Prayer for direction and an answer given

When I find myself doing something because public sentiment says so, and if I make that my rule in life to follow, I will not be spending too much time in reflecting on it’s value and I definitely will not be spending time praying on the matter. This is why I am so glad my wife is different then me. She challenges all the time and she keeps me honest. She reminds me that this is not supposed to be my standard that God has given me and His standard never varies. The fact is, God does see me and how I respond.

God answered, “The people of Israel and Judah are guilty of terrible sins. They have committed murder all over the land and have filled Jerusalem with crime. They say that I, the Lord, have abandoned their country and that I don’t see them. – Ezekiel 9:9 GNT

So I practice reading my Bible to the point that I am familiar with it. I make a point to read sound and thorough books in practical theology. And to my point today – I make decisions of moral conduct my subject of fervent prayer. I figure that my conscience intuitively knowing what is right and what is wrong is what God gives only in answer to me praying.

O Lord God, now grant me the grace not only to rest my body this night, but to have my spiritual repose, in soul and conscience, in your grace and love, that I may let go of all earthly cares so I might be comforted and eased in all ways. And because no day passes that I don’t sin in so many ways, please bury all my offenses in your mercy, that I might not lose your presence. Forgive me, merciful Father, for Christ’s sake. And as I lay down to sleep to safely awake again only by your grace, keep me in a joyful, lively remembrance that whatever happens, I will someday know my final rising — the resurrection — because Jesus Christ lay down in death for me, and rose for my justification. In His name I pray, Amen. – John Calvin

Praying in gratitude is true prayer

How do I find strength in God?

Praying in gratitude for the innumerable ways God has rescued me. It reminds me that God is ever present and working in my life, even today.

Praying for 60 minutes does not mean that God “owes” me anything, I pray because I love Him and want to engage with Him and hear Him express His love to me.

Praying changes my pespective – I serve Him.

David experienced this all when he was face to face with more emotion than he could handle.

David was now in great trouble, because his men were all very bitter about losing their children, and they were threatening to stone him; but the Lord his God gave him courage. – 1 Samuel 30:6 GNT

How do I pray sometimes when I am in trouble?

Praying in outburst of selfishness withough a trace of true penitence or prayer. These are my prayers of the voice of my flesh, they are not of the spirit – they are not from Him moving in me. They are faithless and unseasonable, coming too late and therefore unacceptable. Something that God revealed to Ezekiel.

They will feel all the force of my anger. I will not spare them or show them any mercy. They will shout prayers to me as loud as they can, but I will not listen to them. – Ezekiel 8:18 GNT

Let men therefore not defer seeking of God till necessity puts them upon it” – Greenhill

O Lord God, Thank you for all the benefits and gifts you constantly shower on me. Thank you for sustaining my physical life through food and shelter; for giving me new life through the gospel; and for the certainty of the best life which is yet to come. I ask that you would not allow my affections to be tangled in desires for this world. Let me always set my heart on things above, where Christ is seated at your right hand. Please hear me, merciful Father, by our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. – John Calvin

After I pray for unreached people

When I finish praying, I find myself thinking about what I need to lay down or put aside in order to be more effective in my ability to share the gospel with those around me.

Among the weak in faith I become weak like one of them, in order to win them. So I become all things to all people, that I may save some of them by whatever means are possible. All this I do for the gospel’s sake, in order to share in its blessings. – 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 GNT

I pray for an unreached people group every morning. Being a leader in a ministry reaching out to Middle Eastern people in both there and in Canada, I talk about praying for unreached people groups in the world. There is a reason why they are unreached. They are hard to reach and difficult to reach.

I pray that God would help me and give me the same heart as Paul who wrote those words above. I pray for this posture, if you will, this perspective. I pray for those all around me and for those far from me, that God would raise up labourers who will leave behind what is known, safe and comfortable to take the gospel to a place it has not been.

 “My God, Father, and Savior, since you have been pleased to give me the grace to come through the night to the present day, now grant that I may employ it entirely in your service, so that all my works may be to the glory of your name and the edification of my neighbors.  As you have been pleased to make your sun shine upon the earth to give us bodily light, grant the light of your Spirit to illumine my understanding and my heart.  And because it means nothing to begin well if one does not persevere, I ask that you would continue to increase your grace in me until you have led me into full communion with your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the true Sun of our souls, shining day and night, eternally and without end.  Hear me, merciful Father, by our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.” – John Calvin

I pray, praying that I may discover

It is true, of course, that “all of us have knowledge,” as they say. Such knowledge, however, puffs a person up with pride; but love builds up. – 1 Corinthians 8:1 GNT

What if my prayer life is all about discovering what is right and wrong? It would seem that I would have fallen out of what prayer is really all about. In my thirst for knowledge I have actually fallen into the trap of judging and have failed in my duty to lead people to life.

Praying is not about seeking to lead, it is about having compassion for others and praying for them to discover their true value or worth in their identity as people loved by God.

My God, Father, and Savior, since you have been pleased to give me the grace to come through the night to the present day, now grant that I may employ it entirely in your service, so that all my works may be to the glory of your name and the edification of my neighbors. As you have been pleased to make your sun shine upon the earth to give us bodily light, grant the light of your Spirit to illumine my understanding and my heart. And because it means nothing to begin well if one does not persevere, I ask that you would continue to increase your grace in me until you have led me into full communion with your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the true Sun of our souls, shining day and night, eternally and without end. Hear me, merciful Father, by our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. – John Calvin

Pray for boldness and may God fulfill it

I believe that boldness is a spiritual power. I say that because I also believe that I tend to lack boldness and I tend not to pray for boldness.  

Then David crossed over to the other side of the valley to the top of the hill, a safe distance away, and shouted to Saul’s troops and to Abner, “Abner! Can you hear me?”

“Who is that shouting and waking up the king?” Abner asked

David answered, “Abner, aren’t you the greatest man in Israel? So why aren’t you protecting your master, the king? Just now someone entered the camp to kill your master. You failed in your duty, Abner! I swear by the living Lord that all of you deserve to die, because you have not protected your master, whom the Lord made king. Look! Where is the king’s spear? Where is the water jar that was right by his head?” 1 Samuel 26:13-16 GNT

When I read what David did, there is boldness written all over this story. I am inspired to come to terms that my actions tell the story of the boldness that God has placed in me when I pray for it.

It may be this very thing that Paul was thinking about when he talked about what prayer and fasting would look like in a marriage.

He talks about a fasting that consists of repentance preparing one for prayer, just before undertaking an important matter. Once prepared, the prayer becomes intense and so important that I end up leaving off everything else. The end result is a new boldness.

Do not deny yourselves to each other, unless you first agree to do so for a while in order to spend your time in prayer; but then resume normal marital relations. In this way you will be kept from giving in to Satan’s temptation because of your lack of self-control. – 1 Corinthians 7:5 GNT

I am sure that I might be tempted to read that the use of the marriage bed may be a hindrance to such prayer but I am sure not any worse than food or drink would be. But I am sure he is encouraging me to consider wisely when it is time to eat, drink and to fast.

I am sure that this type of prayer does not relate or maybe better stated, I do not want to relate to it. That would explain the lack of boldness in my Christian world.

Is it not true that my life of distress is so much on my mind that it is a miracle, in of itself, that I get to pray at all? The Psalm gives me a glimpse in how I can respond.

Why am I so sad?

    Why am I so troubled?

I will put my hope in God,

    and once again I will praise him,

    my savior and my God. – Psalm 42:5 GNT

The journey of this psalm indicate that circumstances have not changed, but in prayer, the individual doing the praying has changed.

O God, declare me innocent,

    and defend my cause against the ungodly;

    deliver me from lying and evil people!

Send your light and your truth;

    may they lead me

    and bring me back to Zion, your sacred hill,[a]

    and to your Temple, where you live. – Psalm 43:1,3 GNT

This was not a prayer from a point of view from 10,000 feet above and it definitely was not rhetorical. This was a prayer to embody God’s own qualities and I believe it was one that included a desire to be bold. God intended to make sure this prayer was fulfilled.

One day, in the city of New York—oh, what a day!—I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name…. I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me all the world—it would be small dust in the balance. (W. R. Moody, The Life of D. L. Moody, New York: 1900, p. 149)