Genuine, authentic and bold prayer

Brother Philemon, every time I pray, I mention you and give thanks to my God. Your love, dear brother, has brought me great joy and much encouragement! You have cheered the hearts of all of God’s people. – Philemon 4,7 GNT

Such a great prayer from Paul for Philemon. Filled with gratefulness but also with incredible encouragement – for Onesimus, Philemon’s owner, was coming. Paul wanted to pray using the right words but he also prayed with the intention of doing it the right way. Starting off with prayer is a wise and strategic way to start addressing a problem. It is model and pattern for me to follow.

Solomon’s prayer has the same effect on me.

Come to the Temple, Lord, with the Covenant Box,
    the symbol of your power,
    and stay here forever.
May your priests do always what is right;
    may your people shout for joy!

You made a promise to your servant David;
    do not reject your chosen king, Lord. – Psalm 132:8-10 GNT

He prays so that it is accepted by God. I pray in a manner that I may find favour with God and so I pray with boldness because of what Jesus has done in my life.

Many people seeking to pray the Psalms find themselves confused and put off by the “imprecatory” Psalms in which the psalmist prays down God’s wrath and punishment on his enemies, often in violent terms. One such prayer comes at the end of Psalm 137, where the psalmist hopes that someone will do to the Babylonians what they did when they sacked Jerusalem. He hopes warriors will seize their infants by the feet and kill them by dashing their heads upon the rocks (vv. 8–9). Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner wisely points out that Christians must not pray in the same way now, in light of the cross, but we still must be able to understand such prayers. He writes about Psalm 137: “Our response to such a scripture should, we suggest, be threefold. First, to distil the essence of it, as God himself did with the cries of Job and Jeremiah. Secondly, to receive the impact of it. This raw wound, thrust before us, forbids us to give smooth answers to the fact of cruelty. To cut this witness out of the Old Testament would be to impair its value as revelation, both of what is in man and of what the cross was required to achieve for our salvation. Thirdly, our response should be to recognize that our calling, since the cross, is to pray down reconciliation, not judgment. . . . So this psalm takes its place in Scripture as an impassioned protest, beyond all ignoring or toning down, not only against a particular act of cruelty but against all comfortable views of human wickedness, either with regard to the judgment it deserves or to the legacy it leaves; and not least, in relation to the cost, to God and man, of laying its enmity and bitterness to rest” (Derek Kidner, Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1975], 497).

Not angry prayer but rather renewal and gospel centred

What shall I ask you to do to these people? Make their women barren! Make them unable to nurse their babies! – Hosea 9:14 GNT

Hosea softens his angry prayer with a question for he really does not know how to pray. And while it sounds like an angry prayer maybe it is one of mercy. Maybe he knew how terrible the upcoming judgement was going to be and he wanted to spare the children that would be born during that time.

I think if I find myself wanting to pray an angry prayer, I should check myself. I believe in praying for revival and spiritual passion, but if I do so in an angry fashion than maybe I have opened the door for Satan to walk into my world.

Hosea does not pray for peace, deliverance or prosperity. He does not pray for these children to be protected during the judgement period.

Compare this to the joy found in the prayer of the Psalmist when he talks about renewal and revival.

Lord, make us prosperous again,[b]
    just as the rain brings water back to dry riverbeds.
Let those who wept as they planted their crops,
    gather the harvest with joy!

 Those who wept as they went out carrying the seed
    will come back singing for joy,
    as they bring in the harvest. – Psalm 126:4-6 GNT

My prayer is not to be a bystander, but a person engaged in action and passion. I want God to do what I know He can do.

This is not to say that Christians who understand gospel truths can’t go to the law of God for help in weakening sin. In many places he tells Christians to “bring their sin” to the law and to the gospel. Nevertheless, such counsel comes with warnings to remember that Christians cannot come back under legal condemnation for their sin, and that too much emphasis on the danger of sin and the law can lead to the legalistic spirit that can only stop sinful acts temporarily and not change the heart. Timothy Keller

Hypocritical praying rejected

Even though they call me their God and claim that they are my people and that they know me, they have rejected what is good. Because of this their enemies will pursue them. – Hosea 8:2-3 GNT

Amazing how I can live my life without talking to God and the moment I am in trouble, in my mind, we become best friends. My prayer talk even sounds like it. I say all the right words.

It is no wonder God rejects this kind of prayer that shows my hypocrisy. I reject everything about God, everything about following Him, every desire to glorify Him in my life, I rarely – if ever – pick up my Bible to read it, my vocal chords have not sung a worship song, I have no fear of God and I have no respect for anything that is good, just and right.

“In a time of some judgment, calamity, or pressing affliction; the heart is then taken up with thoughts and contrivances of flying from the present troubles, fears, and dangers. This, as a convinced person concludes, is to be done only by relinquishment of sin, which gains peace with God. It is the anger of God in every affliction that galls a convinced person. To be quit of this, men resolve at such times against their sins. Sin shall never more have any place in them; they will never again give up themselves to the service of it. Accordingly, sin is quiet, stirs not, seems to be mortified; not, indeed, that it hath received any one wound, but merely because the soul hath possessed its faculties, whereby it should exert itself, with thoughts inconsistent with the motions thereof; which, when they are laid aside, sin returns again to its former life and vigour” (pp. 26–27). “The true and acceptable principles of mortification shall be . . . insisted on . . . [namely] hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting. . . . Now, it is certain that that which I speak of proceeds from self-love. Thou settest thyself with all diligence and earnestness to mortify such a lust or sin; what is the reason of it? It disquiets thee, it hath taken away thy peace, it fills thy heart with sorrow, and trouble, and fear; thou hast no rest because of it” – John Owen

When it is not considered a prayer and when it is so that God hears me

They have not prayed to me sincerely, but instead they throw themselves down and wail as the heathen do. When they pray for grain and wine, they gash themselves like pagans. What rebels they are! – Hosea 7:14 GNT

When hearts and mouths do not go together then it is not prayer. When I am pretending to worship God what kind of prayer am I doing – it may very well sound like the clanging of symbols. What am I praying for when all I want is what the world has to offer me and I have no plan to glorify God at all.

These are useless prayers. Why?

  • It is the last thing that I do after everything else has failed.
  • It is an insincere prayer and would make any prayer useless.
  • It is a desperate prayer and in no way can be compared to the prayer of a dying Christian but rather to a condemned criminal.
  • It is was not real based on the actions of those offering it. The show of devotion and reformation were exactly that – shows – and in them they mock God.

I remember Moses praying, he did not utter a word, but rather his heart prayed with faith and fervency. To pray is to lift up my soul to God – the very essence of prayer. Acceptable prayer begins with words well chosen. One cannot pray to God if they do not pray in the spirit. In fact, to Him it sounds like wailing. Why do I think that my noise matters or my self-infliction? Does not these very actions denote my hypocrisy? Does not the very action itself find itself to be offensive to God and even make Him angry at the prayer? I find it hard to believe that their priority was grain and wine. They did not pray for favour or the grace of God. When my heart is separated from God that is how I pray – for temporal relief. It is so short-sighted.

When I was in trouble, I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
Save me, Lord,
    from liars and deceivers. – Psalm 120:1-2 GNT

What a call to prayer – when in trouble pray – and God will hear – so pray with sincerity. Pray as if I believe that the God who created all things, the God who is bigger than the universe, hears me. God hears me when I pray.

All my prayers go through Jesus. There is no way out except that’s where prayer comes in. God hears me when I pray with this kind of attitude.

In his book, Stott distinguishes “confessing sin” (which he considers the same as admitting sin) from “forsaking sin” (which he sees as working a deeper attitude of contrition in the heart). I agree that “confession proper” is a more mental process in which you end blame shifting and take responsibility for sin as sin. What Stott calls “forsaking” sin is then the heart work that John Owen and the Puritans call “mortification.” I would rather refer to both the mental admission and the heart contrition as two parts of confession or repentance. – Timothy Keller

A praying people who listen

2 Kings 13:1-9 GNT

I come across a few writings that try and describe why God does not listen to the prayers of those who do not follow Him. It is like these people who write such nonsense do not even know who God is. They are so focused on judgement that grace has all but left their souls. So when I read this portion of scripture this morning I was thrilled that this king, who had left God long ago, when he needed God most and called on His name, God answered and saved him.

The people of Israel were a praying people. God could have easily not listened or even rejected the prayer, but God did listen and He did not reject it and gave them success against their enemy. The gracious answer God gave was not for the sake of the king who prayed it, but rather in the remembrance of His covenant with Abraham. God is swift to show mercy, ready to hear my prayers and will find a reason to be gracious even if He has to look so far back as that ancient covenant.

This brings up Hosea which contains some sickness-healing terminology. Read Hosea 5:8 – 6:6 GNT

This same type of prayer is shown in Abraham’s prayer for Abimelech to be healed of his sterility. It is also present when Moses prayed for Miriam to be healed of her leprosy. Also in the prayer of Hezekiah of his own healing.

I will close with the prayer of the Psalmist who concentrates on prayer and provides some basic guidelines on how to pray.

With all my heart I call to you;
    answer me, Lord, and I will obey your commands!
I call to you;
    save me, and I will keep your laws.
Before sunrise I call to you for help;
    I place my hope in your promise.
All night long I lie awake,
    to meditate on your instructions.
Because your love is constant, hear me, O Lord;
    show your mercy, and preserve my life!
My cruel persecutors are coming closer,
    people who never keep your law.
But you are near to me, Lord,
    and all your commands are permanent.
Long ago I learned about your instructions;
    you made them to last forever. – Psalm 119:145-152 GNT

  • I am called to pray with all my heart. Before I can pray at all I need to pray for myself for a heart that is on fire to serve God. That means I turn to Him to save me.
  • I am called to pray first thing in the morning until the evening, unceasingly. It is to purposely cultivate an attitude of prayer.
  • I am to realize that my prayer is an act of responding to God’s love and not only for emergency measures. It is not about asking but about a love relationship.
  • My prayer acknowledges that I am able to discern and keep alert to the things of God.
  • Prayer and listening to the Word brings me into His presence.

“Now he is a man of just and holy life who forms an unprejudiced estimate of things, and keeps his affections also under strict control, so that he neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves less or more which ought to be loved equally. No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God’s sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake. And if God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself” – Augustine