Look at Your Life through Heaven's Eyes

In the 1998 movie, The Prince of Egypt, Jethro sings:

“So how can you see what your life is worth, Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man, You must look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven's eyes.” 1

I found it compelling that Gordon McDonald used the same phrase as a chapter title in his book, Order Your Private World. He used the phrase to talk about prayer. What are the reasons why we have trouble praying? McDonald suggests that there are three reasons.

First, he states that our designed desire to be in communion with God have been dulled by sin, and therefore, have become an unnatural act.2 I have found this to be true in my life. Although I casually talk to God throughout the course of the day, when it comes down to giving him my undivided attention to approach him in worship and intercession, I have to force myself to close out the noise of the world to listen to him. It truly is not a natural thing to do.

McDonald’s second reason we have trouble praying is that we are not willing to recognize our weakness and our total dependence on him.3 What an awful realization this is for a Christian! When I give thanksgiving over the meal, I’m not sure I am truly giving thanks, or just performing something that is expected of me. Do I truly believe God supplied the means to the meal, or is it a ruse to my believing that I worked for the money that paid for the food? What a hypocrite I am! It is God who gives me breath and my next heart beat. It is God who gives me the mind to think and the hands to work. It is God who sent the rain that watered the fields so that the produce for my future meal could grow. I could supply none of these things. I am wholly dependent on God's grace.

Lastly, McDonald suggests that we have trouble praying because we do not recognize the answers to our prayers when they come.4 The Lord answers prayers; but I often do not recognize the answer and attribute seemingly unanswered prayer to God's unfaithfulness rather than my own spiritual blindness and unbelief. I think I believe that Jesus’ promises are true. But, when He says, “I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Matt 18:19, NIV), I have to confess that I have been disappointed. In fact, I have been disappointed enough to stop praying.

What would have happened if Daniel had stopped praying after 20 days, when it took 21 days for the angel to make a "breakthough" against the evil spirit that detained him? (Daniel 10:12-13) He would have been like the Israelites, who came right to the edge of the Promised Land, but were not allowed in because of their unbelief. James tells that we must be single-minded and stable when we pray. He says:

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (James 1:5-7)

Therefore, when we pray, we must be ready to receive by watching and expecting God's answer in whatever form He chooses. Indeed, we must look at our prayer life through heaven's eyes.

--AL

1 Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz vocals by Brian Stokes Mitchell. The Prince of Egypt (UNI/DreamWorks, 1998)
2 Gordon McDonald, Order Your Private World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 174.
3 Ibid, 175.
4 Ibid, 176.