Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? (Matthew 7:9)
Today’s Oswald devotional is hard hitting and asks us to honestly examine ourselves and our relationship is with God and with others around us when it comes to prayer. Oswald reminds us that those relationships affect our prayer life and in particular when we will and will not receive a response to our requests. I don’t believe he is saying God doesn’t hear our prayers – Oswald is pointing out to us that our spiritual walk can affect His response to our prayers.
One line stood out to me: “We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering.” Have I been defiant in my stance with God, or submissive to His will in my life, even when it doesn’t feel good?
The world around us provides many reasons to hate and be divided from others. Do we act like the world, taking on offense at this or that thing being done against us or others? Are we learning how to be different from the world? Do those who we come into contact with see a difference in us compared to others in the world? We should be examples of different, such that a door is opened for the Gospel to be spoken into their lives! Many times Christ needs to be displayed first before others will hear the Gospel. Are we attracting people to Christ or repelling them?
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)
When we walk as a child of God, it opens up our heart when we go to our Father in prayer. He still isn’t a jukebox that automatically grants our every request. But we know we can come to Him with our prayers with much different expectations knowing a good Father knows what we need, and that we rarely know what is best for us.
The Spiritual Inventory
By Oswald Chambers
Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? — Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer Jesus uses here is of a good child asking for a good thing. We talk about prayer as if the state of our relationship to God makes no difference to whether he gives us what we want. Never say that it isn’t God’s will to give you what you ask; don’t throw your hands up in defeat. Take a spiritual inventory; find the reason. Ask yourself: Am I in the relationship of a good child asking for a good thing? Am I rightly related to my spouse, my children, my friends and colleagues? Or am I saying to God, “Oh, Lord, I know I’ve been irritable and angry, but I want a spiritual blessing”? If this is my mindset, I’ll have to do without the blessing until I adopt the attitude of the good child.
We mistake defiance for devotion, telling God that we want to be abandoned to him, when really we just want to abandon our responsibilities. We refuse to take a spiritual inventory. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want when there’s something I haven’t paid for? Have I been asking God for liberty when I am withholding it from someone else? Is there someone I haven’t forgiven, someone to whom I haven’t been kind?
I’m a child of God only through spiritual rebirth. I’m good only as long as I walk in the light. Most of us turn prayer into a pious platitude, using it to get an emotional fix or viewing it as a hazy, mystical experience. Spiritually, we are all good at producing fogs. If we take an inventory, we will see very clearly what we must set right—a friendship, a debt, a temperament. There’s no point in praying unless we are living as children of God. Once we are, then, Jesus says, “Everyone who asks receives” (Matthew 7:8).
Dead Man Walking 
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