Last week Tuesday, my dad passed away in the hospital; he lived his life for the development of others sacrificing his own personal comfort for the success of others. So when I was faced with either attending the speaking engagement for the Youth Corpers Passing Away in Delta State or just staying at home to mourn him, I chose the former to fulfill his legacy. The flight to Benin was smooth but the conversations that went through my heart took a different direction – many of us are destined to die but what we leave behind is what really counts.
Since most of us do not keep the end in view when taking decision, we tend to focus too much on our immediate challenge. When our minds engage too much on the immediate challenge, we lose touch with our destiny and purpose. The immediate challenge becomes the compass to our lives directing us in our everyday choice like what we need to pray about. What we pray about is definitely a function of what engulfs our mind which definitely slips in our conversation with God which ultimately gets answered.
Last week, I pointed out that the perception of the lion is what ultimately crowns it the king not the talent that it possesses. The same scenario appears in our prayer lives; while one man is praying to get a job another one is praying to create jobs; the same human, the same theme but different perception hence different outcomes. The illogical thing happens: The man that prays for a job becomes offended with the man creating the jobs. This is definitely not an aberration but a norm. Suddenly, I realize that it takes the same energy to pray for different outcomes so why not focus on what you really want.
Two weekends ago, I organized the cash flow 101 game and I witnessed firsthand on the way people think to make decisions. The goal of the first stage of the game is for people to generate enough passive income to offset their bills but I realize all the players prefer to accumulate their paycheck. I realize they derive joy in having a lot of cash doing nothing than to generate passive incomes. This kind of thinking also affects the way they pray – “God, I need a good paying job to buy a duplex and marry the woman of my dreams; have three children; buy two cars (one for my wife and the other for me) and one bus to take the children to schoolâ€.
I shared different praying perception with the Delta Youth Corpers using the character of Jacob to drive home my point. When Jacob left his father’s house to his uncle’s house, he experienced a divine visit from God in his dream. God said; “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessedâ€. After the initial shock and finally acknowledging God’s visit, his prayer perception was filled with his ongoing challenge; “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God†(Gen 28).
If you really did not grab my point, the nutshell was that God promised to increase his influence through his seed and to make him prominent round the world but his prayers were divergent to God’s purpose for him; he was more worried about what he would eat and wear and was bothered about returning in peace to his father’s house. God answered his prayer by making him a bondservant in the house of his uncle – he had clothes to wear and food to eat. It took him twenty years to realize how wrong those prayers were when he was faced with the possibility of facing his brother; his prayers changed (Gen 32):
“And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitudeâ€. This time Jacob was praying according to purpose and God answered him with the challenge of wrestling with a man which he won and his name was changed from Jacob to Israel. Prayer is a conversation with God; it is important to pray what God tells you not the challenge you are facing.  The man in this text could be symbolic for the right challenge that would lead us to fulfilling purpose. When we pray right, we would be faced with the right challenge that would ensure our footsteps in the sands of time. The name Israel has become a country, a people and a culture hence the need to pray right according to our purpose.
