The Tender Place

Very often we come to the Lord with prayer requests and personal concerns that are so close to our hearts that our words with Him are halting and timid and tear-filled. The bold decreeing that characterizes our prayers for others is often absent when we speak to Him of our own concerns. We’re touching a tender place. Whether we are speaking to Him about healing for our bodies, a much needed provision, or wisdom and guidance for our life’s journey, these requests speak to our personal relationship with our Father and His care of us. We can pray for the needs of others, we can prayerfully address a disaster situation somewhere on the planet and call forth Heaven’s help, we can intercede for the salvation of acquaintances with faith-filled words. We are, after all His instruments here on earth to call forth Heaven’s purposes in the lives of others. God expects His people to speak forth His powerful, alive, and active Word (Hebrews 4:12), and to expect results.

Matthew 9:38 – So pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.

John 16:24 – …ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy may be full and complete.

Matthew 18:19 – Again I say to you, that if two believers on earth agree {that is, are of one mind, in harmony} about anything that they ask {within the will of God}, it will be done for them by My Father in Heaven.

John 14:13-14 – And I will do whatever you ask in My Name {as My representative}, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified and celebrated in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My Name {as My representative} I will do it.

(See also John 15:16, John 16:23-24)

So there is no doubt- in this world, as kingdom representatives, as imitators of our Father (Ephesians 5:1), we are expected to exercise our faith in His faithfulness to His Word and to His compassion; we are to speak forth, decide and decree (Job 22:28) and expect that what we say will be established. Faith speaks! That is the faith that pleases God (Hebrews 10:38). That is the faith stand that brings about Heaven’s purposes here on earth. (Which makes you wonder about the end results when God’s people keep silent and do not speak forth His Word in faith.)

We can exhort and encourage others to stand on the Word and expect that Word to manifest. Yet when the need touches our own lives, when our heart’s desires are involved, personal sensibilities often override or weaken our faith stand. Ministries have crumbled, churches have split apart or closed, God’s calling on lives has been reduced or even eliminated. I am not in any way discounting Satan’s role in all of this, but when we understand that he is a defeated foe, we need to recognize that our personal sensibilities often dictate louder than allegiance to our Father’s plans and purposes in a life.

And our Father knows this:

Proverbs 13:12- Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.

So how do we both acknowledge and honor those tender places in our lives but not let them speak louder than our Father’s Word to us and our understanding of His loving, attentive, and watchful care? By making the purposeful decision to hold His Word and His Person as more dear, more precious, than any personal issue.

Psalm 37:4- Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.

By immediately exchanging thoughts of lack, concern, or worry with thoughts of love and honor and praise for the One Whom we serve.

Quite recently just such thoughts of a personal nature would rise up in my mind to try to steal my peace. Questions about why certain prayer requests were taking so long to manifest. Immediately, and I truly emphasize “immediately”, the Holy Spirit redirected my thoughts. Thoughts of love and trust for God’s intentions in my life, thoughts of praise and thanksgiving that I am His daughter, thoughts encouraging my understanding that our Abba’s Word is settled and absolute, replaced the heaviness of negative questioning. The enemy can try to diminish our moments, but he is no match for the work of the Holy Spirit in a yielded life.

And be encouraged. It is the tender heart, the tender place where our dreams and desires reside, where the Lord reveals how special and unique our life in Him truly is. Our giftings, our motivations, the call of each heart, when placed in the care of our Father will yield extraordinary blessings. As His children we ache and yearn for those things because He placed them there.

Ephesians 3:20 – Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the {action of His} power that is at work within us, is able to {carry out His purpose and} do superabundantly, far over and above all that we {dare} ask or think {infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams} – To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).