Three Plumb Lines for Your Prayers

How to know you're not asking amiss: love, faith and walking in the Spirit, with peace and contentment as your daily check

James wrote something that every praying believer has to face sooner or later: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3).

That verse used to trouble me. How do I know whether what I'm asking for is in line with God's Word, or whether it's just my flesh dressed up in prayer language? I don't want to pray for years and see nothing, only to find out I was asking from the wrong place.

The good news is that God hasn't left us guessing. Just as a builder uses a plumb line to check that a wall is straight, the Word gives us plumb lines to check our prayers. In my last teaching on prayer I started with the first one, love. Today I want to bring all three together, love, faith and walking in the Spirit, and show you two simple checks that tell you whether you're on course.

Plumb line one: love

Everything starts here. Paul describes love this way: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NIV).

Hold your prayer up against that passage. Is it coming from a place of wanting to boast? Is it coming from anger, or from wanting to get even with someone? If it is, it isn't lined up.

A prayer that is straight with love seeks good, not harm. It isn't about showing people who's on top. It flows from the same heart God has toward us.

Plumb line two: faith

The second plumb line is faith. "The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).

So whatever you're asking for has to be something you can receive by faith, something you can actually put your faith to work for. And here's the key: you cannot put your faith to work to receive something that is harmful to someone else. It simply won't work.

Why? Because of Galatians 5:6. Faith "worketh by love." Faith doesn't operate on its own. It works through love. So everything you receive by faith must line up with love, which means it must line up with God.

You cannot, by faith, wish that someone gets sick. You cannot, by faith, pray for someone's downfall or for them to get caught up in something evil. That is asking amiss, and that kind of prayer won't produce results.

Notice how the first two plumb lines hold each other up. Faith is the power that receives, and love is the channel it flows through. When a prayer comes from faith that works by love, you're standing on solid ground.

Plumb line three: walking in the Spirit

The third plumb line is walking in the Spirit. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

When you walk in the Spirit, your desires begin to be in the Spirit too. You start wanting what God wants. And when your desires are godly, those are the desires that should frame your prayers. A prayer framed from a godly place produces results.

It really is that simple. James said we don't receive because we ask to consume it on our lusts. Walking in the Spirit is the answer to that, because the one who walks in the Spirit isn't fulfilling the lust of the flesh.

Two checks that tell you where you stand: peace and contentment

Under walking in the Spirit, there are two very practical things I want you to watch: peace and contentment. I think of them as the gauges on your dashboard.

Peace

When you begin to ask God for something, and that very thing starts to take away your peace, so that you're no longer at rest and no longer comfortable, then something is wrong somewhere.

Paul tells us, "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7). That peace is meant to be in your heart regardless of what you're asking God for. Your request shouldn't be the thing that steals it.

If you're anxious, restless and agitated over a prayer, stop and check it. You may be asking from the flesh rather than from the Spirit.

Contentment

"But godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6).

You can desire something, even something big, and still be content with what you have right now. Someone walking in the Spirit doesn't lose their joy while they're waiting. When you start to lose your contentment, when what you don't yet have makes you miserable about what you do have, that's a sign something has shifted. Maybe you're praying amiss.

Paul put it like this: "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:12-13).

In other words, in every condition, while praying and while expecting, Paul had learned to stay at peace. How? Because the Prince of Peace lives on the inside of us. External things don't get the final say over our peace, because the One who is our peace lives within.

Contentment does not cancel abundance

Now, you might be thinking, "If I'm meant to be content and at peace with what I have, does that mean God doesn't want me to have more?"

No. Contentment doesn't take away the place of abundance.

Jesus Himself said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). An abundant, full life is still what God has for you. John wrote, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth" (3 John 2). That is God's desire: that you prosper in every area of your life.

So peace and contentment don't rule out abundance. They're what keep you steady on the way to it.

We do live in a fallen world, and there's a process. We are renewing our minds. We are learning to receive what God has already given. That's why Paul says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).

You work something out because it's already been worked in. God has done His part. He has given these things to us, and we received them when we prayed. The process of working them out, of walking in them by faith, is left to us. We are discovering what God has deposited inside us and bringing it to pass.

And while we do that, He is the One "that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).

A practical takeaway

Before you bring your next request to God, take a minute and hold it up against these plumb lines:

1. Love. Is this request patient, kind and free of envy, pride or anger? Does it seek good for others?
2. Faith. Can I genuinely put my faith to work for this? Does it harm anyone? Remember, faith works by love.
3. Walking in the Spirit. Is this a godly desire that grew out of time with God, or a craving of the flesh?

Then check your gauges. Do I still have peace while I pray about this? Am I still content and joyful with what I have today?

If your prayer lines up, pray with confidence and keep your peace while you wait. If it doesn't, don't condemn yourself. Simply adjust it. Let the Word straighten the wall, and then ask boldly.

You are not praying in the dark. God has given you everything you need to pray straight.

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God bless you,
Michael Adegoke