Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2
“Spiritual forces cannot work while we are trusting earthly forces. Often we fail to give God an opportunity to work, not realizing that it takes time for Him to answer prayer. It takes time for God to color a rose or to grow a great oak tree. And it takes time for Him to make bread from wheat fields. He takes the soil, then grinds and softens it. He enriches it and wets it with rain showers and with dew. Then He brings the warmth of life to the small blade of grass, later grows the stalk and the amber grain, and finally provides bread for the hungry. All this takes time. Therefore we sow the seed, till the ground, and then wait and trust until God’s purpose has been fulfilled. We understand this principle when it comes to planting a field, and we need to learn the same lesson regarding our prayer life. It takes time for God to answer prayer.”
Lettie Burd or “L.B.” Cowman (1870-1960) in Streams in the Desert, reading for 18 April (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997) 160. Here’s yet another classic devotional book available freely online in PDF form.
The human tendency is to trust in earthly forces to make things happen. As the greatest earthly power is money, many try to use money to make things happen, to control outcomes, to solve problems. If this pattern guides our giving, we don’t exhibit Christian generosity. Such activity merely reflects us taking matters into our own hands. Think about it. It’s like we are trying to play God. That’s not our role!
What if, alternatively, “we give God an opportunity to work” and make that way of thinking the cornerstone of our generosity. If we believe and trust in His sovereignty, we can obey His teachings and trust that He can answer prayer and sort situations better than we can. So what’s our role? We are simply sowers. We sow ourselves and resources that He supplies not trying to solve problems but show His love as obedient, grateful disciples.
And we leave all the results to God in prayer. That way He’s sure to get the glory for all that happens! This perspective brings today’s Scripture squarely into view. We devote ourselves to prayer with watchfulness, which is anticipation that in His time He will work, and with thankfulness, which is gratitude that God will do his part to sort all the world’s problems. And this posture shows we depend on His spiritual forces rather than earthly ones!