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A praying people who listen

2 Kings 13:1-9 GNT

I come across a few writings that try and describe why God does not listen to the prayers of those who do not follow Him. It is like these people who write such nonsense do not even know who God is. They are so focused on judgement that grace has all but left their souls. So when I read this portion of scripture this morning I was thrilled that this king, who had left God long ago, when he needed God most and called on His name, God answered and saved him.

The people of Israel were a praying people. God could have easily not listened or even rejected the prayer, but God did listen and He did not reject it and gave them success against their enemy. The gracious answer God gave was not for the sake of the king who prayed it, but rather in the remembrance of His covenant with Abraham. God is swift to show mercy, ready to hear my prayers and will find a reason to be gracious even if He has to look so far back as that ancient covenant.

This brings up Hosea which contains some sickness-healing terminology. Read Hosea 5:8 – 6:6 GNT

This same type of prayer is shown in Abraham’s prayer for Abimelech to be healed of his sterility. It is also present when Moses prayed for Miriam to be healed of her leprosy. Also in the prayer of Hezekiah of his own healing.

I will close with the prayer of the Psalmist who concentrates on prayer and provides some basic guidelines on how to pray.

With all my heart I call to you;
    answer me, Lord, and I will obey your commands!
I call to you;
    save me, and I will keep your laws.
Before sunrise I call to you for help;
    I place my hope in your promise.
All night long I lie awake,
    to meditate on your instructions.
Because your love is constant, hear me, O Lord;
    show your mercy, and preserve my life!
My cruel persecutors are coming closer,
    people who never keep your law.
But you are near to me, Lord,
    and all your commands are permanent.
Long ago I learned about your instructions;
    you made them to last forever. – Psalm 119:145-152 GNT

  • I am called to pray with all my heart. Before I can pray at all I need to pray for myself for a heart that is on fire to serve God. That means I turn to Him to save me.
  • I am called to pray first thing in the morning until the evening, unceasingly. It is to purposely cultivate an attitude of prayer.
  • I am to realize that my prayer is an act of responding to God’s love and not only for emergency measures. It is not about asking but about a love relationship.
  • My prayer acknowledges that I am able to discern and keep alert to the things of God.
  • Prayer and listening to the Word brings me into His presence.

“Now he is a man of just and holy life who forms an unprejudiced estimate of things, and keeps his affections also under strict control, so that he neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves less or more which ought to be loved equally. No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God’s sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake. And if God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself” – Augustine

Praying, and God answers

When I can turn to God and find expected relief, I find myself expecting even bigger things and doubt does not seem to be part of my journey. It would seem that as I experience the power in God to help me when I am weakest, I find that there is ample space in my life for Him to help. I have learned, like the Psalmist, to wait patiently – believing, hoping and praying.

I waited patiently for the Lord’s help;

    then he listened to me and heard my cry.

He pulled me out of a dangerous pit,

    out of the deadly quicksand.

He set me safely on a rock

    and made me secure.

He taught me to sing a new song,

    a song of praise to our God.

Many who see this will take warning

    and will put their trust in the Lord.

Happy are those who trust the Lord,

    who do not turn to idols

    or join those who worship false gods.

You have done many things for us, O Lord our God;

    there is no one like you!

    You have made many wonderful plans for us.

I could never speak of them all—

    their number is so great! – Pslam 40:1-5 GNT

I love that God answered his prayers – there is a confidence that the Father heard him always.

Prayer the Churches banquet, Angels age,
Gods breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;
Engine against th’ Almightie, sinners towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-daies world transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;

Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bels beyond the starres heard, the souls bloud,
The land of spices; something understood.


Taken from George Herbert: 100 Poems, edited by Helen Wilcox (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

Praying with patience and humility

patience and humility

I am taking note that there is patience involved in following and trusting God. There is this content that I am learning because I understand that God does do things on a different time scale than what I am hoping or expecting for. He does things little by little sometimes.

I will not drive them out within a year’s time; if I did, the land would become deserted, and the wild animals would be too many for you. Instead, I will drive them out little by little, until there are enough of you to take possession of the land. – Exodus 23:29-30 GNT

As I am trusting Him, and I should note, patiently trusting Him, I am also not wanting to lose my sense of urgency. Life is short and I want to make mine count. The learning to be content comes as I obey God. Patience is critical as I come to a place where I know God is at work even though I may not see it.

I picture obedience the same way Mary primed us on prayer.

Jesus’ mother then told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” – John 2:5 GNT

She knew to whom to go, she knew what to say (briefly, simply and focused on describing the need). What makes me smile is that she knew what to do next and that was to be prepared for the answer and get ready to do what He said needed to be done.

In the description of Leviathan found in chapter forty-one of Job, I captured one of the first sentences describing its character.

Will he beg you to let him go?
    Will he plead with you for mercy? – Job 41:3 GNT

He will not plead for mercy because he is too proud to do so. In order to have patience, I also believe I need humility. While Leviathan thinks he is great, my time before God, in the spirit of humility, places God in authority over me. God is my creator, ruler and He is sovereign, one to be reverenced and feared. He is my ultimate help. Without humility I will find myself pushing patience aside and striving to work out things on my own.

 

For these things, therefore, it becomes us to pray: if we have them, that we may keep them; if we have them not, that we may get them.

Is this all? Are these the benefits in which exclusively the happy life is found? Or does truth teach us that something else is to be preferred to them all? We know that both the competency of things necessary, and the well-being of ourselves and of our friends, so long as these concern this present world alone, are to be cast aside as dross in comparison with the obtaining of eternal life; for although the body may be in health, the mind cannot be regarded as sound which does not prefer eternal to temporal things; yea, the life which we live in time is wasted, if it be not spent in obtaining that by which we may be worthy of eternal life. Therefore all things which are the objects of useful and becoming desire are unquestionably to be viewed with reference to that one life which is lived with God, and is derived from Him. In so doing, we love ourselves if we love God; and we truly love our neighbours as ourselves, according to the second great commandment, if, so far as is in our power, we persuade them to a similar love of God. We love God, therefore, for what He is in Himself, and ourselves and our neighbours for His sake. Even when living thus, let us not think that we are securely established in that happy life, as if there was nothing more for which we should still pray. For how could we be said to live a happy life now, while that which alone is the object of a well-directed life is still wanting to us? – Augustine