take on your burdens and you will, then receive his provision. Prayer: God, we come before you today, asking for your will to be done in our lives. We surrender our worries, our desires, and our need for control to you. Help us to trust that you are in control and that your plans are always better than our own. Give us the strength to seek your kingdom first and to trust in your provision. In Jesus’ name, Amen.