Praying to Receive All God Is Giving to Equip Us To Do Good

There are many things that I love about God.  One of them is that His heart for us is that we would be successful.  I don’t know why God bothers with us sometimes the way we stumble around and get self-centered and mess things up by doing things our own way.  It sometimes seems to me that God could get a lot more done if He just “waved a heavenly wand” and didn’t bother with us at all. 

However, God is wiser than me – that’s pretty obvious every single day – and His way of doing things is to equip us so we can do good things.  He wants His goodness to be displayed through us, weak though we are. 

He chose Israel to be His special people – not because they were strong and powerful but because they were the smallest and weakest.

The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations Deuteronomy 7:7

God certainly continued that pattern with us.  Listen to how Paul describes God’s choices in these words from the Bible:

Few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.  Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.  God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.  1 Corinthians 1:26-29

So, on the one hand it really does take the pressure off us because God knows how weak we are.  He has the power and the wisdom that He generously makes available to us so we can become much more than we could ever be on our own. 

Every day as we take time to read God’s Word, the Bible, and shape our thoughts and behaviours by what we read, God equips us to do good things.  Listen to these encouraging words:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.  2 Timothy 3:16-17

God doesn’t leave anything to chance but teaches us what’s wrong and what’s right and, by the power of His Holy Spirit living in us helps us realize which category things fit into.  God doesn’t leave us on our own to figure things out either.  He gives us church leaders, pastors, teachers etc.  What is their role meant to be in our lives?  To build us up and equip us to do God’s work.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.   Ephesians 4:11-12

So today, let’s pray in thanks and blessing for this choosing and equipping of us that God is doing.

Loving God, we really don’t understand why you would choose weak and stubborn self-willed people such as us to train and equip to show Your glory and goodness in the world, but You do.  We’re grateful because we get to wake up every day with an amazing purpose set before us that we can shape our day and our lives around that gives us meaning and satisfaction.  We are part of the great cosmic plan of Almighty God.  What we do matters in Your plan. 

Thank You  also that we don’t have to stress and strain to make ourselves wise enough or strong enough but You provide all we need in Your Word and in the teachers and preachers that You give us.  We pray to have teachable hearts and to be wise and discerning about what we read and hear taught to us.

We bless our pastors and leaders in the churches. They have a challenging task in our secular culture to stand for truth and to train people to do the same.  Give them patience and willingness to do what it takes to learn from You God, and then share what You give them with their people.  It’s Saturday and many of them are preparing for services tomorrow and we bless them to hear Your heart and to have the boldness and passion to share in such a way that the hearts of those who hear are touched with Your heart as well. 

And now we want to receive Your blessing that we would be equipped and made ready and shine in the creativity and individuality that You’ve created each of us to have, and do so in a way that will bring glory to Your name. 

Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.  Matthew 5:16