Prayer is not about convenience nor perfection

Prayer is defnintely not about convenience, it really needs to be seen a matter of constant spiritual necessity. Unfortunately there are times when I come to God to serve only my purpose and forget Him when all is going well. How is it that I sometimes wait until I am at my wits’ end before I seek Him? How is it that I fail to see that talking with God every day is one of the greatest needs of my soul?

It was the tenth day of the fifth month of the seventh year of our exile. Some of the leaders of the Israelite community came to consult me about the Lord’s will, and they sat down in front of me. Then the Lord spoke to me. “Mortal man,” he said, “speak to these leaders and tell them that the Sovereign Lord is saying: You have come to ask my will, have you? As surely as I am the living God, I will not let you ask me anything. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. “Are you ready to pass sentence on them, mortal man?” – Ezekiel 20:1-4 GNT

There is a saying – “Empty the bucket before you go to the fountain.” It has lost it’s relevance but not it’s meaning. If I want to be filled, I really should be emptied first. In this context, if I think I am already full of grace, I really will not be compelled to pray. Praying is a beggar’s trade and it comes with the condition that there is the existence of need. My imagination does not see a bucket with clean water remaining in it but rather dirty. That has to be thrown out before I refill it. It is here where I come to God with all of my pride, lust, desires to want what is not mine – and I must give them to Him – for indeed, I am not perfect. His grace does not give me permission to keep the bucket of dirty water.

I cried to him for help;
    I praised him with songs. – Psalm 66:17 GNT

I like it when I combine prayer and praise together. I believe that when I pray, God has already answered and praise just seems to be the natural outcome to come right after I pray about something. I also think that praise following prayer keeps my prayer humble.

If I had ignored my sins,
    the Lord would not have listened to me. – Psalm 66:18 GNT

This is what I was trying to say above in regards to the bucket of unclean water – nothing hinders my prayers like harbouring and keeping close at hand the desire to disobey God. If I refuse to hear God, at some point, as much as God is love, grace and mercy, He will not hear me. He will hear an imperfect ask for Jesus’ sake, but not one that is willfully disobedience.

But God has indeed heard me;
    he has listened to my prayer. – Psalm 66:19 GNT

As I am not a secret lover of sin and I can be fully confident that God will hear and answer my prayer. Facts are a blessed thing to lay hold of when I understand God’s heart and my own heart. He looks to hear my prayer and wants to reveal His grace in so many ways. He wants to give me favour. My prayer, coming from a place of being forgiven from participating in evil, is set free. Sometimes I need to search for it – there are times I do not want to find how deep my alliance with evil really is or my toleration of secret lust or hidden wrong.

I praise God,
    because he did not reject my prayer
    or keep back his constant love from me. – Pslma 66:20 GNT

I love being blessed by God – He does not withdraw, does not reject, does not turn His back from my prayer. He does not take away my freedom to pray and does not treat it with disdain.

“We cannot honor God more in our worship, than by looking upwards to him for deliverance.” – Calvin

I can try and fake my prayers when I am in a public setting, to impress those who are listening, but I know, deep down, that God is looking at my heart. I know I do not have to be perfect before I can pray, but it does mean I need to be in a place where I honour Him and desire to be holy so that my sin can be judged at my heart level.

“Luther’s “A Simple Way to Pray” succeeds in being extremely practical and profound at the same time. I have given this little work substantial treatment earlier in my volume. It’s worth reading annually.” Timothy Keller

Earnest prayer God answers

When Nathan told David that his child, born from adultery, would die, David thought that maybe he could sway the mind of God, just like Hezekiah, through humble and earnest prayer. I am sure he was thinking that if God heard his weeping and cries, the sentence might be removed and the child would be spared. I think that makes sense – who can tell whether God will be gracious? God leaves it to me to be earnest in prayer for particular blessings. I come to Him from a confidence in His power and His mercy even though I do not have a particular promise to build on. Even though I cannot be sure, I will pray, for who can tell if God will be gracious to me? So, when someone is sick and needs a prayer of faith to be healed, I will. For as long as there is life there is hope and while there is hope, there is room for prayer.

“We don’t understand this,” his officials said to him. “While the child was alive, you wept for him and would not eat; but as soon as he died, you got up and ate!”

 “Yes,” David answered, “I did fast and weep while he was still alive. I thought that the Lord might be merciful to me and not let the child die. But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Could I bring the child back to life? I will some day go to where he is, but he can never come back to me.” – 2 Samuel 12:21-23 GNT

I praise God for everything He gives me. I believe He gives graciously and with generosity to those who pray and therein, trust in Him. I respond by praising Him for all His blessings.

“Theology, which is the proper study of God, should always lead to doxology, the proper worship of God. Learning the truth about God, that He is the giver of all good things, should produce praise for God in the life of the believer.” – Steve Lawson

Wherever I am, God answers prayer and wherever I worship, God answers prayer.

O God, it is right for us to praise you in Zion
    and keep our promises to you,
     because you answer prayers. – Psalm 65:1 GNT

Henry mines the Scripture for hundreds of actual prayers and then organizes and classifies them as subheadings under the larger headings of praise, confession, petition, thanksgiving, intercession,and concluding our payers. The editor, J. Ligon Duncan, outlines the whole book in an appendix. It provides scores of specific ideas on how we can go about adoring, confessing, thanking, and petitioning God. All you have to do is personalize the headings with your own issues and conditions. I have found that you can easily spend an entire day in prayer with this guide and help. – Timothy Keller: Henry, Matthew – A Method for Prayer: Freedom in the Face of God.

I put my hope in God

Prayer is that sweet expression that really makes me like a child coming before my Father – at least in my spirit.

I did enter into spiritual warfare type prayer last night and I can still say that I came as a child before God, even if my prayer was courageous and bold. In my spirit I knew that nothing could come out of it except if my Father intervenes.

Prayer is my place where I depend on God alone – it is my place where I find myself birthing hope in Him.

In an account of the voyage of some of the early missionaries who left Hermannsburg for South Africa, is the following incident:—After a long calm, a brother prayed thus to the Lord for favouring wind: “Lord, thou givest them that fear thee the desires of their heart, and dost help them; help us now, that we may no longer be becalmed upon the sea; help us on our journey, you who ride on the wings of the wind.” He was so joyful over this word of the Lord, that he rose up and said in his heart: “Now I have already that for which I prayed.” After the prayer, one of the crew stepped over to the helmsman, and said, half mocking, half in earnest, “So we shall have wind: did you hear the prayer? It does not look very like it!” So he said, and half an hour after there came so strong a blast that the waves broke over the ship.—William Fleming Stevenson, in “Praying and Working,” 1862.

I depend on God alone;
    I put my hope in him. – Psalm 62:5 GNT

This little classic takes a troubleshooting approach to the subject of prayer. Rather than outlining the theology of prayer or laying out practical steps to take in praying, Hallesby takes a pastoral path, responding to a series of complaints and difficulties people have about prayer. Perhaps for this reason, the discussion sometimes feels theologically thin or speculative. Nevertheless, the overall effect of the book is to reassure strugglers that Jesus is with them and to encourage endurance. – Timothy Keller: Hallesby, Ole – Prayer

Prayers that pray with confidence

I do not think I will be tired by or be left unchallenged by the prayer of the psalmist who is so earnest in his tone, and so loud in the volume of his voice – or at least I do not hear him whispering them. There are needs that are to be expressed and there are sorrows that need to be vented. There is an audience in heaven that needs to hear this prayer and all the help that is needed is asked to be given. As a follower of Jesus I am eager for an answer and I rest in the truth that they enter into His ears. All I need to know is that God is listening, is preparing an answer as His wisdom seems fit in addressing it. Crying sometimes happen when things get this complicated. It does matter when I cry and I know every prayer breath and sigh is never spent in vain.

Hear my cry, O God;
    listen to my prayer!
In despair and far from home
    I call to you! – Psalm 61:1-2 GNT

Prayer was never meant to be restrained and so being loud and crying is invited just as much as silence and sighs. There is no unsuitable place for prayer and there is no end to spending time with God. He is where I am when I pray. He walks with me through even the unimaginable places I may find myself in. I need to make the decision to pray for if I cease to pray will I not become the victim of despair and does my end come when I cease to pray? It is hard to come up with words when my heart is drowning and yet there I find God for He is there bringing me to Him. It is a thought that brings courage when I think that He is close enough to me to hear me when I call.

Take me to a safe refuge,
   for you are my protector,
    my strong defense against my enemies. – Psalm 61:3 GNT

It is God who becomes the sure foundation, my guide, the giver of vision and the one who lifts me up. It is true that a Saviour would have been of no use to me if the Holy Spirit had not gently led me to Him and enabled me to rest on Him. I not only need a safe refuge, I need to be led to it. For this reason I disciple and walk with those who have half believing prayers for I cannot expect them to have fully experienced the ability to cry.

You have heard my promises, O God, and you have given me what belongs to those who honor you. – Psalm 61:5 GNT

So I pray and lead others to pray during times of great need and have great hope that God has heard my heart’s desire. It is in this place that I need God to lead me to a place of security and strength. Prayer becomes then my first response in troubled times.

These two pieces by Edwards are complimentary. One is a personal account of spiritual experience and the other other is a biblical philosophical account of how spiritual experience works. Reading the two in combination could be life-changing, or at least should be prayer-life-changing. – Timothy Keller: Edwards, Jonathan – Personal Narrative and A Divine and Supernatural Light.

Sinners do pray because they are praying with Jesus

No one took enough pity on you to do any of these things for you. When you were born, no one loved you. You were thrown out in an open field. “Then I passed by and saw you squirming in your own blood. You were covered with blood, but I wouldn’t let you die. – Ezekiel 16:5-6 GNT

These were one of the many verses my mom would teach us to memorize and we would say them every morning. She wanted us to use them as promises for healing should we face a situation where there was no other hope other than the grace of God.

That is not where I was going today. Someone thinks this child has no purpose in being born, there is definitely nothing considered when it comes to their beauty and obviously the child has yet to learn to speak and so does not call for help. It is a reminder to me that when a sinner prayers it is only because God has sought them out and has already begun a work in their soul. It is why so many believe in predestination – one cannot come to Christ unless He calls.

“Goldsworthy distills the biblical data on prayer, first thematically and topically. He then re-marches through the biblical data by considering prayer in successive stages in redemptive history, from creation through the fall, Israel and the coming of Christ.” – Timothy Keller: Goldsworthy, Graeme – Prayer and the Knowledge of God.