I was part of teaching team that was holding a weeklong, leadership training tent meeting for pastors in of a rural village called Lolwe, outside of Kisumu in Kenya, Africa. We were excited to have a good crowd and it was our great pleasure to teach the Word of God and feed lunch to around 120 people each day.
On the final day of our meeting we prayed for everyone who wanted prayer. We had 4 long lines of people waiting patiently for us to lay hands on them and pray for them. With the help of an interpreter we asked each person what they wanted. It seemed like the whole village came looking for prayer. I’ll never forget this one little boy. He had dirty, torn clothes and beat up sandals. His shirt was held together at the front with an old safety pin.
I asked him what he wanted and he said “I don’t need anything, just bless me please”. He just wanted a touch from God.
I remember thinking that if I was him, I’d probably ask for some new clothes and shoes at least. But he didn’t seem to care about that. He just wanted to be blessed by the servants of God who came to his home town. I thought about my prayer life and how many things I ask for. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ask God for things or that God doesn’t want us to have nice things. It just seems to me that there is too much of this type of praying going on.
Our Heavenly Father wants only good things for His children. He wants to make sure that we have our needs met in this life but He doesn’t want us to be obsessed about it. He is really looking for us that be in fellowship with Him, to spend quality time in His presence and to be willing to do His bidding. If we do this, then we are obeying Matthew 6:33 (New Living Translation) that says we need to “seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously and He will give us everything we need”.
I live in Canada; a county filled to overflowing with all the stuff you could dream of. It is very easy to be distracted by it. It is very easy to want it. It is very easy to be convinced that I must have it. I am determined to fight against this. I want to be more like the village boy whose contentment is found in getting a touch from God.
-Article by Robin Redding, Associate Minister, James Miklos Ministries.
