“‘O LORD, God of my master, Abraham,’ he prayed. ‘Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham.’” Genesis 24:12 (NLT)
Eleazar’s actions in Genesis 24 provide a great model for how to fulfill the dreams God has given you.
From his story over the last several devotionals, you’ve learned to
Determine your present position
Describe exactly what you want
Find a promise from God
Next, when you’re looking to reach a big dream in your life, you need to ask God for help.
Genesis 24:12 says, “‘O LORD, God of my master, Abraham,’ he prayed. ‘Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham’” (NLT).
Is it ok to pray for success? Yes, it’s in the Bible! What’s the alternative? “God, make me a failure”? Friend, you don’t even have to pray that one. All you have to do is do nothing and you’ll fail at life.
Of course, God wants you to succeed. He wants you to be all he made you to be. He wants you to develop the talents he’s given you. He wants to bless you so you can be a blessing to other people.
Now, he doesn’t bless you so you can live for yourself and spend everything on yourself. God does not bless selfishness or self-centeredness. But he wants to bless you so you can be a blessing to others.
Listen to me closely: If your success helps others and if your success honors God, you’d better be praying for it! God wants you to help other people, and he wants you to honor him. So you can pray, “God, give me success. Help me to be what you want me to be.”
Your prayers reveal two things.
One, they reveal how serious you are about your dreams. If you’re not asking God for something in your life, you don’t really care about it that much.
Did you know that sometimes God delays answering your prayers to see if you’re really serious? He’s seeing if it’s just a passing whim. Will you forget it the next day? If you don’t care enough to pray about it more than once, God will see that it’s obviously not a deep desire.
Two, your prayers also reveal how much you’re depending on God. Because if you never pray about something, you’re depending only on yourself in that area.
Eleazar knew he desperately needed God’s help to fulfill his goals. And so he prayed for success. How desperate are you for God’s help with your dreams? Are you praying about it?
For more Daily Hope with Rick Warren, please visit pastorrick.com!
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