Do Our Prayers Really Matter to God? | Mornings with Mico

Good people, what's going on? My name is Miko and welcome to my one-on-one time with God today. That I've been writing, let me catch you up where we are right now in the story. So we're still in Exodus. Moses is at this point in the story, he has rescued the Israelites from Egypt. They're now camped out. They've made it across the Red Sea. They're camped out somewhere in the wilderness and he has left that camp, went up into the mountains and he's talking with God. God is giving him the commandments. Meanwhile, he's up there apparently too long for the Israelites. They start to panic and get worried and they decide that, okay, Moses has left us. So now we're going to have to create a new God and we're going to worship that God and say, this is the God that rescued us from Egypt, so on and so forth. God is aware of this. He gets upset and Moses goes down to address the Israelites. So this is where the story picks up where God is upset and this is what he says to Moses. He says, I have seen these people referring to the Israelites. The Lord said to Moses and they are stiff neck people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation. But Moses sought the favor of the Lord, his God. Lord, he said, why should your anger burn against your people whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth. Turn from your fierce anger, relent, and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel to whom you swore by your own self. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land. I promised them and it will be their inheritance forever. Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people, the disaster he had threatened. And, um, this, this passage does a number of things to me, uh, you know, to my thoughts. Um, but one that, um, that comes to mind, I know this is one of those passages, um, like a few others that people often use when they, um, make the argument that, uh, God changes his mind. Um, even though there are passages in scripture right now, read a few of them where, um, it, it, it describes God and it describes him as a guy that doesn't change his mind, right? Those, um, some of those passages, numbers 23, 19, God is not human that he should lie, not a human being that he should change his mind. First Samuel 15, 29, he who is the glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind for

he is not a human being that he should change his mind. Malachi three, six, I, the Lord do not change. James one 17 with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change referring to God. And, um, I think it's so easy. I think, I think I naturally, right. As, as humans as we're kind of like in this, these finite bodies, um, finite minds, right. Um, to camp out into like one side or the other, you know, in, in, in these, in these conversation, right. Either we see these passages where God does not change his mind and we're like, Nope, this is it. God doesn't change his mind. I don't know what y'all talking about over there. This is how I'm gonna see things or we'll see that. And then we'll see these instances where it's like, clearly it says the Lord relented and did not bring when his people, the disaster he had threatened and we're like, well, clearly, you know, God changed his mind. So I disregard that. And this is, you know, the understanding I lean into. And I think both of those are in my humble opinion, they're just equally wrong. Um, I think, I think that God does not call us to pick sides of his truth, right? The Bible says this, and the Bible says that, but rather instead of picking sides, it's like, okay, take all of this into perspective and allow this to inform your understanding, right. When you see the, the whole picture. And when, when I do that, as I'm reading these passages, man, um, I think it's like my mind has to like, it's like an Rubik's cube. It has to like reconfigure to like lean into the understanding that's appropriate. Right. Um, when, when, when, when I see both of these passages that to the naked eye could like, seem like they, they contradict, but when I see here in numbers. Samuel, Malachi, James, the examples I gave you where it's clear like okay God isn't this fickle being, he's not like reactive like us, but rather he is steady, he is consistent, he's omnipotent, he's omniscient, he knows all right, he doesn't even have a need to to change his mind, he knows all. So with that understanding, then viewing these passages that I see here that we're reading today in Exodus, with that understanding, it's like okay, so then how do I then understand this passage? And where I arrive at this point, and I reserve the right, you know, if God later on down the road, he opens, you know, up my mind or gives me new revelation to build on or to grow my understanding, I reserve the right to then get in the line, whatever he's saying, right? But

right now, I just feel graced to have this understanding. It is as we take these into consideration, these concretes about God, and we look at this passage, it doesn't appear that God is like changing his mind in a sense of solely decided to do this, and then Moses comes up with a better idea, so then he decides to lean into Moses. But rather, I think that what God is doing here is revealing to us what this relationship is supposed to look like. I think he's showing to us how he responds to prayer and compassion and things like that. I think that if we only have this view of God as this God who's immutable, he does not change, then we wouldn't even approach him with our desires or our wishes, our concerns, because it's like, well, he's not going to change anyway. And I think that in his perfect wisdom, in him knowing that he has these instances in scripture spread throughout the Bible where we get to see how he and his sovereignty still takes us into consideration within his perfect will, right? You see him considering what Moses is saying. I don't think that Moses came up with a better idea. I think God, he knew if I say this to Moses, this is how he'll respond. And I want people to see that, no, your words do matter to me. And when your word, when you come to me, right, and you bring your prayers to me, like, no, I do consider your words, right? And they can impact how my hand moves, right? With our faith, you know, things like that. Like our faith is what we see in the New Testament. It says that Jesus couldn't perform any miracles there because of their unbelief, because of their lack of their faith, or we'll see God, you know, heal people based on people's faith. Like we see his hand move according to, you know, people's faith and people's prayers. And I believe that this is one of those instances that God is really wanting to reveal to us that in this, in his, how his sovereignty and our free will intersect and how they intertwine, like our minds may never fully grasp how that all works on this side of heaven, right? The Bible says we know in part. And once we get to heaven, then we may have a fuller understanding of how that all works. But I think these here, this is to inform us to let us know, like, yo, don't just treat me like this far away, you know, all powerful guy that you can't approach. Like, no,

come to me with your concerns. Come to me. And I think that what I see here, when Moses, when he comes to him, I think he even gives like a sense of, like some key things to, to, to, to, to acknowledge in him approaching God in this, in this situation here, as far as like his heart posture and things like that. One, the Bible describes Moses as the most humble person on earth. So I think that humility piece as we come to God is key, right? We have to come to him in his posture of humility. It says that, um, the very first, well, not the first line I read, but, um, in verse 11, it says, but Moses sought the favor of the Lord, his God. And when I see that, I'm like, wow, Moses sought the favor of the Lord, his God, but it wasn't even for himself. God, according to, you know, the passage before that, it says that, um, that, um, now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation. And, and Moses responds to that and says, no, he's seeking a favor of God, not so that he can be made into a great nation. He's seeking a favor of God for the Israelites. And if you read throughout the story, the Israelites, they were not like kind to Moses. Like they didn't even really take to Moses like that. They didn't see him as, um, you know, I don't know. They said this fellow, right. That, that, that, that's in the mountains. Like he's, he's not with us anymore. If you read the passage or, um, they've, they've, they've been complaining and murmuring to Moses throughout this time. Like it wasn't like these people were, were, were, and Moses had like this close knit relationship, but yet Moses responded. out of compassion for these people and and and seeks God's favor not for himself but for these people for the Israelites for God to not destroy the Israelites I see that he clearly here he has a compassion for the people and he goes on to say that turn from your fierce anger and lint and do not bring disaster on your people remember your servants Abraham Isaac and Israel to whom you swore by your own self I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky I will give your descendants all this land I promised them and it will be their inheritance forever okay let me back up it says um

why should your ankle burn against your people whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth and what he's saying in this man it's like he's mindful of not just the people but also of God's reputation so here you hear you see him come to the table as the most humble man on earth with a with a compassion for people and a conviction for God's glory like that's the recipe that like like like when when you bring that to the table it's like these are the ingredients that make up right like the right heart posture and and with these things at play it's like how can God not respond to that right that is that though is that if that's at the core of your heart a heart of humility a compassion for people a a concern a conviction for God's glory it's like no he wants to partner with that and he wants us to see through this passage he wants us to see hey when you approach me this way this does I interact with that in a way that can shift the trajectory of things in this world I think that's more that's the greater understanding for us to walk away from this passage with at least that's where that's that's what I see in this man that's what I feel like the Holy Spirit is revealing to me in this that that it's not a matter of if God changes his mind oh he's omnipotent he's omniscient he doesn't need to change his mind but rather what what is he wanting us to see what is how is he wanting us to to know how to relate to him and I think he wants us to know hey come to me in humility come to me with care and concern for my people come to me you know with conviction you know for my glory like these things that matter to me as God when these things matter to you and that's at the core of your heart that's what I partner with and this is what that looks like this is how that plays out and it's one of those things I just I just I just I don't know like I get I get I get a little out when I when I see these things man and and and yeah just just some good stuff good stuff y'all I would love for you to you camp out in this passage camp out in this passage it's in Exodus verse 32 and allow allow these instances as we see

these things right to not cause us to lean too far to the left or too far to the right of God's truth but to take all things into consideration and when we take all set both sides all of it into consideration I think what we walk away with right what comes to the surface right is it's a clear understanding of how God wants to interact with us I think so much of his word is to reveal to us how he wants to interact with this hope this blesses you and I probably went a little over today but this was one that was uh this is one that was kind of you know pressing heavy on my heart fresh off some conversations with some people regarding this and and and yeah so hope it blesses you and see y'all tomorrow