My lovely wife and I were discussing this earlier today, and I thought it worth bringing to your attention in this short letter. It has to do with the title, anticipation and excitement, and I will try to keep the analogy short here.
In a Christmas card that my wonderful wife received today were two scratch off tickets, a rather oxymoronic gift to celebrate the birth of our Savior, but nonetheless the Almighty has many ways to teach us wisdom. There was no excitement when she opened the card and saw those tickets, our minds did not revolve around the excitement of the possibility of great wealth, I bring this to your attention only for this reason, how much excitement and anticipation do you hold within yourself when you ask the Living God for something?
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” (Matt. 7:7)
When your prayer has ended, are you thrilled to know that you have been heard, that in His timeline and for His glory your prayer, asked without wavering, in the full assurance of His promises, in faith without doubting, that your request will be answered? Or do you doubt that it’s even worth scratching off those spots on that ticket because you will probably not receive anything anyway?
Here my friends you must look to your past, from the moment you were born again, and see those prayers you made, and just how they were answered. Probably most of them not in the specific way that you requested, in fact, some of them not even close to what you asked, but they were answered, were they not?
For almost fifteen years I prayed for someone to share my life with, a wife who could actually stand to be around me, I even told Him the exact shape and size of my desires, and everything that I could possibly think of. Then for a year I quit praying about it and told Him that if He wanted to send someone to me, fine, if not, fine, I’m tired of this prayer.
She is upstairs preparing supper for us right now.
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” (Mark 11:24)
Every prayer that enters into your mind, cautiously thought out, with wisdom from the truths of the Word of God should be followed when completed with great anticipation and excitement, and when they begin to wane, when they begin to fade away and you believe that He is not going to answer you, repeat this verse to yourself.
“In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)
We who are hid in Christ have riches beyond anything that anyone in this world can ever begin to even imagine, we are joint heirs with Christ, it is the Lord’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom, we will see God. If you are not living in anticipation and unequaled excitement about those truths, then there is still too much of the world in you.
But see here the truth of the flesh we still must live in. My lovely wife had no anticipation of winning anything from those scratch off tickets, no excitement whatsoever, but she still scratched those areas off, nearly all of us would have.
There is nothing in this world, nothing that it can offer us that can elicit the type of excitement we receive when we think of our eternal home, and the anticipation of finally meeting our Redeemer knows no competition here.
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1st Cor. 2:9)
