The older I get the more I see how God wants to change my perspective, especially as far as prayer is concerned. He doesn’t want to do things for me, so much as to do things through me. When I first became a Christian, I would cry out to God all the time hoping He would answer my prayers but have realised that there is a better way and that is that I stand in the authority that He has given me in Christ. He wants me to be like He was as He walked on the earth. This is a sign of maturity in the things of God, but unfortunately, many Christians never come to this place in their lifetime. Its not that begging God to do something for us is wrong but He wants us to come to this place where we know who we are in Christ and live from this position towards the issues of life. Jesus alluded to this after He had spoken to the storm and commanded it to be still and then told His disciples that they should have done the same.
“A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”” Mark 4:35-41
This is an amazing story with so much revelation in it. After Jesus had calmed the storm He rebuked the disciples for being so fearful and having no faith. What does this mean? He is implying that they could have done the same thing themselves. It illustrates a role of maturity that God wants us to come into as well. He did not design us to just ask Him to do everything for us our whole life, just like a baby looks to their parents. God is not the heavenly servant waiting for us to ring the bell so that He can come running to fulfil whatever we asked Him to do. Yes we are to pray and bring our petitions to God but in its not a lifestyle that we are to constantly adopt.
The disciples were afraid that they were going to die, so they awoke Jesus and asked Him to help. Their fear would have been legitimate if they were without God but He was there in the boat.
The bible tells us to pray and that He will respond and do things for us. In this case they were actually praying when they came to Jesus (who was God) and petitioned Him to help. This was prayer. He turns and answers their prayer, but then asks them why they have no faith. We think that if we prayed the right way God will answer our prayers but it was not what Jesus was grooming His disciples for. He was grooming them to do what He would do if they were in His shoes. Which in this case was to speak to the storm just like He did. They were to learn to deal with the obstacle themselves - in God. Prayers of panic and fear are the prayers of a servant but prayers of authority are the prayers of a Son.
We have another example in Mark 11:22-24 where Jesus said that we are to speak to the mountains in our lives and command them to move, just as He did to the fig tree. This is different to asking Him to do it for us. He said that this was the kind of faith that He is looking for.
“So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. (The God kind of Faith) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
Jesus was showing them a divine perspective and we too have to learn to adjust our thinking, our perspective so as to accommodate God’s view. If we don’t do this we will always be trying to get God to invade our problem instead of us learning to co-labour with God and represent Him in addressing the problems of life. This is maturity.