2 Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.
Prayer is meant to change us into who God wants us to be. The Bible says of Jesus in Luke 9:29 that As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flashing of light.
In prayer, we submit to God because acknowledging God to spend time in prayer means that we can’t go through the day without Him, so He needs to take over. Nevertheless, the content of our prayer matters.
Most times, the prayers of believers are geared towards physical things or tangibles. It’s either money, a job, a car, marriage, business, or relationships, which are not necessarily bad things. But after looking at the prayers of key people in scripture, I see that they prayed more for intangibles: things that cannot be touched physically; and physical blessings accompanied the answers to those prayers.
Why pray for a job when you lack good work ethics? Why pray for a marriage you’re incapable of working on with the right character? Why pray for wealth when you can’t control how you spend on unnecessary things? When the right foundation is not in place, that tangible thing would not last. You need the right attitude, mindset, and a change of heart to handle what God wants for you.
God has no problem blessing us. His aim is for us to become like Christ so that when we have the tangibles, we don’t act in an unwise manner.
In Psalm 51:11, David said: Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Here, he valued an intangible more than tangibles. He didn’t ask God to secure his throne as King. David knew the power of having God’s presence and believed that it was more than enough. Once God’s presence is available, he could always get the tangibles. He was more interested in the giver of gifts than the gifts.
In Ephesians 1:17, Paul prayed: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.
Here, Paul touches on knowing God better and the spirit of wisdom and revelation. That way, the people could know how to relate with God and receive what He has for them. Sometimes, we are not receiving what we ask for because we are not well equipped and do not have the requisite knowledge on accessing those things.
Remember in 2 Peter 1:3, the Bible says; His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. So when we don’t know Him well, we are limited in what we can access.
Hannah also, had been praying to God for a son for a while, and guess what? It was after she vowed to give her son to God that the answer came. When we receive tangibles without being grounded in terms of intangibles, we can easily leave God out of our story.
A lot of our prayers are selfish. We don’t think about how God will also take glory in our accomplishments. We want God to do things for us and all our prayers are Give me. We need to get to that point where we ask God, What can I do for you? When we all look back, we can remember times when God showed himself strong in our lives. Those stories could be a message you put on your social media platforms. Soul-winning just got easier.
Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people rather than wealth, fame and the death of his enemies and God added more to the wisdom he asked for. It’s just like Matthew 6:33 which says we should seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and these other things will be added.
When God is the center of our prayers, He works on us so we can have the ability to receive what He has for us.
In Jeremiah 29:11, we see that God has good plans for us. Plans that are meant to prosper us and give us an expected end. Why not trust Him by seeking His will before ours? 1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
In the opening scripture, the things which are unseen are eternal so focus on those. The INTANGIBLES.
The Word In Clarity 