Praying against

Praying-Hands

While it may seem like it make sense to pray that Satan my change his ways, we know that is not possible. He was, is and will always be opposed to God. He is an evil, malevolent spiritual power whose single goal is to block God’s will. Satan’s ultimate destiny is a place Jesus talked about.

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!  – Matthew 25:41 GNT

It makes more sense today to be praying against him. We should pray that his plans will be blocked and those who follow him will not be able to carry out their evil schemes.

The Bible is all about God, and that is why the practice of prayer is so pervasive throughout its pages. The greatness of prayer is nothing but an extension of the greatness and glory of God in our lives. The Scripture is one long testimony to this truth. – Timothy Keller

 

 

 

 

Beginning with prayer

beginning in prayer

 

When he arrived, he made the camels kneel down at the well outside the city. It was late afternoon, the time when women came out to get water. He prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today and keep your promise to my master. Here I am at the well where the young women of the city will be coming to get water. I will say to one of them, ‘Please, lower your jar and let me have a drink.’ If she says, ‘Drink, and I will also bring water for your camels,’ may she be the one that you have chosen for your servant Isaac. If this happens, I will know that you have kept your promise to my master.”

Before he had finished praying, Rebecca arrived with a water jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor and his wife Milcah. – Genesis 24:11-15 GNT 

Here is a prayer offered by Eliezer and he is expecting a miracle. There is no way he will be confused with the outcome unless no woman meets the expectations he has given to the Lord to perform. Here are some things I noted about his prayer that would make it a trademark for those followers of Jesus who pray.

Eliezer made prayer the first thing on his agenda. He began his mission with prayer. He invited God into the mission and gave the reason for his request. He spoke openly with God. It was specific and it could only happen if God participated. He is not presumptuous, only needs God to participate, especially after the journey across the desert. He is also providing the scenario that would enable him to evaluate that God is answering his prayer. It was not his young lady that he was looking for, it was God’s young lady. With the scenario being filled with men watering their camels, imagine him seeing a young lady coming to the well with a herd. When he saw the potential answer to his prayer – he ran. He did not hesitate to find out if she was the one.

She said, “Drink, sir,” and quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and held it while he drank. When he had finished, she said, “I will also bring water for your camels and let them have all they want.” She quickly emptied her jar into the animals’ drinking trough and ran to the well to get more water, until she had watered all his camels. The man kept watching her in silence, to see if the Lord had given him success.

When she had finished, the man took an expensive gold ring and put it in her nose and put two large gold bracelets on her arms. He said, “Please tell me who your father is. Is there room in his house for my men and me to spend the night?” – Genesis 24:18-23 GNT

Eliezer shows us by his prayer that he has patience. He watches her in silence. He could have helped her I assume but decided to watch instead – making sure she was the answer to his prayer. When it was time, he sought an answer.

“My father is Bethuel son of Nahor and Milcah,” she answered. “There is plenty of straw and fodder at our house, and there is a place for you to stay.”

Then the man knelt down and worshiped the Lord. He said, “Praise the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has faithfully kept his promise to my master. The Lord has led me straight to my master’s relatives.” – Genesis 24:24-27 GNT

 Eliezer shows by his prayer something special – he praises God and he does not forget. There was so much more work to be done – but he recognizes that God was here, at that very moment, creating the open door and if He was there He would be with him through the rest of the negotiations.

How does this add to the way I pray? When we are together as a small gathering and it comes time to pray for each other – what or how will we pray? I think Eliezer would suggest that while praying for traveling mercies, healing for an aunt, help finding a new job are important, something is missing.

“How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You give to God one tenth even of the seasoning herbs, such as mint, dill, and cumin, but you neglect to obey the really important teachings of the Law, such as justice and mercy and honesty. These you should practice, without neglecting the others. – Matthew 23:23 GNT

Maybe there are weightier matters to attend to – maybe we are missing out on something big.

How about Nehemiah making this kind of statement to God in his prayer —

Remember all this, O God, and give me credit for it. – Nehemiah 13:31 GNT

Actually, he said this three times. What a great sign to me of his humanity. He had given up a lot to do the work that God wanted him to do. He left the palace, he lead an entire people to rebuild what was once a proud city and in the end, he wanted to be remembered by God as someone who lived for the glory of God and to serve others. So maybe there is a beginning and an ending of prayer in all of this.

When your prayer life finally begins to flourish, the effects can be remarkable. You may be filled with self-pity, and be justifying resentment and anger. Then you sit down to pray and the reorientation that comes before God’s face reveals the pettiness of your feelings in an instant. All your self-justifying excuses fall to the ground in pieces. Or you may be filled with anxiety, and during prayer you come to wonder what you were so worried about. You laugh at yourself and thank God for who he is and what he’s done. It can be that dramatic. It is the bracing clarity of a new perspective. Eventually, this can be the normal experience, but that is never how the prayer life starts. In the beginning the feeling of poverty and absence usually dominates, but the best guides for this phase urge us not to turn back but rather to endure and pray in a disciplined way, until, as Packer and Nystrom say, we get through duty to delight. – Timothy Keller

 

 

 

 

Battling

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When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came together, and one of them, a teacher of the Law, tried to trap him with a question. “Teacher,” he asked, “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:34-40 GNT

I have quite a few things battling for my time and attention every day. I make a decision each day to commit time and attention to connect with God. Whenever I find myself grateful for what I have, for the breath I breathe, or for the beauty of the world around me, I think about Him. I am thankful for this life and for His love and I can do that one day at a time. Making Him a priority today gives me an opportunity to practice making Him number one in my life one day at a time.

‘If God had not said, ‘Blessed are those that hunger, I know not what could keep weak Christians from sinking in despair. Many times, all I can do is to complain that I want Him, and wish to recover Him.’

Bishop Hall, in uttering this lament, two centuries and a half ago, only echoed the wail which had come down, through living hearts, from the patriarch, whose story is the oldest known literature in any language. A consciousness of the absence of God is one of the standing incidents of religious life. Even when the forms of devotion are observed conscientiously, the sense of the presence of God, as an invisible Friend, whose society is a joy, is by no means unintermittent. – Austin Phelps

 

 

Speaking terms

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Here are a few scripture passages that might help us in our prayer time today.

Some time later God tested Abraham; he called to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham answered, “Yes, here I am!” – Genesis 22:1 GNT

Lord, if ever You call on ______ may their response to You be as Abraham’s was, “Here I am.”

“Don’t hurt the boy or do anything to him,” he said. “Now I know that you honor and obey God, because you have not kept back your only son from him.” – Genesis 22:12 GNT

Like Abraham, may ____ fear You, God, and withhold nothing from You.

Abraham named that place “The Lord Provides.”[a] And even today people say, “On the Lord‘s mountain he provides.” – Genesis 22:14 GNT

In their life may ______ come to know You, God, as “The Lord will provide.”

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. – Matthew 21:22 GNT

May ______ know that if they believe, they will receive whatever they ask for in prayer. May ______ believe You, Lord, and always bring their needs to You in prayer.

When there are lists of names in the Bible, I wonder if they are pointing to names that could have been prayed over then as well. For instance, Nehemiah has a list of names – 822 of them specifically.

In all, 822 members of this clan served in the Temple. – Nehemiah 11:12 GNT

Paul met so many people on his way back to Jerusalem. All of them did not want him to go. Paul showed us what his speaking terms with God looked like by not bowing to the temptation to remain.

There we found some believers and stayed with them a week. By the power of the Spirit they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem.  But when our time with them was over, we left and went on our way. All of them, together with their wives and children, went with us out of the city to the beach, where we all knelt and prayed. – Acts 21:4-5 GNT

By his example, he taught us this rule – pray always, pray without ceasing and when leaving a time of fellowship, sweeten it with prayer.

“You can tell if a  man or woman is really on speaking terms with God.” – Jack Miller

 

I can learn

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This story of two blind men gives some insight to how I should pray.

As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd was following.  Two blind men who were sitting by the road heard that Jesus was passing by, so they began to shout, “Son of David! Have mercy on us, sir!”

The crowd scolded them and told them to be quiet. But they shouted even more loudly, “Son of David! Have mercy on us, sir!”

Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked them.

“Sir,” they answered, “we want you to give us our sight!”

Jesus had pity on them and touched their eyes; at once they were able to see, and they followed him. – Matthew 20:29-34 GNT

I need to be desperate enough to get to Jesus and not so concerned with formalities or what people think. That means I approach Him directly, myself, not looking for someone else to be praying for me. The simplicity in conversation matters so that I can speak exactly what is on my heart., not beating around the bush. I do not need to be afraid in crying out – loudly. It is not because God is deaf and He already knows my heart, rather, it does something to me to lift my voice in prayer – it keeps me focused on Him and on what I am saying.

Putting my faith on the line is what those who were with Nehemiah did.

We, the people of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the Temple guards, the Temple musicians, the Temple workers, and all others who in obedience to God’s Law have separated themselves from the foreigners living in our land, we, together with our wives and all our children old enough to understand, do hereby join with our leaders in an oath, under penalty of a curse if we break it, that we will live according to God’s Law, which God gave through his servant Moses; that we will obey all that the Lord, our Lord, commands us; and that we will keep all his laws and requirements. – Nehemiah 10:28-29 GNT

They too were blind at one time and now they realised they needed a course correction and were willing to come back to an obedient walk. They were looking for a different healing, one that required them to state clearly and simply, “Lord, whatever it takes I want to follow You. Whatever it takes I want to be Yours.”

That looks different at various stages of our walk. One example that sticks out for me is the praying together of the church for Paul as he heads back to Jerusalem for his final journey.

 When Paul finished, he knelt down with them and prayed.  They were all crying as they hugged him and kissed him good-bye.  They were especially sad because he had said that they would never see him again. And so they went with him to the ship. – Acts 20:36-38 GNT

Instead of praying for themselves, this is a great example of how to pray over others. They had learned how to kneel and pour out their hearts.

“A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.” – John Owen