What Does It Take To Get God To Act?

My wife and I were discussing a life situation we were struggling with lately and a common question came up.  It was, to paraphrase it in general, “How do we know we’re doing the right things to get God to act in our lives?”  To put it another way, “How do we know we’re in God’s will?” or again, “am I doing the right things in relationship to God?”  This question takes many forms but it all boils down to the same thing.  When we desire God’s direct work in our life situations, or seek a specific answer to prayer, what does it take to bring that about?  Is there something I’m not doing that He wants me to do?  Is there something I’m doing that is preventing His work in my life.  These last two questions are not wrong to ask ourselves and God.  There may actually be something that is preventing God’s work.  If there is, God does not hide that from us, He usually lets us know pretty clearly when we ask.  It is up to us to be faithful to act on these convictions.  But, what if there is no word of conviction one way or another from God and it seems He is still distant, or our desires and even needs seem unmet and our prayers unanswered?

When this question came up, I smuggling and half jokingly said there is an answer to the bottom line here, and I pointed to Ecclesiastes 12:13

      Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
    Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.

To paraphrase this in New Testament language, “the bottom line is:  Love God and do His will.”

The “Preacher”, the writer of Ecclesiastes, which we take to be Solomon, had spent the whole book going over his search for ultimate meaning in life.  He chronicles all of the things he has pursued with the conclusion that all but this one thing is vanity and chasing the wind.  Jesus reflected this bottom line in His teachings and His life.

Our discussion went on from there because of the common question, “How do I know I am in God’s will?” or “How do I know I’m doing everything in God’s will?”  It was then that my mind went back to the Mount Carmel incident between Elijah’s God and Baal (I Kings 18).  As the story goes, a challenge had been posed to prove who the one true God was.  The challenge was to see which of the gods represented would send fire down from heaven to light an offering on the top of the mountain.  Elijah, being very confident, gave the prophets of Baal the home field advantage.  He let them go first and let them have first pick of the bulls to be offered.  So they set up their altar with the offering on it and started praying, then begging.  That didn’t do it, so they started dancing and crying louder.  That didn’t even do it, so they started cutting themselves with swords and spears until blood was freely flowing.  They did this for hours.  In fact they did this starting in the morning, through noon, until evening with no results. 

When I look at the cutting themselves part, I am reminded of a song by the Rolling Stones, “I Know It’s Only Rock and (But I Like It)”.  This song is a slam at all of the stage theatrics that were going on in pop/rock music at the time.  Some of the lines are, “If I could stick my pen in my heart
and spill it all over the stage,” and “If I could stick a knife in my heart, suicide on the stage.”  Then the question is posed, “Would it satisfy you?”

The question, what does it take to satisfy God?  The prophets of Baal served a false god.  Baal was an idol made by man out of their own imagination—an idol which supposedly had power, but had to be appeased with any number of hoops to jump through to get him to work.  With such an idol there was a progression of antics that the follower had to go through to gain favor and produce action by this god.  As in the Mount Carmel incident, it started with prayer.  On that day, prayer obviously wasn’t enough, so they went on to more fervent prayer and shouting.  Not good enough today, so dancing was in order.  Dancing usually did it, but obviously Baal was not so easily pleased today.  That left only the final resort which meant cutting themselves.  From the narrative it can be conjectured that the cutting started small, but we see that it progressed until blood was freely flowing from the wounds.  I am sure the prophets of Baal were asking themselves and their god, what does it take to get you to do this one thing?

Elijah had a little fun with them while this was all going on.  He taunted them, “maybe he can’t hear you,” or “maybe he’s just busy,” “maybe he’s deep in thought, or asleep.”  Elijah actually went so far as to say, “maybe he’s in the bathroom.”  Sure this sounds funny, but it shows us a great contrast between a god conceived by man and the one true God of the universe.  The psalmist tells us many times that our God has none of these anthropomorphic qualities or limitations.

After their failed efforts, we know that Elijah built the altar and even flooded it with water.  He then prayed once and the fire fell from heaven, burning up the sacrifice, the wood and even the stones of the altar, the water and even the dirt around it.

I look at this story and have to remember that my God, our God is not an idol who is fickle, or so caught up in himself that he would toy with us humans.  He doesn’t have the human failings, quirks, shallowness, or frailties that an idol like Baal was seen to have.  Our God is all powerful.  Our God is ultimately and constantly attentive.  Our God is love.  We don’t have to bargain with Him, dicker with Him, manipulate Him, and the only way we can appease Him is to love Him and trustingly follow Him.

So what can we say about the times when it seems God is far away, or He has reserved or withheld His activity and working in our lives.  God didn’t always answer Elijah’s prayers immediately.  In fact, right after the altar incident on Mount Carmel, Elijah prayed for rain.  This whole incident had come at the culmination of a three year draught which started when Elijah had prayed that it stop raining because of the sins of Ahab and Jezebel and the nation following after Baal.  God, before this showdown had promised to give rain again, so after the great victory, Elijah faithfully prayed for rain.  He prayed once and sent his servant to look for signs of rain.  The servant brought back a disappointing report, "nothing.  Not even one tiny cloud."  The was repeated a total of six times with the same disappointing results.  It was not until the seventh time (I won’t go into numerology at this time) that Elijah prayed and his servant brought back the report that there was a tiny cloud, “as small as a man’s hand, rising from the sea.”  Wow, seven times of praying for something that God had already promised, and the result was a tiny cloud no bigger than a man’s hand?

Sometimes it works like the altar incident, but sometimes it works like the cloud incident.  What we don’t see is Elijah begging, wailing, dancing and cutting himself.  We see him simply continuing to pray in faith.  I believe he would have continued praying in faith, trusting God to work as He had said.  Why didn’t it come on the first prayer?  Was God hard of hearing, or in deep thought, or involved in something else at the time?  Was Elijah not doing something right, or not doing enough?  No.  We don’t know why it didn’t happen immediately this time.  What we know is that faithful prayer of a believer does bring about the work of a God who is the one true God and is faithful and always at work in our lives even when we don’t see it. 

What about the timing, though?  I can't say much, but God's timing, though often undiscerned by us is usually the right timing (tongue in cheek, of course).  Refer to the seven times of praying for support in this area.  I know, I said I wouldn't go into the numerology, but I couldn't help myself.

I know it’s only faith and prayer, but God likes it.