How not to Pray. Part 1

He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 1 Kings 19:4

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:3

1. Keep our eyes on the Lord

God doesn’t answer all our prayers in the way we expect Him to answer. God’s ways are not our ways and He knows what is best for us. As we yield ourselves to Him we can be assured of the promise of Scripture that all things do work together for good. However, we need to accept that promise in faith knowing that the “good” that God sees for us and those around us may be completely different than the good that we have imagined. We need to know that when God works all things for good we may never know the outcome this side of heaven.

Elijah prayed that he might die. He had just come from two powerful answers to his prayers. At the height of victory he was most vulnerable. He took his eyes off the Lord and focused his eyes on the circumstances.

Many times we have seen this happen in Scripture as well as in our own lives. Lot saw the well watered plane and did not see that God could supply all his needs. Abraham saw the dangers of Egypt and was afraid for his life so he took the situation into his own hands and told Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister. The ten spies saw the giants in the land, Peter saw the waves, John wanted to call down fire from heaven, Saul was concerned with his reputation before the people and Elijah was concerned with the threat to his life. The writer of Hebrews reminds us to “fix our eyes on Jesus” Hebrews 12:2.