[Real Life] Unintended ConsequencesSample

To Glorify God

Saturday evenings I look over my sermon. I lie down on the floor in my home office with my Bible, computer, notepad, and sometimes worship music on; I look over my sermon outline and I pray. I have done that for about 30 years now, from college on. Once I got to this point in the message, I was reminded of my prayer 30 years ago: “Dear Lord, I’m going to speak to a bunch of people tomorrow. Don’t make me look dumb. In Jesus’ name, amen.” 

That used to be my prayer, and sometimes, to be honest, I still pray that... but this time my prayer was, “Lord, thank you that I get to speak to people; let me know more about You. Let me understand more about You. Let me walk in You. Let me abide in You. I am so thankful that I’ve been able to sit down here with a notepad and an outline and I’ve found You faithful every time. I know You, You’re Jesus, You’re the Savior, You’re faithful, and You’ve gifted me. I just want to rest.” Those type of relationship prayers are different from “God, do something that keeps me from being uncomfortable.” 

The first intended consequence of abiding in Christ is that our prayer life is based on a relationship with God, so our prayers become intimate and the answers flow as we understand that it is all about Him. It's not about getting God on our program. That is not prayer. It is about us getting on God’s program. That's prayer!

The second intended consequence of abiding is that it glorifies God. If we abide deeply, we are going to bear fruit greatly—achieve greatly. You are going to be a better mom, dad, son, daughter, husband, wife, friend, and better at whatever you do for a vocation and achieve greater things. If you abide deeply, you will achieve greatly. We worry, “But wait a minute... If I don’t spend enough time at the office, if I don’t get there early and stay there late, then will I really achieve?” You might achieve an unintended consequence: if you get there early, and you stay there too late, you won’t have a family! 

Jesus says, “If you abide in Me, you will glorify God, and you will bear MUCH fruit.” …Now you have the order right.