(This is a repeat devotion by request)

This is a quote from an unnamed ministry that has decided they have learned the truth to unlocking God’s blessings.

“If you’re disappointed because you feel God has not kept His promises to you, it’s time to understand the difference between a contract and a covenant; contracts are time dated, but covenants are dispensed over time! Click LIKE if you believe the promise is coming!”

Today we are being assaulted by computer messages that clip one sentence from the scriptures and then make demands that God bless us. People are being disillusioned by the score! Preachers are standing in the pulpits and teaching about the promises of seed money, and the poor widows are filling the preacher’s pockets, paying for his cars and mansions, and then living in elderly poverty themselves.

I personally know people who are dying of old age illnesses who are claiming healing from God that somehow seems to never come.

The opening paragraph above would be much easier if the Bible printer just made the contract and covenant statements to stand out in a different color. ( I am not serious!)

I think the problem really is that most “Christians” don’t really want a relationship with God, they just want a god who will solve their problems, heal them, make them rich, bless them when they want, and otherwise act as a great credit card in the sky.

People want a god of convenience. They don’t want the daily responsibility of walking with God, they just want him standing in the backstage ready to perform on demand.

We tend to act as if we have rights and privileges that can be demanded in prayer by just reminding God of a sentence from the Bible that says we can have (fill in the blank).

Now as I am writing this, I must confess that I have seen God answer prayers in a great and mighty way. I have seen the results of prayer on illness, finances, relationships, and even keeping a broken down car running, but I am writing in response to the ones who want that “power” without the relationship.

Most of those who are loudly seeking (or selling) that power are counterfeit. Think of the most elite solders in the military. I have known a few personally. They did not boast or swagger. They just quietly oozed a confidence and authority that was often mistaken for meekness.

Like the military soldier, most of our real prayer warriors are the little old grandmas and grandpas who are faithful and quiet. They are not up on stage in the churches, nor or they loud and boisterous. They quietly have their private time with God, and their prayer life is filled with power.

The rest of us are caught up in the daily grind, the rat race so to speak and somehow never slow down enough for that quiet time with God that gives such power to prayers! Think back to the stories of a few of the great preachers and missionaries of the past. Most of them had a common theme of spending lots of time on their knees in fellowship and prayer with God.

You know, perhaps the title of this is better than I thought. Instead of thinking of God as a giant credit card, perhaps we should think of Him as a pre-pay credit card. You get out of it only what you put into it!

Now before you stone me to death, I do not mean any sacrilege towards God. But the concept is sort of valid. The main credit card is buy now/pay later… and most who function in this belief tend to expect the Cross to have paid the Credit Card Bill.

But I believe from knowing the prayer warriors, and seeing the miraculous prayer results in my own life that it is much more like the prepay cards, you only get out according to what you have put in.