“Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:32
Somewhere, right now, there is someone staring at a drink, a line of coke, a pipe full of crack, or a needle full of heroin. Somewhere, right now, there is someone struggling with fear, security, depression, or self-control regarding online shopping, food, exercise, pornography, or integrity issues. Somewhere, right now, there is someone crying out to God, “If THIS isn't your will, then please close the door!”
The problem with our praying that prayer is that oftentimes it's nothing more than an insult to God. Proverbs 28:9 reveals, “Whoever turns their ear from hearing the law, even their prayer is a detestable thing.” So often we ignore God, His Word, His Law, His will, and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We repeatedly smash through the countless doors He has intentionally closed for our benefit. We avoid Him as we catapult over hurdles He's put in place to protect us. We ignore His warnings and admonition as we crawl through thorns and mud under the barbed wire of boundaries intended to protect us.
We set our faces resolutely toward the high places and hilltops of idol worship in our lives. We intentionally navigate treacherous minefields of disobedience in a concerted effort to reach our destination. Once there, high atop the platform of our idol worship, we have the audacity to blurt out our insolent prayer, “LORD, if THIS isn't your will, then please close the door!”
Imagine if Eve, while holding the forbidden fruit, cried out to God, “If THIS lovely fruit isn't your will, then please make it known to me!” Imagine if after building the Tower of Babel the nation's representatives shouted from its apex, “If THIS isn't your will, then please put a stop to this building project!” Imagine if Ahaz, king of Judah, as he approached the Tophet* to sacrifice his son in the fire, prayed, “LORD God, if THIS is not your will, then please put out the fire!” Imagine the Pharisees calling out to God, "If crucifying this man isn't your will, then let Him come down from the cross."
The truth is that when we pray that kind of prayer - when we ask God to shut the door - in most cases, we've already constructed elaborate plans completely detached from God and His will. We've already made up our minds about how we want the whole thing to play out. Then, while frolicking in our disobedience, we make God the scapegoat of our hollow words, “If THIS isn't your will, then please close the door!”
Rather than asking God to lead us to a garden bereft of temptation and forbidden fruit, what if we simply believed His word, “But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die,” and obeyed Him? Rather than asking God to put a stop to our elaborate Tower of Babel construction projects, what if we put all our energy and effort into loving and serving our Creator? Rather than asking God to put out the fires of our Tophets... what if we never engaged in idol worship in the first place? Rather than asking God to stop Jesus' repeated execution in the way we live our lives... what if we honored Him as members of His Body and Bride?
In Revelation 3:8, King Jesus said, “I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. For you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name.”
What if we never smashed through the dozens of doors He closed? What if we never catapulted ourselves over all the hurdles He erected? What if we never slipped under the barbed wire and trudged through the minefields of disobedience in the first place? Instead of asking the LORD to close yet another door, what if we put all our energy and effort into walking with Christ through the door He's opened, the door which no one can shut?
King Jesus' last words before His ascension were, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” What if the only fire in our lives was the Holy Spirit setting hearts ablaze within us to worship our Heavenly Father in spirit and truth? What if instead of asking God to put out the fires of the Tophet*, we simply put the baby down and surrendered ourselves completely to Jesus Christ, our Sovereign LORD?
So which fire is ablaze in your life? The fires of disobedience or that of the Holy Spirit?
Grace and Peace,
Kevin M. Kelley
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*Tophet: a hollow statue of a foreign god filled with coal or wood used as an oven to burn small children alive as living sacrifices.
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