Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom once asked the question, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” Do we steer our life by trusting in God? Do we pray about our daily duties and challenges or is prayer only for emergencies? Some pray only when in danger and forget about God when things are going well. During the war there was a saying that there are no atheists in the fox holes. Do we look to God for help when there are no other options, but then ignore Him once the crisis has past?
Truly God is our refuge and strength in time of trouble and He does hear prayer. James tells us, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” David said, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.” However our Heavenly Father should not be merely an emergency lifeline but be our Father all the time, not just when we are in trouble. The prophet Micah tells of people who hate the good and love the evil, and that “Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not listen to them. In fact, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they were so wicked in what they were doing.” If we don’t put God first using prayer as our steering wheel, we may find our spare tire flat when we go to use prayer in an emergency.
There are billions of people on earth today who never ever think about God. They would never think to pray, and should the thought occur to them, God might not be listening because of their godless way of life. There are many who only think about Him when in trouble or in danger. These are the ones who consider Him their spare tire, good in emergencies; but not for much else, and who would be surprised to know that God may not be listening to their prayer because of their lack of interest in Him. There also are some who do think about God more regularly and go to church on Sundays, but He does not have a high priority in their lives; religion is just one of a number of interests that they maintain. God expects more.
There are few who realize that God needs to be number one in their life and that they need to love Him with all their heart. God will not play second fiddle. He is either number one or we are failing Him. We need to steer our thoughts and actions towards focusing on God. We all have troubles and concerns about daily needs, but these should not be our priority. Jesus tells us in what has become known as the Sermon on the Mount to “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” If our love for God steers our life, then the other cares will fall into line.
How do we make God number one in our lives? Jesus says that we must, but how do we do it? It is not easy. Jesus tells us, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Jesus was quoting Moses who told the children of Israel, “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” The children of Israel had witnessed God dividing the waters of the Red Sea and had walked safely through it to escape the Egyptians. They also were fed every day with manna, their thirst was quenched by water from a rock, and they saw the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. These people had good reasons and daily reminders of the power of God in their lives, and it should have been easy for them to love God. Yet, out of the millions who left Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land. Obviously many did not love God the way Moses had commanded them to do —they did not love Him with all their hearts.
We have not witnessed the miracles God did for Israel but we know about them through the divine record in the Bible. We are seeing the hand of God shaping the nations today in preparation for the return of Christ. We also know that God loves us. He has not only given us this beautiful world to live in, but because of the sacrifice of Jesus He has given us the opportunity for eternal life through faith and obedience to His Word. We can have all our sins forgiven. God has called us from a world headed to certain death, and asks us to love Him and His Son who gave his life for us so that we can have life. We should be so full of thankfulness for the goodness that God has shown us, and the love He has for us that we feel an overflowing love for God and a burning desire to please Him. Our love for God will grow as we think about what He has done for us. We should humbly and gratefully make God the center of our life and praise and thank Him using prayer as our steering wheel to guide our steps in His service.
How comforting to know, not just think but know, that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose. The apostle Paul asks, “What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Paul continues, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
Let us, like Paul, steer our lives every step of the way towards living a life of godliness so we, with Paul, can say, “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One