Flesh and Blood Part 2: Inquiring of the Lord

Have you ever watched a small child try and try to do something on their own until at last, they concede that they need help to do it?  It's an interesting picture of how we approach life sometimes.  We try and try to run our own lives until we finally realize that we can't make it in life using our own resources.  In that moment of realization, it can be easy to feel hopeless or feel like a failure, but the reality is that we are not meant to go through life on our own.

Ever since the fall of man in the garden, we've been trying to go it alone, striving to do what was once a joy and a privilege by design.  Human nature says, "God, let me show you what I can do!  I have it all under control."  As would any truly loving parent, God warns us of the pitfalls ahead and then waits patiently for us to once again seek His counsel.  How is it that we can ever think that we have more wisdom than God?  Pride.  It is pride that keep us from asking for help.  It is pride that causes us to continue to struggle even while knowing that we need help.  It's sneaky.  It's dangerous, and it will ultimately cause us to lose our way.  Praise the Lord that He always gives us a way out of the holes that we get ourselves into.

"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."  1 Cor 10:13 NKJV

Once we understand that we must seek the Lord because we cannot do things on our own, how do we go about it?  What should we expect?  There's no magic formula, but the Bible gives us some basic principles to go by.  Ask, seek and knock.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Matt 7:7-12 NKJV

The Bible tells us to ask in faith without doubting (see James 1:6).  We can't be double-minded when are asking the Lord for help, with one foot in and one out, so to speak.  We have to be all in, no reservations.  The best thing is that we are simply following after Christ's example when we submit everything to Him.  There's no risk or gamble involved, except perhaps to the desires of your flesh, but who needs those anyway?

Have you ever lost something important, like your keys or a ring?  You kept looking and looking until you found it, right?  We have to put the same kind of energy and determination into seeking the Lord and looking into His word.  If we don't, it is most likely because it is not that important to us.  Or perhaps, we don't really believe we will find the answers for which we are looking.  The truth is, when we seek with all of our hearts, we will find.  Again, we must be all in.

Have you ever gone door-to-door?  Or maybe you had to go ask a neighbor for something?  In either case, you might feel bad for bothering them; so, you knock couple times quietly.  When they don't answer, you tell yourself, "Oh well.  I guess I they're not home."  Then you promptly give up.  Have you ever done that with a door that the Lord led you to?  I know I have.  You meet a little resistance and then give up because you must've heard wrong.  Well, that's not what we're told to do.  There are so many examples of persistence in the face of resistance.

Consider Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52.  He was crying out for mercy that he might receive his sight and was told to be quiet.  He didn't give up though.  He even cast aside his livelihood (in those days the garment was a license to beg) and came when Jesus called him.  Also, look at Luke 18:1-8 and Luke 11:5-8.  These are all examples of the level of resolve we must have in pursuing the Lord.  That is not to say that the Lord is playing hard to get or making things difficult for us.  We simply must battle through our own fear and unbelief to reach that which He has already provided for us in abundance.

Sometimes provision and abundance don't come the way we expect them to come.  Why?  The Lord's ways are higher than ours.  He knows what we need so much more than we do.  How many times have we dismissed the Lord's provision because it didn't look the way we thought it ought to?  We can never assume that just because the Lord did something one way one time that He will do it the same way the next.  Let's look at an example.

In 2 Samuel 5:17-25, David has two battles with the Philistines (which incidentally means "wallowing in self"  Ever had one of those battles?) in the same place.  He inquired of the Lord both times.  The second time the Lord gave him different instructions even though he was fighting the same enemy in the same place.  Our minds tell us that it worked once, it should work again.  Sometimes we don't even bother to seek the Lord the second time because we think we know how to handle the situation.  Yet, this passage clearly shows us that the Lord often has a better way for each and every encounter with the enemy, even if that enemy is our own carnal nature.  One of the things that I love about this account is how the Lord told David to wait for the "sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees."  It's a really cool picture of waiting on the moving of the Holy Spirit before going into a battle.  It also shows us how, when we inquire of the Lord, He goes before us and has the situation well in hand when we arrive.  Our enemies don't stand a chance.  Fear doesn't have an opportunity to take hold.  We can walk in total peace because we know the Lord is with us.

The faithfulness of the Lord is unchanging.  Circumstances can change constantly.  Things can look really bad in the natural, but the Lord can make a way where there is none.  He can create streams of water in the desert.  He is the Living Bread that can satisfy our every need, and indeed He longs to do so.  We have an everlasting covenant written in the blood of Jesus that cannot be broken.  We just have to give Him the opportunity to lead us by seeking Him for how He wants to work in every situation.  We can count on His unfailing love for us and His ability to lead us through anything in life.  Praise the Lord!