To pray and not be prayerless

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I love having conversations about Sabbath. It all started with an Old Testament course in university and reading some material from a Jewish Rabbi that put it all together and it made sense. Sabbath is about rest but it really is also about trusting in God’s provisions for each day, for today. It is the heeding of God’s commandment of being observant about God’s own cycle of work and rest that makes this relevant even in our modern economy.

You have six days in which to do your work. Deuteronomy 5:13 GNT

How will God supply when I need to hold a job that needs me seven days a week (or two or three jobs), clean the house/yard, grocery shopping/prepare meals, school work and paying bills? Can I trust God to provide even when I take a day off? Can I take time to worship God, to pray and to gather with others for study and encouragement? I love this commandment because it does not explain how God will make it all work out, it simply tells me to rest one day every seven.

Prayer begins this conversation, as it did in most of our Psalms.

Lord God, my savior, I cry out all day,
    and at night I come before you. – Psalm 88:1 GNT

When life gets messy it never gets messy enough that the sparks of prayer are blown out. They become prayers that I cry out, they are very personal. Sickness will not let me rest unless I spend my restlessness in prayer. It becomes something I do all day. It is where evil is transformed to good. I need to bring them to the Father – my cry is meant for the heart of God.

Hear my prayer;
    listen to my cry for help! – Psalm 88:2 GNT

Though it may be imperfect – hear it – it is my prayer. I understand that there may be obstacles in the way that may impede my prayer – Lord remove them – I need your favour. When I pray day and night, I am in a place where I cannot lose. Only if I were indifferent in my prayer would I be indifferent about it’s outcome.

So many troubles have fallen on me
    that I am close to death. – Psalm 88:3 GNT

How bad are things, how far have I fallen into despair, how full is my heart? There is no room left to have my prayers return empty when my soul is so full of grief. And so I pray believing…

Lord, have mercy on us. We have put our hope in you. Protect us day by day and save us in times of trouble. – Isaiah 33:2 GNT

I have the opportunity of waking up every morning to approach the God of the universe and pray for mercy and to put my hope in Him to protect and to save me. God hears that prayer. He will help me in every way I need help. I cannot think of what it would be like if I ever felt like I did not need to pray like those in the church of Laodicea.

You say, ‘I am rich and well off; I have all I need.’ But you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked, and blind. – Revelation 3:17 GNT

It would seem that they thought they could do it on their own, they had everything they needed and may very well have come to a place where prayer did not happen because they were not pursuing God. When I do not pray, I am showing that I believe I am self-sufficient. Is prayerlessness not an indicator of pride? If I am in a place where I can do things on my own, why would I pray? Praying people need God’s help, need Him to provide, not only for me but for others too.

When, after this preparation, you find yourselves yet perplexed and entangled, not able comfortably to persist in spiritual thoughts unto your refreshment, take these two directions for your relief:

1. Cry and sigh to God for help and relief. Bewail the darkness, weakness, and instability of your minds, so as to groan within yourselves for deliverance. And if your designed meditations do issue only in a renewed gracious sense of your own weakness and insufficiency, with application unto God for supplies of strength, they are by no means lost as unto a spiritual account. 

2. Supply the brokenness of your thoughts with ejaculatory prayers, according as either the matter of them or your defect in the management of them doth require. – Owen

God is near me when I pray

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God made it clear that if I were to walk as a follower of Christ, diligent to obey Him as a follower is called to do, then those around me would make a comment of observation. That observation would go something like this…

I have taught you all the laws, as the Lord my God told me to do. Obey them in the land that you are about to invade and occupy. Obey them faithfully, and this will show the people of other nations how wise you are. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, ‘What wisdom and understanding this great nation has!’

“No other nation, no matter how great, has a god who is so near when they need him as the Lord our God is to us. He answers us whenever we call for help. – Deuteronomy 4:5-7 GNT

That is why, for those,without the calling and gifting of evangelism, say that their lives are the witness they have for Jesus. Their lives are able to influence others in a profound way and have been blessed through them.

David prayed in such a manner that allowed God to respond.

Listen to me, Lord, and answer me,
    for I am helpless and weak. – Psalm 86:1 GNT

He repeats it again

Listen, Lord, to my prayer;
hear my cries for help. – Psalm 86:6 GNT

With the call for special protection and thereby the author of his salvation, David knew who was the keeper of his soul.

Save me from death, because I am loyal to you;
save me, for I am your servant and I trust in you. – Psalm 86:2 GNT

God wants to save me from my sin and help me through my distress.

You are my God, so be merciful to me;
I pray to you all day long. – Psalm 86:3 GNT

The outward sign of joy expresses the inward comfort that comes from knowing that God has indeed preserved my soul. Prayer is the nurse of spiritual joy and that is what others see in me.

Make your servant glad, O Lord,
    because my prayers go up to you. – Psalm 86:4 GNT

Is this what is lost when I slide away from my first love?

But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first. – Revelation 2:4 GNT 

I think this affects me more than just an attitude or an emotion. My behaviour actually changes when I have lost my joy – and it happens when prayer becomes nothing more than mechanical or possibly stopping altogether. When that happens, no one sees God near me.

A complacency of mind, from that gust, relish, and savor, which it finds in spiritual things, from their suitableness unto its constitution, inclinations, and desires. There is a salt in spiritual things, whereby they are condited and made savory unto a renewed mind; though to others they are as the white of an egg, that hath no taste or savor in it. In this gust and relish lies the sweetness and satisfaction of spiritual life. Speculative notions about spiritual things, when they are alone, are dry, sapless, and barren. In this gust we taste by experience that God is gracious, and that the love of Christ is better than wine, or whatever else hath the most grateful relish unto a sensual appetite. This is the proper foundation of that joy which is “unspeakable and full of glory.” – Owen

 

Fervent prayer from scripture

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Here is another call for revival.

Make us strong again,
    and we, your people, will praise you. – Psalm 85:6 GNT

It has been a conversation with a few of my friends this week. Spurgeon really had a heart for this particular Psalm when it came to prayer

BRETHREN, if you will pray this prayer, it will be better than my preaching from it! And my only motive in preaching from it is that you may pray it. Oh, that at once, before I have uttered more than a few sentences, we might begin to pray by crying, yes, groaning deep down in our souls,” Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?”

Is it not true that when a man of God who is called to preach or teach or whose books on commentary regarding scripture passes away – we miss them for those reasons and see our world empty of greatness and declare our world has lost a mighty person of God. I think of John Knox and of Luther and I think how powerful they were and I see through them that we have lost our ability to pray like them.

Luther was a man of whom they said, as they pointed at him in the street, “There goes a man who can have anything he likes to ask of God.” He was the man who, by his prayer, dragged Melancthon back from the very gates of death and, what was more, the man who could shake upon her seven hills the harlot of Rome as she never had been shaken before, because he was mighty with God in prayer! Oh, that I could but stir up my Brothers and Sisters to be instant in season and out of season, if there is such a thing as out of season with God in prayer! Let us get away to our closets! Let us cry mightily to Him! Let us come to close quarters with Him and say, “Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?

When is it a good time to pray a prayer like this? I pray this often when I remember any gracious act of God in my past.

Here are some verses in Isaiah chapter 31 that were turned into hymns of prayer.

Just as a bird hovers over its nest to protect its young, so I, the Lord Almighty, will protect Jerusalem and defend it. – Isaiah 31:5 – Grant Peace, We Pray, in Mercy, Lord

The Lord said to me, “No matter how shepherds yell and shout, they can’t scare away a lion from an animal that it has killed; in the same way, there is nothing that can keep me, the Lord Almighty, from protecting Mount Zion.  – Isaiah 31:4 – Zion Stands with Hills Surrounded

Their emperor will run away in terror, and the officers will be so frightened that they will abandon their battle flags.” The Lord has spoken—the Lord who is worshiped in Jerusalem and whose fire burns there for sacrifices. – Isaiah 31:9 – Captain of Israel’s host, and Guide  and Over the River

How about this prayer of worship.

I turned around to see who was talking to me, and I saw seven gold lampstands, and among them there was what looked like a human being, wearing a robe that reached to his feet, and a gold band around his chest.  His hair was white as wool, or as snow, and his eyes blazed like fire; his feet shone like brass that has been refined and polished, and his voice sounded like a roaring waterfall. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came out of his mouth. His face was as bright as the midday sun. When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the first and the last. I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I have authority over death and the world of the dead. – Revelation 1:12-18 GNT

I am reminded that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and it feels like my greatest need is to keep stirring up a combination of God’s greatness and a deep reminder of His grace. That is why praying over scripture helps me see God’s character and His works.

” This is the just temperature of a state of spiritual health, – namely, when our
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ does answer the means of it which we enjoy, and when our affections unto Christ do hold proportion unto that light; and this according unto the various degrees of it, – for some have more, and some have less.” – Owen

 

When it is difficult to pray remember that it is a means of divine grace

 

 

 

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The Israelites story of having to turn back to the wilderness after rebelling against God teaches me to also understand that even though those times were difficult, God was still with them.

I think we have all gone through those times when we find it tough to continue walking the walk that Jesus has called us to. Do we not call it “walking through the wilderness” as we feel God so far away? I find these are the times where I will find it most difficult to pray or read my Bible. Definitely will not engage in worship. Joy cannot be found anywhere and it is so hard to hang in there. That is why I find my strength in the simple discipline of reading a prayer or reading a chapter in my Bible every morning.

Here is one that gets me going.

Do to them what you did to the Midianites,
    and to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.
You defeated them at Endor,
    and their bodies rotted on the ground.
Do to their leaders what you did to Oreb and Zeeb;
    defeat all their rulers as you did Zebah and Zalmunna,
who said, “We will take for our own
    the land that belongs to God.”

Scatter them like dust, O God,
    like straw blown away by the wind.
As fire burns the forest,
    as flames set the hills on fire,
chase them away with your storm
    and terrify them with your fierce winds.
Cover their faces with shame, O Lord,
    and make them acknowledge your power.
May they be defeated and terrified forever;
    may they die in complete disgrace.
May they know that you alone are the Lord,
    supreme ruler over all the earth. – Psalm 83:9-18 GNT

Talk about calling on God’s justice and jealousy for me and for His own honour. The key is that I may be preserved, my enemies humbled and God glorified.

 

I am faced with the grand fact of the prevalence of prayer.

The Lord is compassionate, and when you cry to him for help, he will answer you. – Isaiah 30:19b

Let’s face it – is it not the most wonderful gift that God has given – to be able to pray? I know I can present my prayers to Him because all along He intended to hear them. How do I know? He gave His only Son, that through that atonement I might be able to approach Him. He did not stop there. He gave me His Holy Spirit to assist me in prayer because let’s face, I really do not know how to pray.

Is the key not in the prayer itself but when God actually answers it? When the prayer is true, the heart of the prayer is heard even before it is even offered. Grace makes me pray. God is graciously waiting for me to pray and has given me prayer as a privilege to enter into His presence – why would I not turn to Him now, with all my heart and cry to Him?

I mentioned earlier about the Holy Spirit – why pray in the Spirit?

It is the place to keep me in the love of God.

But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. – Jude 1:20  GNT

“The means of divine grace” is keeping ourselves in the love of God and it is something I cannot do on my own. God is the decisive keeper of my soul. If not for Him, I will not persevere in faith.

“If we settle for mere speculations and mental notions about Christ as doctrine, we shall find no transforming power or efficacy communicated unto us thereby. But when, under the conduct of spiritual light, our affections do cleave unto Him with full purpose of heart, our minds fill up with thoughts and delight in Him–then virtue [change in character] will proceed from Him to purify us, increase our holiness, and sometimes fill us with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Owen

Wholehearted prayer with mouths wide open

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Deuteronomy opens with an story of rebellion against God that does not go well.

“But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and you would not enter the land. You grumbled to one another: ‘The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to hand us over to these Amorites, so that they could kill us.  Why should we go there? We are afraid. The men we sent tell us that the people there are stronger and taller than we are, and that they live in cities with walls that reach the sky. They saw giants there!’

“But I told you, ‘Don’t be afraid of those people. The Lord your God will lead you, and he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt and in the desert. You saw how he brought you safely all the way to this place, just as a father would carry his son.’ But in spite of what I said, you still would not trust the Lord, even though he always went ahead of you to find a place for you to camp. To show you the way, he went in front of you in a pillar of fire by night and in a pillar of cloud by day. – Deuteronomy 1:26-33 GNT

It is my reminder that God is affected by my rebellion and I double down in my prayer and pursuit of wholehearted devotion to Him. It is hard when those around me do to not have the same passion, but if I must do it as an individual, I must. By that I mean I want to be like Caleb. He had a different spirit that enabled him not to be scared. He believed in God and walked with God. That will not mean I am perfect or will not experience unbelief or rebellion – for I do – but it means my faith will prevail. My sins do not have the final word in my life as I persevere in my belief in God, the gospel and His Word. What it means is that I am not sitting back and relaxing and not praying – but rather engaged in persevering prayer and pursuing God.

The Psalmist called this one out himself.

I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you out of Egypt.
Open your mouth, and I will feed you. – Psalm 81:10 GNT

What a promise to faithful people, who in faith, anticipate God’s provision. Of course, a closed mouth means they are not filled as there is no anticipation or faith.

“When the mother-bird brings food she never has to ask the little ones to open their mouths wide; her only difficulty is to fill the great width which they are quite sure to present to her: appetite and eagerness are never lacking, they are utterly insatiable…picture a nest of little birds reaching up their mouths, and all opening them as wide as they can.” – Spurgeon

What an encouragement for me to offer myself wide open to God in whatever I do. I cannot open myself any wider or deeper that God cannot fill me.

 “You may easily over-expect the creature, but you cannot over-expect God, ‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it;’ widen and dilate the desires and expectations of your souls, and God is able to fill every chink to the vastest capacity. This honours God, when we greaten our expectation upon him; it is a sanctifying of God in our hearts.” – Case, cited in Spurgeon

I open my mouth wide when I understand the greatness of the God I pray to.

“That great saying teaches, too, that God’s bestowals are practically measured by men’s capacity and desire. The ultimate limit of them is His own limitless grace; but the working limit in each individual is the individual’s receptivity, of which his expectancy and desire are determining factors.” – Maclaren

I open my mouth wide when I pray on Jesus’ merits, not my own.

“Our cup is small, and we blame the fountain.” – Spurgeon

“Wisdom is knowledge with the knower left in; or better, it is knowledge with God left in. True knowledge begins and ends with God.” – Clowney