Building a habit of praying and crying out

It would seem that if I was to start building a prayer habit I would need to change where I keep myself focused.

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory! – Colossians 3:1-3 GNT

Is it not true that every once in a while I say I need to pray more, so I sign up for a prayer meeting or two, set aside more time to pray and sooner or later am back where I started?

What happens when I fix my focus on heavenly matters instead? Will I pray regularly?

One thing for is for sure – prayer does not happen by accident.

Listen to my prayer, O Lord,
    and hear my cry for help! – Psalm 102:1 GNT

Here is a double take that includes both prayer and crying out.

Luther had an idea of what the difference was between the two.

“The intellect makes the prayer, but the feeling makes the cry.” The feeling is the impulse of desire: vague, unstructured, nonthematic. But the prayer is formed, directed, and instructed: it shows the feeling “what it should desire, and how and whence.”

Luther had some thoughts too of what this looked like when it came to praying with the spirit and with the mind.

Praying with the spirit is, “strictly speaking, not a prayer but a cry.” On the other hand, to pray with the mind, that is, with meaning, is to have the meaning of the words which one reads or speaks. And according to this form the cry and desire is shaped, according to which prudence and thought forms every act of the will.”

They may be distinguished but they do not have to be kept separated – as the Psalmist encouraged – the prayer model has them both happenig at the same prayer moment.

Crying out and praying – praying and crying out – either way God will hear.

Eugene H. Peterson’s book on prayer through the Psalms is “Answering God.” Though he uses the title “Answering God” to describe the Psalms themselves, I believe this also serves as an excellent and compressed definition for all prayer. – Timothy Keller

Calling upon God is not useless

Moses and Aaron were his priests,

    and Samuel was one who prayed to him;

    they called to the Lord, and he answered them. – Psalm 99:6 GNT

Moses, Aaron and Samuel were just the few who made it their life’s business to call on God in prayer. When they did, they brought blessings upon themselves and others. When they called on God, He answered them. Their prayers were not useless because they knew God was a holy God and therefore true to His promises. He heard them all in full view of the mercy-seat. I can imagine if our God was unholy then it would be natural for Him to be false to His word and even refuse to hear His people’s cry, regardless of who they were. However, this verse establishes a truth meant for our joy and God’s glory, that men of God who follow Him never offered useless prayers.

“Prayer is practically universal in the human race. . . . All the non-Christian religious systems involve the practice of some kind of prayer. Non-Christian prayer, however, is not addressed to the . . . Triune God of the Scriptures . . . That God in his great mercy may sometimes hear and answer the prayers of non-Christians . . . we should not deny. But such prayers differ essentially from Christian prayer.” Johannes G. Vos

To pray or to ask another to pray – lock up my praying heart

When King Jeroboam’s son was dying, there was nothing in him to tell his wife to pray or even the prophet to pray. He used the opportunity like a fortuneteller.

At that time King Jeroboam’s son Abijah got sick. Jeroboam said to his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you, and go to Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah lives, the one who said I would be king of Israel. Take him ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Ask him what is going to happen to our son, and he will tell you.” – 1 Kings 14:1-3 GNT

How many have I discipled that have sought the same thing.

“It would have been more pious if he had begged the prophet’s prayers, and cast away his idols from him; then the child might have been restored to him, as his hand was. But most people would rather be told their fortune than their faults or their duty.” – Matthew Henry

A good way to start engaging in thinking about praying is by thanking God. Something King Jeroboam would never do – but Paul did.

We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God’s people. When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven. The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is. – Colossians 1:3-6 GNT

Paul had never met those who gathered and called themselves the Colossian church and yet he prays for them. Pray – a present tense, ongoing action – a habit and it comes with thanksgiving.

The rest of Paul’s prayer can be read here in Colossians 1:9-14 GNT

When Paul prayed, he asked God to do what only God could do – take the written word and make it a living epistle in their transformed lives. There is a desire to see followers of Jesus growing up into a mature relationship with Him.

The Lord loves those who hate evil;[b]
    he protects the lives of his people;
    he rescues them from the power of the wicked.
Light shines on the righteous,
    and gladness on the good.
All you that are righteous be glad
    because of what the Lord has done!
Remember what the holy God has done,
    and give thanks to him.. – Psalm 97:10-12 GNT

Do I not feel that my power is diminished after I sin – do I not feel it more after I sin. If I let it stay at that, sin will have me stop praying altogether. Either that or praying will have me stop sinning.

“Lock up your hearts by prayer every morning and give God the key, so that nothing can get in.” – Dyer

It is principally through the efficacy of prayer that we receive the communications of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not a mere instinct of a dependent nature, seeking help from the Author of its being: nor is it to be viewed simply as a natural expression of faith and desire, or as a mode of communion with the Father of our spirits; but it is also to be regarded as the appointed means of obtaining the Holy Ghost. ‘If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?’ (Lk. 11.13) Hence we are urged to be constant and importunate in prayer, praying especially for those communications of Divine influence by which the life of God in the soul is maintained and promoted. – Charles Hodge

Let’s keep praying

King Jeroboam said to the prophet, “Please pray for me to the Lord your God, and ask him to heal my arm!” The prophet prayed to the Lord, and the king’s arm was healed. – 1 Kings 13:6 GNT

Here is someone who was confronted by the power of God while he was conducting an act against Him. He was into altar worship with sacrifice and incense. I am amazed that he did not turn to his own god for healing but rather knew there was only One. I am thinking that there will come a day when those of us who believe in God will be swamped with prayer requests from those who need God to deliver them. However, I also note that they will not be coming for their sins to be pardoned. May the Holy Spirit be engaged in convicting of sin for their hearts are only open to prayer so that they may be healed, restored and delivered. Even for those who want to persecute me, I need to pray for them for they too deserve the blessing of Jesus.

What I did notice is that there was a sense of gratitude. Enough gratitude to offer hospitality as a means of paying him for his prayers – interesting. God saw to it that He already left instructions for that not to take place.

Most of us, including me, would be too afraid to stand up against a person in authority. It is my time in prayer that helps give me a different perspective. I know that I see things differently – I do not look through my eyes anymore, I am guided by my spirit as to where and what to do next.

Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7 GNT

I am to stay thankful – the secret to my walk with God. Stressed? – pray – worried? – pray – anxious? – pray.

I pray, I ask God for help, I let Him hold everything in His hands, I am thankful for His help, and I leave it with Him.

I pray and I ask with gratitude.

This is the effect of faithful prayer – protected from a life that is robbed and drained – it is accomplished by God’s peace.

So I pray all day about everything and I find myself worshipping the God I serve.

I pray by asking for help, I pray with a thankful heart, and I know when I do that He is listening to me and will give me what is best for me.

In the devotion of prayer comes the peace of God.

I feel the joy and the wonder and the power and the privilege and the peace of a life of prayer.

“Calvin quotes Cicero, who asks, ‘Where is there to be found a race or tribe of men which does not hold, without instruction, some preconception of the gods?’ Neither Calvin nor Cicero is saying it is impossible to sincerely and vigorously profess atheism. Cicero’s statement occurs in a book where he has a dialogue with Velleius of the Epicureans, who denied the existence of the old gods. Rather, both Cicero and Calvin are saying that, because of this inherent sense of God, prayer is a natural response unless repressed. And the instinct is difficult to eradicate. ‘Indeed, they seek out every subterfuge to hide themselves from the Lord’s presence, and to efface it again from their minds. But in spite of themselves they are always entrapped. Although it may sometimes seem to vanish for a moment, it returns at once and rushes in with new force … The impious themselves therefore exemplify the fact that some conception of God is ever alive in all men’s minds.'” – Timothy Keller

May God reveal

“The prayer for Yahweh to ‘shine forth’ is a prayer for a theophany, when the Lord appears in his royal splendor to bring justice into a world of anarchy.” – VanGemeren

There is a prayer uttered by the Psalmist that declares God to be the one who punishes. The prayer actually wants God to fulfill His duty in doing so to those who are proud.

Lord, you are a God who punishes;
    reveal your anger!
You are the judge of us all;
    rise and give the proud what they deserve! – Psalm 94:1-2 GNT

Morgan described how, through the centuries, God’s persecuted people have prayed like this: “In catacombs, in dungeons, in places of the uttermost desolation – when it has seemed to sense that the way of God was blocked, that His rule was overcome, that all evil things had gained the victory – these songs have arisen, proclaiming Him King, mocking all the vain and foolish thoughts of man, and declaring His ultimate victory.”

“Jesus is using a second person plural when he says to his disciples, ‘The kingdom of God is within you [all].’ Most scholars believe Jesus was not saying the kingdom of God was within each individual heart but rather was within them as a community. Some translate it ‘The kingdom of God is among you.’ It is imortant to note that Anthony Bloom (Beginning to Pray) is careful to say that, while he directs peole to go inward in prayer, he does not mean inward psychologically. ‘I dont’ mean that we must go inward in the way one does in psychoanalysis or psychology. It is not a journey into my own inwardness, it is a journey through my own self, in order to emerge from the deepest level of my self into the place where He is, the point at which God and I meet.'” – Timothy Keller