S05E074, Don't Force Things, Andy B 2 Minute Video

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Have you ever thought to yourself that since God seems to have so much to do in the world, that you’d help Him out? You know, give God a hand to help Him answer your prayers since He is so very busy with all those prayers that need answering?

There’s very clearly nothing wrong with praying! And God desires us to be a part of building His kingdom here on earth and that includes, among other things, being those answers to prayer lifted by others.

But there is a large caveat here, however, because while it is good to be obedient and serve God by helping someone else, it isn’t the same thing to expect God to be obedient to us, and answer our prayers.

Let us never forget that God is still God. Yes, we should feel free to address the King of Kings personally - as our Father. But He is still God, and we should act with reverence towards Him. I’ve done a teaching video on this exact subject - What is Reverence?

Much like forcing a flower to reveal its petals before its time, so is our forcing our prayers to be answered by God. Sometimes that is ahead of time, and sometimes that is because the “Yes” answer we urgently need God to respond to has nothing to do with God’s love for us being somehow lacking or distracted, or hearing us.

Rather, perhaps, it is because that “Yes” would be detrimental to us.

Just a thought...

Andy B

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[00:00:00] So another Andy B Two minute video, and I've been thinking about stuff that grows.

Now, when I was a little boy, my nan had a beautiful garden. There were loads of flowers everywhere. And I remember looking at them first thing in the morning, and there was one little patch. The sun hadn't quite reached the the, the, the flowers. And there was this sort of bunched up thing. And I knew that inside were the petals. 

So I thought, well, I'll help it out. Innocence of childhood. And I helped it out and I, I peeled back the outer layer. And I peeled back the inner layers and I, I helped it to to be a flower for the pedal to be out. And ultimately I killed that little plant.

Now, recently, we've started growing some sunflower seeds and it went wrong. Because, as we, as we grew these seeds, well, nothing really happened. Nathan's grew, but ours didn't. [00:01:00] So, we thought, well, let's try again. We put some more in, we read up a little bit more, and we realized maybe what we've done is put too much water in. You can rot the seed before it has chance to grow. 

And now we've got five plants coming out of five pots. Which is awesome!

So often in life we, we try and help. Sometimes we think, we'll, we'll give God a hand. We've prayed for this, we've asked God to help us. He hasn't done it, so He must need our help. So what we'll do, we'll give God a hand and we'll get involved ourselves.

But, the thing is, God doesn't need our help to accomplish His plans for our lives. He chooses to work with us. He chooses to work through others, and through us and in us. But He doesn't need our help to accomplish his plans and desires in our life. 

Just like that plant that I helped to grow, I eventually killed that little, that little flower.

And our sunflower sees, well, it went wrong. We put some more in and we have to let it grow. [00:02:00] But as it grows through the soil, it's strengthening. And strengthening is key because we want the, we want the petals to be out. We want the, the fruit. We want, we want the conclusion. 

But actually, when we're walking with God, what we need to be doing is allowing Him to work at His pace, working within His rhythm. And, if we do that, that flower that's all bunched up, will grow into a beautiful petal and you'll see the colors and you can smell the scent. 

Let's not push things. 

Let's wait for God to do His thing, in our lives, so we can accomplish His desires for our lives. 'Cos His desires are better than ours. But sometimes you just need to be a little bit patient.

Just a thought.