You Do Not Know What You Are Asking

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

You do not know what you are asking.

That’s what Jesus said.

He said, “You do not know what you are asking.”

He said it to the mother of His disciples James and John.

In Matthew 20, she comes up to Jesus with her sons, kneels down, and Jesus says, “What do you wish?”

What she wishes is that Jesus would make her sons his top officials when He becomes king.

But she clearly doesn’t understand the situation.  She doesn’t know what’s going on.

And I don’t, either.  Do you?

Do we really know what is going on?

I mean, do we know like God knows?  He REALLY knows what’s going on, and by comparison, what do we know?

We don’t.  His ways are far above our ways.  Like Mark Batterson said in his book, “The Circle Maker,” His ways are 15.5 billion light years above our ways.

So when we bring our feeble prayers to God, it is highly likely that we don’t know what we are asking.

I like what it says in James 4:3, we ask and do not receive because we “ask amiss.” 

Is that prayer a hit?  No, that’s “amiss,” ha ha ha.

So how can we pray and not ask amiss?  How can we pray with knowledge and wisdom, and pray according to God’s will?

One way is praying the Scriptures.  For example, I often pray “Show my Thy ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths,” which is Psalms 25:4.

There are tons of Bible verses that can be converted straight into prayers.

Another way we can pray and not ask amiss is by praying in humility and surrender.

One example of this from my life is when I decided to get into Christian radio back in 1986.  I sent a letter to all the Christian radio stations in the state and prayed, in fact I basically begged God, “Please, just open one door, the exact door You want me to step through; because if I have to choose, I won’t know which one to choose or how to choose it.  Either I will base it on worldly standards and career opportunities, or I will do the opposite of that on purpose, and I don’t want to do either of those in my own wisdom.  God, I want Your perfect will, and I don’t know what that is, so please, just open one door.”  And, one door opened.

The point of that story was praying a prayer of humility and submission.  “Not my will, but Thy will be done.  God, I don’t know what is best.  I’m not that smart.  And Your ways are 15.5 billion light years above my ways, so I trust You.  I put my complete trust in You.  I’m the sheep, and You are The Good Shepherd.  I love You and want to follow You wherever You lead.”

In Jesus’ name I pray.

Amen.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Is It a Young Man's Game?

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32)

I was talking to an older ministry leader.

He was sharing some of his frustrations, like the challenges of working with young people, understanding the current culture, the seeming shift away from Godly morals, even the ever-changing digital world. How can an older ministry leader keep up?

I was just listening and soaking it in, and then he said, “Maybe it’s a young man’s game.”

A young man’s game?

It CAN’T be a young man’s game. Leading a ministry cannot be a young man’s game. It can’t be an old man’s game. It has to be a SPIRIT-LED game.

Of course it’s not a game. That’s a figure of speech.

The question is, do you get to the place where you are just too old to be truly effective in ministry? What if you can’t keep up with the trends? What about your digital marketing? Your social media? What about motivating a new generation you don’t even understand?

Listen. I hope your ministry never was about how hip you were or how current you were or how well you understood the youth. I hope your ministry was ALWAYS based on spending time with God, rightly dividing the Word, and following the leading of His Holy Spirit every step of the way.

That is the key to ministry no matter how old you are. Look. Burn all your “How to Grow Your Church” books if you have to. I’m all for knowledge and education and learning and training, but that can’t be the foundation of your ministry. You’re not smart enough. You’re not quick enough. You’re not young enough. You can’t keep up with it all.

But you don’t have to. Listen. You don’t have to keep up with the trends. Forget the trends.

Lock yourself in with God. Dive into that daily time of prayer and seeking Him and running to Him and listening to Him.

He will empower you. He will strengthen you. He will open your eyes to exactly what you need to know and how you need to operate.

THAT is how you run a ministry, and age has nothing to do with it, and it never did.

Think of John the Baptist. No marketing studies. No trends. No memberships in the hip clubs. He wasn’t a chief priest. He wasn’t in the Sanhedrin. He didn’t poll the people to see what they wanted.

He just heard from God and did it. He stood out in the wilderness preaching repentance, and lo and behold, the people came...and they kept coming, and repenting, and turning their lives over to God.

So is it a young man’s game? No, it’s everyone’s game; everyone who will run to Jesus, be filled with His Spirit, and seek Him while He may be found. Throw yourself on His altar as a living sacrifice and become all that God has intended you to be from the foundation of the world.

You are NOT too old to dive in and be that blazing fire that God wants you to be, right now, and right up until the day you step into heaven and see Jesus face to face.

Hallelujah. Let’s do this. Come on.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.