Take It To The Lord In Prayer

Numbers 9:6-8  -  But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”  Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what the Lord commands concerning you.”

It had been exactly one year since they celebrated the first Passover and left Egypt. They kept it exactly as the Lord told them…except for a few men who had become defiled because they had been around a dead body.  So they inquired of Moses why they couldn’t. Moses did not try to answer them immediately…he told them to wait….and went to God to ask what they should do.

What a great reminder that when a situation comes up that we don’t have a preconceived Godly answer for….we should table our actions until we have taken that situation to God. Moses… no doubt in my heart…went straight to the tabernacle and spoke with God about it in the inner sanctuary where his presence sat.  And so we should go…to our most focused quiet prayer closet…to spend some time with God about our confusion.

He will answer…for Moses...the answer was quick and easy. But all of God’s answers are not so simple.  Job spent a few days and nights in grief and sadness before his prayers were answered. Jonah spent three days in the belly of a whale while God softened his heart enough to accept what needed to be done. Jesus spent 33 years…ministering to others before his father said the time had come to save the world.

The consequences of not asking God what to do could wind us up in a mess.  Perhaps Jonah could have prevented his three day cruise in a whale if he had stopped and prayed about his disagreement with God. Or consider Sarah…who did not wait on the Lord’s timing and made a huge mess when she gave her handmaid to Abraham to get a son.

I am reminded of an old hymn….What a Friend We Have in Jesus.  Its first verse goes like this… ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Father…thank you for the reminder to come to you any time we don’t already have an answer from you about how to proceed in life. Forgive me for the times that I have gone on before you and made a mess.  Help me to remember to take everything to you in prayer….so I can stay in you will and constantly experience the peace that passes all understanding in everything I do.  Amen.