Living by Faith and Honoring God

It's interesting that God has made us dependent on him and prayer is an expression of our dependence upon the Lord and we read in James and chapter one what is the most important thing that we must we heard about having a burden but it says here in James chapter one and verse six he must ask in faith without doubting whatever we are asking for and the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind and here it says that man can expect to get nothing from the Lord so it's quite a strong word you'll get nothing if he does not if he prays and prays and prays and prays and prays and prays but he doesn't believe that God is really going to answer that he'll get zero it's a promise in the Bible he will get zero from the Lord so we have to bear that in mind it's so important for the Lord that the most important thing God expects from us is obedience even obedience it's called in the New Testament the obedience of faith which is different from just obedience obedience of faith is Lord I believe that I'm doing this to honor you and I believe you'll honor me I have many times gone to this promise in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 30 many many times in my life and I've seen it always works never failed once 1 Samuel chapter 2 it's one of my favorite verses the middle of that verse 1 Samuel 2 verse 30 the last part those who honor me I will honor and to the best of our knowledge if you've tried to honor God in your life and whatever area you're aware of God does not hold us responsible for areas we're not aware of but in whatever area you're aware of in that area is different for each of us when you're young spiritually you see very little as you grow spiritually you see more and more but in whatever area you're aware of don't compare yourself with a mature saint who's got more light if you've got a very little knowledge of the Lord in the area where you're aware if you say Lord I've tried to honor you you can be absolutely sure God will honor you and the way I prayed that prayer many times is like this Lord I believe this is an eternal principle that those who honor you you will honor and to the best of my knowledge this is how I pray Lord in this situation I've tried to honor you to the best of my knowledge I've set whatever needs to be set right I've set right and to the whatever measure of faith I have I have and I wanted to honor you and if you don't honor me then this will be the first time in six thousand years that you did not keep your promise that's how I pray that strengthens my faith that if I honor God and he does not honor me in that situation he lets me down it'll be the first time in six thousand years that he let down a human being who honored him and when I say that it produces faith in my heart you can use that if you like and then I see in Genesis chapter three when the Lord we know about the two trees I see the two trees as symbolic of this the tree of life is a tree of or is teaching me to a life of dependence upon God for everything that's the tree of life the tree of knowledge of good and evil is the life of dependence upon myself that's how I see the two trees and right from the beginning God was teaching man you must learn to live a life dependent on me that's the way of life if you seek a life dependent on yourself it's always death and then I see that the devil's temptation was to turn this man away from depending on God to depending on himself so all of us have got when we pray the tree of life and the tree of knowledge in front of us all the time am I going to depend on God or depend on myself in many situations we are facing these two trees all the time in our life in this situation what am I going to depend on depend on God to let me see me through or depend on myself however tough the situation however difficult it may be some serious sickness or some other complicated situation in our work or anything in life it's a wonderful thing to recognize this you depend on yourself you're going to the tree of life just like Adam and Eve but if you say Lord I have no dependence on myself I'm trusting you 100 percent depending on you alone to see me through in this situation you're depending on the Lord and there you're honoring him if you depend on yourself you're not honoring God so this is the reason why very often our prayers are not answered or we don't experience what God wants us to experience so these few simple principles if you bear in mind you'll find that even your spiritual life develops because you know dependence on God and answer to prayer is one way I found in my own life it increases my confidence in the Lord you know if you for example think of a particular supposing you know some human being was very influential and you know that he's a very influential person in town he can do almost anything and you contact him and say hey I'm stuck in a situation can you do this for me he says yeah just leave it to me I'll do it you experience that a few times you get such confidence in him this is the way we must have confidence in God if you can have confidence in a man who's promised to help you in any situation you face is very influential in town I'm praying to a God whom Jesus taught his story our father who's got influence from heaven all over the earth can you please help me here I want to trust you I do not want to pray without expecting that and expecting that there'll be no answer I want to pray to the most influential person in the whole universe and I'm expecting you to give me an answer in this situation I don't know what complicated situation you're facing today but I want you to seek the Lord in this way because that is the meaning of faith Lord you our father who are in heaven that's how Jesus taught us to begin our prayer you love me that's the meaning of our father and you're in heaven which means you're the most influential person who can do anything on this earth now I begin my prayer so if I don't begin my prayer like that it's going to be difficult to get an answer that's why Jesus taught us to pray our father you love me who are in heaven who can do anything in this universe now I make my requests I believe God wants all of us to experience more and more answers to prayer because that brings a certain intimacy between him and us and also makes us more confident as we walk forward in our Christian life amen