When he arrived, he made the camels kneel down at the well outside the city. It was late afternoon, the time when women came out to get water. He prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today and keep your promise to my master. Here I am at the well where the young women of the city will be coming to get water. I will say to one of them, ‘Please, lower your jar and let me have a drink.’ If she says, ‘Drink, and I will also bring water for your camels,’ may she be the one that you have chosen for your servant Isaac. If this happens, I will know that you have kept your promise to my master.”

Before he had finished praying, Rebecca arrived with a water jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor and his wife Milcah. – Genesis 24:11-15 GNT 

Here is a prayer offered by Eliezer and he is expecting a miracle. There is no way he will be confused with the outcome unless no woman meets the expectations he has given to the Lord to perform. Here are some things I noted about his prayer that would make it a trademark for those followers of Jesus who pray.

Eliezer made prayer the first thing on his agenda. He began his mission with prayer. He invited God into the mission and gave the reason for his request. He spoke openly with God. It was specific and it could only happen if God participated. He is not presumptuous, only needs God to participate, especially after the journey across the desert. He is also providing the scenario that would enable him to evaluate that God is answering his prayer. It was not his young lady that he was looking for, it was God’s young lady. With the scenario being filled with men watering their camels, imagine him seeing a young lady coming to the well with a herd. When he saw the potential answer to his prayer – he ran. He did not hesitate to find out if she was the one.

She said, “Drink, sir,” and quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and held it while he drank. When he had finished, she said, “I will also bring water for your camels and let them have all they want.” She quickly emptied her jar into the animals’ drinking trough and ran to the well to get more water, until she had watered all his camels. The man kept watching her in silence, to see if the Lord had given him success.

When she had finished, the man took an expensive gold ring and put it in her nose and put two large gold bracelets on her arms. He said, “Please tell me who your father is. Is there room in his house for my men and me to spend the night?” – Genesis 24:18-23 GNT

Eliezer shows us by his prayer that he has patience. He watches her in silence. He could have helped her I assume but decided to watch instead – making sure she was the answer to his prayer. When it was time, he sought an answer.

“My father is Bethuel son of Nahor and Milcah,” she answered. “There is plenty of straw and fodder at our house, and there is a place for you to stay.”

Then the man knelt down and worshiped the Lord. He said, “Praise the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has faithfully kept his promise to my master. The Lord has led me straight to my master’s relatives.” – Genesis 24:24-27 GNT

 Eliezer shows by his prayer something special – he praises God and he does not forget. There was so much more work to be done – but he recognizes that God was here, at that very moment, creating the open door and if He was there He would be with him through the rest of the negotiations.

How does this add to the way I pray? When we are together as a small gathering and it comes time to pray for each other – what or how will we pray? I think Eliezer would suggest that while praying for traveling mercies, healing for an aunt, help finding a new job are important, something is missing.

“How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You give to God one tenth even of the seasoning herbs, such as mint, dill, and cumin, but you neglect to obey the really important teachings of the Law, such as justice and mercy and honesty. These you should practice, without neglecting the others. – Matthew 23:23 GNT

Maybe there are weightier matters to attend to – maybe we are missing out on something big.

How about Nehemiah making this kind of statement to God in his prayer —

Remember all this, O God, and give me credit for it. – Nehemiah 13:31 GNT

Actually, he said this three times. What a great sign to me of his humanity. He had given up a lot to do the work that God wanted him to do. He left the palace, he lead an entire people to rebuild what was once a proud city and in the end, he wanted to be remembered by God as someone who lived for the glory of God and to serve others. So maybe there is a beginning and an ending of prayer in all of this.

When your prayer life finally begins to flourish, the effects can be remarkable. You may be filled with self-pity, and be justifying resentment and anger. Then you sit down to pray and the reorientation that comes before God’s face reveals the pettiness of your feelings in an instant. All your self-justifying excuses fall to the ground in pieces. Or you may be filled with anxiety, and during prayer you come to wonder what you were so worried about. You laugh at yourself and thank God for who he is and what he’s done. It can be that dramatic. It is the bracing clarity of a new perspective. Eventually, this can be the normal experience, but that is never how the prayer life starts. In the beginning the feeling of poverty and absence usually dominates, but the best guides for this phase urge us not to turn back but rather to endure and pray in a disciplined way, until, as Packer and Nystrom say, we get through duty to delight. – Timothy Keller