Behind My Door

       

       I was reading of when the Israelites were led out of Egypt, heading for the Promised Land.  They were given victory over the Egyptians when the Red Sea parted and they crossed on dry land, yet their pursuers were caught in the water.  Three days later they thirsted and found only bitter water.  Instead of calling to the Lord for their deliverance, they became angry with their situation and Moses.  (Exodus 15)

Sometimes I am certainly like the Israelites.  God must get real annoyed with me when I attempt to tackle life’s difficulties on my own rather than calling on him.  When Moses called on God, he heard and changed the bitter water to sweet water by placing a cut down tree designated by God into the water.  This is certainly an unlikely answer to this prayer, yet God did just this!   God can handle my problems too, if I’d but ask!

Then there are the days that I genuinely give the “problem” to God, and thirty minutes later I get a phone call—or even just start thinking about the situation again --  and take the problem back because I think I can handle it, after all.  I may subconsciously think God is taking too long or won’t answer the way I think it should be handled, or worse, not handle it at all!

How ‘human’ of me!  I don’t stop long enough to realize in most situations there isn’t a single thing in this world that I can do!  I have no power over my children, unless they want to be cooperative! (Yes, when they are small we think we do.  But even when they are little, they will use their wits and their abilities to thwart you if they think they can.)  As adults, in job situations, marital circumstances, or in behavioral contexts, as parents we can ‘advise’ but they are not necessarily going to heed our advice!

We can want our marriages to improve and try to change our spouse, but that isn’t going to happen either!  We can only be in charge of ourselves.  We can’t change the weather, stop an accident, keep our aged loved ones from succumbing to death, and a hundred other things that are simply out of our control.

Yet there are “trees of sweetness” in each of our lives despite our difficulty, if we ask; and with confident belief, wait for God to answer.   He is ready, willing and able to provide for our needs, when we ask, according to his will.  We need to rely on His power and goodness in our lives by “going into our room, closing the door and pray to our Father.”  (Matthew 6:6)  He cares, he hears, he answers. 

I encourage you to open your heart to God with your petitions.  Of course, regardless of our circumstance we need to remain thankful and humble.  With a right and godly attitude, our supplications will be heard by a Father who loves us more than we can imagine, who will answer our call.  It’s what fathers do and there is none more loving, forgiving and accepting than God the Father.  I hope you will "go behind your door" and call on him today.

#pray  #prayer  #petitionsToGod #prayersForChildren  #prayersForSpouse  #prayersInDifficulty  #behindMyDoor   #life'sDifficulties   #PrayerChangesThings

Photo Credit: free pictures of bedroom doors