16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
(Genesis 18:16-25)
Driving down a country road, I came to a very narrow bridge. In front of the bridge, a sign was posted: "YIELD." Seeing no oncoming cars, I continued across the bridge and to my destination. On my way back, I came to the same one-lane bridge, now from the other direction. To my surprise, I saw another YIELD sign posted. Curious, I thought, "I'm sure there was one posted on the other side." When I reached the other side of the bridge I looked back. Sure enough, yield signs had been placed at both ends of the bridge. Drivers from both directions were requested to give right of way. It was a reasonable and gracious way of preventing a head-on collision (Stephen Beck).
Yielding to God is one of the reasons why we pray. When we pray we usually ask God for things that we cannot do for ourselves, but it is not as though God doesn't know the answer or equipped to do what He wills to do. He desires instead that we come to Him with a yielded mind and a yielded heart. Abraham was having such an experience of yielding to God in this passage today.
Out of hospitality Abraham makes some special travelers a nice dinner and invites them to stay for some time. He was just being a good host. It seems like later in the conversation he realizes that who he is talking with is more than just a group of men. The LORD lets himself be known when he tells of the child Abraham and Sarah are about to have. Abraham now realizes that this is more than a mere man. In v. 3 when Abraham initially addresses the men he says lord with a small "l" (like the way we would say "Sir."). However, Later his address indicates the realization he is speaking to God.
It seems that in many places in the Old Testament, men like Abraham speak to God when God appears to them. I find in my own life there are a lot of times when I am just going through the motions of praying. I have not really gotten to the point of speaking to God. It is more of an exercise than a personal experience. When we see Abraham speaking to God it is a personal experience. He is speaking to a living breathing being. It was personal.
It becomes especially personal when these travelers share with Abraham that God is about to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even though these cities are terribly wicked cities, Abraham is driven to the point of desperation because he knows that his nephew Lot and his family are living there. So Abraham prays in such a yielded way, and pleads for the lives of these cities. He asks God if God would not destroy them for the sake of fifty, and each time he hears an answer and yet prays again- "will you not destroy them for the sake of forty-five, twenty-five, how about ten, God?" Each time Abraham prays because he knows that the members of Lot's family, including his wife, daughters, and their husbands do not even equal that number. But each time Abraham prays, it is personal. He speaks to God on a personal level.
Praying personally with God and speaking to Him on this level is one of the things which makes and keeps prayer real. We might also expect God to speak to us on the same level. All of our prayers ought to be personal and yielded to God; even when we are praying for vast numbers of people- like those victims in the recent Haiti earthquake whom we do not know- when we cry out to God for them, we make it personal. God already knows them, but He wants us to enter into their anguish and heartache at the same time. This will cause us not to go through the motions, but to offer to God prayers that are personal and yielded to Him for the answers we know God is capable of giving. For example, when we hear of events like what happened in Haiti and we pray for the victims, they often feel like statistics. But when we know of someone involved in it, living there or helping with the relief, then it becomes personal. However, it can always be personal to us, because God is there and we know Him.
When you pray today, yield yourself to God. Pour out your heart to Him. He does not desire a formal, stained glass-window prayer designed more for others to hear than for God. God wants a personal prayer from our heart that acts as though there is a personal stake in the outcome. Will you be willing to do that?
Prayer: Dear God, I yield myself to You today and offer my prayers personally to You, because You are a God who cares much more than we do about the outcome of every situation. Father help us to realize how important our prayers are not just to You, but to ourselves. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen!
Have a blessed day!
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