What Do You Want From God?

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Ed Walsh

Puritan Board Senior
Greetings beloved [יַקִּ֨יר] of the Lord,

In my title, “What Do You Want From God,” I mean, What do you want from God above all else. What is your highest priority for which your heart yearns for God to do?

The Bible clearly teaches that, If it is important to you, it matters to God. (Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 5:7; Matthew 6:33) But God has His priorities, and He has openly revealed them to His people. E.g., The first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, the Great Commission, etc., and many other places. I call them “God’s prayer requests.”

Here’s something I posted on my Facebook page yesterday.
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Many well-meaning Christians pray that Jesus will join with them to support a political party or overturn a corrupt government. And in a limited sense, there is some warrant for doing this--limited by the overarching program we are to join with Jesus in. Jesus, our King, seeks for us to participate with Him in the grander task of saving the world.​
1 John 4:14​
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
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Are you perennially passionate about the Kingdom of God? If you are not, you are missing the boat.

In his commentary on Isaiah, God Saves Sinners, Raymond C. Ortlund says the following:

Isaiah 64:1 is as good a description of revival as we’ll find: God comes down to us. That language is figurative. With God, there is no up or down. But figures of speech in the Bible always point to a literal reality. What is the reality behind Isaiah 64:1? The felt presence of God. Isaiah says “at your presence” three times in verses 1–3. And why God’s felt presence? Because when God comes down, “the mountains … quake.” God’s presence is like a fire burning brushwood or causing water to boil, Isaiah says. Then he says, in effect, “What I’m talking about is God making his name known to his adversaries, so that the nations tremble before him” (v. 2b). He’s talking about God intervening. He’s talking about God shaking up this world and changing his enemies into his worshipers.​
But Isaiah isn’t just talking about this. He’s longing for it. The most important word in the whole passage is the first word in 64:1: “Oh.” The most important punctuation mark in the passage is the exclamation point at the end of that sentence (v. 2). Isaiah isn’t theorizing. He’s praying, and with passion. For Zion’s sake he is not keeping silent, until her salvation goes forth as a burning torch. He is taking no rest and is giving God no rest until God’s people are a “praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62:1, 7). He is gripped by a cause greater than himself. There is no greater joy for him than the descent of God to earth.​
Isaiah is teaching us how to pray. We don’t learn to pray by listening to one another. We learn to pray by reading the Bible. God wants us to pray with boldness and passion for the growth of his kingdom. Isn’t that what the Lord’s Prayer emphasizes? Before we pray for our daily bread, we’re taught to pray that God’s kingdom will come (Matthew 6:9–13).​
Ortlund, R. C., Jr., & Hughes, R. K. (2005). Isaiah: God saves sinners (pp. 429–430). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

Isaiah 64:1-4 (ASV 1901)​
Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence, as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil; to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down; the mountains quaked at thy presence. For from of old, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God besides thee, who worketh for him that waiteth for him.
 
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