I had lunch on Thursday with a precious friend of mine from Ghana. Joseph was in the US for a board meeting at the Mission Society and I was blessed to spend time with him. I love the simplistic way Ghanaians look at life. They do not get caught up in the world like we do in the United States.
We were catching up on all of my friends in Ghana. I told him how I missed them all so much and pray the Lord will call me to go again sometime soon. Joseph responded without even thinking about it, “Okay, we will pray and the Lord will do it.” He blessed me so.
His first response was immediate and packed with two things we all should practice. First, his immediate response to a request or desire is to pray. How many times do we talk about things with friends or family, wishing for them, hoping for them, yet we never take them to the Lord? Prayer shouldn’t be our last response to life’s situations. It should be our first response. The Lord says in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Second, Joseph believed. Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Joseph knew if he prayed to the Father and asked Him for anything, if it was within the will of God, he would have it. The faith and conviction of his one sentence just astounded me. Oh, that we would walk by unwavering faith like my friend. He sees God show up and move in his life because he prays, believes and expects it to happen.
We were discussing faith in our intercessory prayer group yesterday, and one sweet lady summed it up like this: “Faith is agreeing with God.” Why do we make it so hard when it is so simple?
Take some time with the Father today and tell him the desires of your heart and then believe, if they are in agreement with God, it will be so. Lean on the promise found in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”