Pray, plead and show desperation

I know that I am encouraged to pray and plead with God for the miraculous to take place in my life. I am going to ask, believing that Jesus is going to move in my life and in the lives of those I am praying for. I also know that I will be praying with open hands entrusting myself and others to the will of God, especially if He has not given me any kind of promise or direction. This is something I picked out of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. It is how I pray when I am walking through my own trials.

Lord, I know you can heal. Lord, I believe You will heal. And Lord, if You don’t heal now, bring glory to your name and keep my faith in You.

Psalm 107 is similar in this manner – it declares how people respond to crisis situations too. Those who hurt called out to the Lord during their time of trouble. It was not a simple, recited from memory prayer – there was desperation. Salvation was required.

Christian Smith’s Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) explores the faith and spiritual lives of young American adults, who he describes as being characterized by “moralistic, therapeutic deism.” This is belief in a God who exists but who is not particularly involved in day-to-day affairs, where human free will and choices determine things. In this view, God’s main desire for us is that we live good lives, being kind and fair to others. If we live that way, he then provides “therapeutic benefits”— self-esteem and happiness (pp. 163–64). This view of God has a profound effect on prayer. Smith found that American teens personally prayed frequently; 40 percent prayed daily or more, and only 15 percent said they never prayed. However, their motivation for prayer was pervasively that of meeting psychological and emotional needs. “If I ever have a problem I go pray.” “It helps me deal with problems, ’cause I have a temper, so it calms me down for the most part.” “When I have a problem, I can just go bear it and he’ll always be supportive.” “Praying just makes me feel more secure, like there’s something there helping me out.” “I would say prayer is an essential part of my success” (pp. 151–53). Smith points out that from young Americans’ prayers there were at least two things missing. First, repentance is virtually absent. “This is not a religion of repentance from sin,” Smith writes. Second, prayer to this God is almost devoid of adoration and praise, because he is a “distant God” who is “not demanding. He actually can’t be, because his job is to solve problems and make people feel good. There is nothing here to evoke wonder and admiration” (p. 165). In Smith’s subsequent study of the faith of “emerging adults” (ages 18–29), Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), he observes “an increase in the selfish and instrumental use of personal prayer” (102). In summary, instead of adoration and repentance—two forms of prayer that put the one praying into perspective as small, limited, weak, and dependent—younger adults pray almost exclusively for help with their problems or to feel better and happier. Studies of younger adults in Europe have shown a similar shift in the use of prayer from seeking God to becoming “a path of discovery of the ‘true self.’ . . . God, according to these interviewees, can be found only inside the ‘true self.’” See Giordan and Swatos, Religion, Spirituality, 87. See also Giuseppe Giordan and Enzo Pace, eds., Mapping Religion and Spirituality in a Postsecular World (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2012). A thin or vague view of God does not simply reduce prayer’s content but also reverses its motive. In the prayer of younger Americans, God is a means to the end of a happy life for themselves. Glorifying God is not in view—and indeed, would be an opaque and confusing concept. Instead, prayer is used on a cost-benefit (to the self) basis. – Timothy Keller

How to pray with all our heart

Paul expresses love for the Thessalonian church and prayer was as much an expression of that than anything else.

Day and night we ask him with all our heart to let us see you personally and supply what is needed in your faith. May our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus prepare the way for us to come to you! May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow more and more and become as great as our love for you. In this way he will strengthen you, and you will be perfect and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all who belong to him. – 1 Thessalonians 3:10-13 GNT

The Father and Jesus are recognised as active participants in our lives. And we engage them in prayer so that we can also be counted as active participants too.

“Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need.⁠” – John Piper

The passion expressed in the words, “with all our heart” goes along with the expression of praying regularly. It is not about being casual, but rather intentional and genuine.

I think that Paul has already been practicing praying all the time and he has not lost his passion for communion with the Father and Jesus. I know I have had moments of passion and of fizzle too. I pray that I may pray consistently and fervently for those I love.

Interesting to note that he prays that he may be able to supply what is needed in their faith. What a disciple-making heart.

I am really challenged when he prays that they may increase and be fully engaged in loving each other as followers of Jesus. In fact, he wants them to be overflowing in love – not just for family and friends – even for those who are hard to love.

Something tells me that when I am praying for others I am beginning to love them more and more.

This process of praying and love makes me perfect and holy in God’s presence. I love that this is the priority of his prayer. It is not about affliction and suffering to go away, rather about actions and the motives, desires and thoughts of their hearts.

I pray that my love may grow and be available for all.

When Daniel prayed, it was not for love, what he needed was wisdom.

He told them to pray to the God of heaven for mercy and to ask him to explain the mystery to them so that they would not be killed along with the other advisers in Babylon. – Daniel 2:18 GNT

When God answered his prayer I love his thanksgiving prayer.

“God is wise and powerful!
    Praise him forever and ever.
He controls the times and the seasons;
    he makes and unmakes kings;
    it is he who gives wisdom and understanding.
He reveals things that are deep and secret;
    he knows what is hidden in darkness,
    and he himself is surrounded by light.
I praise you and honor you, God of my ancestors.
You have given me wisdom and strength;
    you have answered my prayer
    and shown us what to tell the king.” – Daniel 2:20-23 GNT

The answer came when they prayed for God’s mercy.

“The battle was won when Daniel prayed with his friends. Praying friends are a blessing, and “In prayer meetings such as this history has been made.” – Strauss

Considering what was at stake, both Paul and Daniel had their prayer life in a place where they prayed with all their heart.

“In the great majority of books written, and in the sermons preached upon prayer, the human element fills the scene almost entirely. It is the conditions which we must meet, the promises we must claim, the things we must do, in order to get our requests granted; and God’s claim . . . rights . . . [of] glory are often disregarded.” – Arthur W. Pink

Learning to pray my exhaustion to God

I am learning, when it comes to me being exhausted, there is nothing I can throw at God that He cannot handle.

I look at Elijah and I see him running away and weary of life.

Elijah was afraid and fled for his life; he took his servant and went to Beersheba in Judah.

Leaving the servant there, Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness. He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die. “It’s too much, Lord,” he prayed. “Take away my life; I might as well be dead!” – I Kings 19:3-4 GNT

I love the grace of unanswered prayer – God is so good at not anwering my ignorant prayers.

He lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Wake up and eat.” He looked around and saw a loaf of bread and a jar of water near his head. He ate and drank, and lay down again.  The Lord’s angel returned and woke him up a second time, saying, “Get up and eat, or the trip will be too much for you.” Elijah got up, ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to walk forty days to Sinai, the holy mountain. – 1 Kings 19:5-8 GNT

I am finding that praying while in the in-between place, the liminal space, is where God is leading me from here – a place that I know – to there – a place that is new.

Elijah’s “here.”

There he went into a cave to spend the night.

Suddenly the Lord spoke to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

He answered, “Lord God Almighty, I have always served you—you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left—and they are trying to kill me!” – 1 Kings 19:9-10 GNT

Elijah’s liminal space.

“Go out and stand before me on top of the mountain,” the Lord said to him. Then the Lord passed by and sent a furious wind that split the hills and shattered the rocks—but the Lord was not in the wind. The wind stopped blowing, and then there was an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire—but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the soft whisper of a voice.

When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

He answered, “Lord God Almighty, I have always served you—you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left—and they are trying to kill me.” – 1 Kings 19:11-14 GNT

God taking Elijah “there.”

Yet I will leave seven thousand people alive in Israel—all those who are loyal to me and have not bowed to Baal or kissed his idol. – 1 Kings 19:18 GNT

I am learning to run hungrily after God and be listening humbly to Him.

The Father speaks to the Son and the Son to the Father: “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me” (John 17:4–8). The Father and the Son speak to the Spirit: “But when he, the
Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you” (John 16:13–15). – Timothy Keller

Pray to the God who hears

I have never seen anyone pray to a god who never hears. I have entered restaurants that have prayer idols at the entrance or at the back and I have seen others priortize many other things over God, but have not seen them pray to those things.

Elijah gives me a bird’s eye view of what it is like for followers of a fake god and how they pray.

Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Since there are so many of you, you take a bull and prepare it first. Pray to your god, but don’t set fire to the wood.”

They took the bull that was brought to them, prepared it, and prayed to Baal until noon. They shouted, “Answer us, Baal!” and kept dancing around the altar they had built. But no answer came.

At noon Elijah started making fun of them: “Pray louder! He is a god! Maybe he is day-dreaming or relieving himself, or perhaps he’s gone off on a trip! Or maybe he’s sleeping, and you’ve got to wake him up!” – 1 Kings 18:25-27 GNT

These prophets of Baal obviously had a devoted prayer life – they prayed long and with passion – however, no results – no voice and no answer. They had an energetic prayer life, filled with enthusiasm and activity – all of it meant nothing.

When it was Elijah’s turn to publicly pray, he prepared himself.

Then Elijah said to the people, “Come closer to me,” and they all gathered around him. He set about repairing the altar of the Lord which had been torn down. He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the Lord had given the name Israel. With these stones he rebuilt the altar for the worship of the Lord. He dug a trench around it, large enough to hold about four gallons of water. Then he placed the wood on the altar, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the offering and the wood.” They did so, and he said, “Do it again”—and they did. “Do it once more,” he said—and they did. The water ran down around the altar and filled the trench. – 1 Kings 18:30-35 GNT

He also called the people to come near because he wanted them to be as engaged as possible and to learn what it takes to prepare for prayer. Effectual prayer requires a correct understanding and faith. He wanted them to witness the power of prayer. Public prayer was going to be a time of encouragement and blessing.

After God immediately responds and consumes the sacrifice and the people declared God to be the one and only true God, it was time for the drought to end. Elijah began to pray for the miracle of rain. There can be a few breakthroughs that come by prayer. It becomes important for me to know that if I can see what God is doing, I need to pray that through even though others cannot see. Even if the answer may be a long way off, I need to pray that through. I pray, in faith, until I see it happening and the rain begins to fall.

Then Elijah said to King Ahab, “Now, go and eat. I hear the roar of rain approaching.” – 1 Kings 18:41 GNT

Revival is so important – it results in real change. It results in God’s presence being with me.

The name of the city from now on will be “The-Lord-Is-Here! – Ezekiel 48:35 GNT

There is a song, IT IS THE LORD WHO SENDS THE STORM, written by Christopher Idle. It describes what it looks like when God is among us. 

It is the Lord who sends the storm,
to seek for those who run away;
the Lord who gives the welcome calm,
and hears despairing one who pray.

It is the Lord, who sends a whale,
wonders from land or air or sea;
his purpose always must prevail:
it is to set his people free.

It is the Lord who sends his child
to listen, speak, repent, obey;
and if too timid or too wild
he deals with me in his own way.

The Lord gives trees and worms and sun,
to warn or shelter, judge or bless;
strips us until our pride has gone
and clothes us in his righteousness.

In peace or tempest, need or wealth,
in good withheld or new-found grace,
it is our safety and our health
to find the Lord in every place.

One greater far than Jonah came;
life ended, buried, and restored:
Christ Jesus, send us in your name,
that all may know you are the Lord!

“However difficult it may sound, the hearing really precedes the
asking. It is the basis of it. It makes it real asking, the asking of Christian prayer” – Karl Barth

Prayers to God for restoration and renewal

When it comes to the battle of prayer, nothing strikes me more than Elijah revealing the power of prayer to God being mightier than any other prayer, in his case, to Baal.

A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab, “In the name of the Lord, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until I say so.” – 1 Kings 17:1 GNT

“The old religion against the new; the child of nature against the effeminate child of the courts; camel’s hair against soft clothing; moral strength against moral weakness.” – Meyer

Elijah was not only the prophet during the drought for when it comes to prayer, he was the cause of the drought. He prayed and it happened.

Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years. – James 5:17 GNT

I get the bigger picture here too – to find myself in ungodly times (and when are they not), I should be praying asking God to make His glory known and to call those who do not know Him to Himself.

Paul was also aware and understood prayer and its power. He called all followers of Jesus to pray.

Be persistent in prayer, and keep alert as you pray, giving thanks to God. At the same time pray also for us, so that God will give us a good opportunity to preach his message about the secret of Christ. For that is why I am now in prison. Pray, then, that I may speak, as I should, in such a way as to make it clear. – Colossians 4:2-4 GNT

I am sure that a sign of a maturing follower of Jesus is prayer. No different than a marriage would/would not grow with/without conversation.

I love the call to persistently pray. Yet, I am also still amazed how many times he asked for prayer for himself. He knew he could not succeed without the power of prayer. Prayer for a good opportunity, prayer for the right words and for the message to be clear.

I am also called upon to keep alert with an attitude of thankfulness to God while I pray.

“Literally the Greek means to be wakeful. The phrase could well mean that Paul is telling them not to go to sleep when they pray.” – Barclay

“Prayer should be mingled with praise. I have heard that in New England after the Puritans had settled there a long while, they used to have very often a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, till they had so many days of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, that at last a good senator proposed that they should change it for once, and have a day of thanksgiving.” – Spurgeon

I love these promises when we focus on them as we pray.

 Praise the Lord, my soul!
    All my being, praise his holy name!
Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and do not forget how kind he is.
He forgives all my sins
    and heals all my diseases.
He keeps me from the grave
    and blesses me with love and mercy.
He fills my life[b] with good things,
    so that I stay young and strong like an eagle. – Psalm 103:1-5 GNT

Here are my prayer points based on promises.

  • I praise
  • I praise some more 🙂
  • I pray for forgiveness
  • I pray for healing (physical, spiritual, emotional, relational, vocational)
  • I pray for protection and deliverance
  • I pray that God may provide me with everything I need
  • Lastly, I pray to be restored and renewed

Prayer is having a “personal address to a personal God.” He calls prayer an address to a personal, covenant, and triune God. – Timothy Keller about Ed Clowney.