James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask you.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked them.
They answered him, “Allow us to sit at your right and at your left in your glory.”
Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup I drink or to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
“We are able,” they told him.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with. But to sit at my right or left is not mine to give; instead, it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
As I study what Scripture teaches us about prayer, I am repeatedly amazed at the goodness and kindness of God. I marvel at His patience with His people. I take great comfort in the fact that when I read about the people God dealt with in the Scriptures, I find them to be remarkably like me. Prone to forget what they’ve already learned, to see things backwards, to get mixed up, to miss the mark, to fail to appreciate God’s kindness, and often feeling that because life isn’t fair, God isn’t fair.
Over and over again, God patiently, tenderly, mercifully deals with sinners. When His people pray, God answers. I am amazed that He would do this. I am amazed at His mercy, grace, and patience toward me. I am amazed that God so often says, “Yes.”
Gracious Forbearance
As we were studying Genesis during our morning Bible study at the Ranch, we saw a lack of patience in the life of Abraham. He wanted God to fulfill the promise that He would be a father. His wife was unable to conceive, so she proposed an alternate solution. She gave her maidservant to Abraham as a surrogate in order for Abraham to father a child. She wanted Hagar to be the birthmother, but she expected to be the true mother to the child. She wanted her solution to be the answer to prayer for which they had been waiting so long.
Abraham followed Sarah’s plan; there is no record of his asking God for His opinion of Sarah’s plan. It seemed like a good idea to Abraham at the time, and the plan seemed to work. Hagar conceived and bore a son, Ishmael. Soon there was trouble, of course. There is always trouble when we substitute our plan for God’s.
As we read further into the story, God appears to Abraham in Genesis 17 and says: “Now I’m going to fulfill the promise I made to you. Your wife Sarah is going to conceive and bear a child.”
Abraham fell down laughing and said, “Can this be real? I’m a hundred. Sarah’s ninety.”
I know I have sometimes prayed this way: “God, I can’t imagine how you are going to do what you have spoken. This seems impossible; it can’t be done. I don’t want to get my hopes up.”
After Abraham hears God’s plan, he says in Genesis 17:18: “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing.” Abraham felt that he and Sarah had already come up with a satisfactory solution. He wanted God to go along with his plan. All Abraham needed from God was for God to bless his plan, his solution. He just needed God to cooperate and accept the result of his efforts. Abraham had known the pain of childlessness for decades. He saw his current situation with all its difficulty as an improvement over the past. Now, he wanted God to accept and bless his remedy: “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing.”
I read this and see the infinite grace and patience of God in His response:
“Yes,* but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” Genesis 17:19-21
I wouldn’t say this if I were God. I would say, “You foolish man. I’m ready to work a miracle on your behalf. I’m not even punishing you for having violated my plan of one man and one woman for life. When I come and tell you what I’m going to do for you, instead of saying, ‘Thank you, God,’ you ask me to bless your plan.”
God doesn’t say what I would say. He says, “Yes, I’ll bless Ishmael. But I’m still going to give you the child of promise. I will bless your plan, but I’m going to do so much more than what you planned. I’m going to do something much better than what you had in mind. I am going to go beyond anything you dared to hope for, because I have chosen to do this. I love you and I want to bless you.”
Time and again when wandering, doubting, self-important, fickle people confront God, He chooses to bless them anyway. Even when our prayers are so short sighted, God in His mercy over and over says, “Yes, yes….all right… yes.” I am amazed.
Solomon prays, and God asks, “What would you like for me to give you?”
Solomon responds, “I need wisdom.”
“I’ll give you wisdom, but I’m also going to bless you with long life, victory over your enemies and wealth.”
God loves us and is eager to bless us. It is the same serpent who tempted Adam and Eve who still tries to get us to believe today that God is out to rob us of joy. He makes us believe that if we don’t make it happen, it won’t happen. It is Satan himself who is a liar and who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. God longs to bless His children. We need to trust Him and follow His plan even when it involves waiting.
*Several translations say “no,” but if you look at verse 20, it suggests that the NIV translators who said “yes” are correct.
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