Hello Greatness,

Happy Saturday! Yes, I know. It doesn’t sound quite as exciting as hearing Happy Friday!! I always look forward to hearing that at work. At times, when the week has been so long at work, I hear myself say Happy Almost Friday or Happy Friday Eve on Thursdays. But that’s not why we’re here today, is it? Let me sound like our Great grandfather Paul, “It brings me great joy to be writing this interesting blog post today.”

You see, I was reading my Bible and came across something interesting in Matthew. It’s just like four verses and I guess when God wants to get your interest, even the most unlikely verse will make sense to you. I have been doing a study on prayer and the importance of covering people around you. I’m back to reading Fervent because, Priscilla Shirer (obviously a good place to begin), and then also picked up “The Anna Anointing” by Michelle McClain-Walters- both books talk about the specificity in prayer and how it helps to get across to God (read both before but it seemed like a good place to start again). You should pick one of them up (if you’re not necessarily called to be an intercessor, The Anna Anointing might seem a little strong sha- but then, aren’t we all called to intercede for others- again, I digress).

Have you ever actually gotten yourself to do like a deep dive on a particular topic? Does anyone ever wonder why it seems like the world revolves around that topic you’re studying? Suddenly, everything seems to connect and you’re like, “Oh this makes sense.” Well, I guess that’s life. Those things were always there but were never pronounced because there wasn’t a focus on it- too many distractions. Well, I wonder what happens when we do decide that we want to see the world via the lens of God. How come that seems more of an abstract idea than deciding to say, we want to focus on just one topic like prayer. I’m not here to leave you wondering jore- it’s just a thought and I’m curious to know. I know we see God in everything- but we don’t necessarily have the same level of focus we do when we find something new in our search for God and I think I want to leave that level to where I actually see everything connected to Him- not just the big stuff.

Okay okay, enough of my rant. Let me show you what I saw in Matthew 20 that brought about this post. So, Matthew and the other Gospels do a good job of putting different events together to try to capture the life of Christ- because if they don’t do that, how will they ever capture all the many things Jesus achieved- which is why we get pocket ideas of what’s happening and I enjoy it. However, chapter 20 seemed a little strange with the introduction of one story that was added, and it seems only Matthew recorded it. But before I say why I think this is fascinating- one more line of thought. If prayer is said to be an interaction with God- a communication- shouldn’t we see all the times people interacted with Jesus as pointers to prayer? I mean, apart from when Jesus was teaching, every interaction led to some form of miracle. We have the centurion tell Jesus not to come to his house and speak the word only; we have Zaccheaus cry out the name of Jesus and ask for mercy. With each of these interactions, Jesus gave a response. With some, He saw their faith and with others, He wanted specificity. We focus on the interactions without gleaning that there are methods to prayer that we could actually unlock from these people- maybe I’m only seeing these things yet again because of what I’ve been focused on.

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. 21And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 22But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.
Matthew 20:20-23

Those verses were totally unrelated to anything- the chapter started with the Parable of the Vineyard Workers (there’s a lot to unpack here), to Jesus predicting His death, and boom, here comes a woman with an odd request. You see, if you look beyond her naivety, you’d understand the importance of covering your children. Mama Zebedee went to Christ and asked that He made sure her two sons, James and John, who have been following Him everywhere will be close to Him in this Kingdom that’s been promised. That was a prayer request. Wouldn’t you want your child to also make it to Heaven? I know I do. I almost brushed this off in my note but I just couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in her head. She must have heard from her sons that Jesus would leave- that must have sparked a fire in her. Her sons were fishermen before Jesus and they had suddenly left that life to follow Jesus, and now Jesus is leaving and her children will be stranded? Never!!! To see how serious she was, she took her two sons with her ooo. I wonder how that conversation must have gone. I imagine her sons were gisting her about their day and she goes, wait He’s predicting His death? What will now happen to you? Will you go back to being fishermen? Why can’t you just follow Him where He’s going so your three year with Him will not be futile. Like any mother, her heard must have been spinning. I bet she wasn’t the only one to think that way, but it seems she was the only one to take action. Thing is, she didn’t even care what the others would think- she marched her two grown sons to Jesus and asked that they be on His left and right- you know they’re there because Jesus asked them a question.

The point I’m trying to make here is- we need to stop having thoughts and making out plans for ourselves without involving God. She went to Jesus about her request and even thought it seemed naive and selfish, Jesus was able to get her to see the right thing. Every single thing we ever go through can be made into prayer. Most times, we get corrected about our mindset in the place of prayer. When Jesus asked, can you drink the cup that I am about to drink? They answered, yes. They thought they were ready, and it seemed they later were. But none of them were to be found when Jesus was being betrayed or hung on the cross- Peter’s denial was proof His disciples ran away, but we know that for most of these disciples, their end wasn’t fun either. Prayer is an act of surrender, and when done properly, it gets you to pick up on the ideas of whom you’re surrendering to. In the place of prayer, we can be pruned and get clarity of purpose for our lives. I invite you to see every thing that happens to you as an opportunity to talk to God. Even if it seems selfish, God can correct that perspective. Your prayer can be refined- you don’t have to go to God perfect, He can perfect you.

With all my love,

Mz_Ola