authority

Always pray, pray for everything and sometimes ask for nothing

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Sometimes when I am praying, I find myself in a place where asking is not my primary mode of conversation. Sometimes I like telling God all the things I love about Him. In a way I am declaring my confidence and my trust in Him.

David does this too, although we do not see it that often. In times of trouble this is how he starts one of his journals. It is full of faith and trust, absent of fear, despair and petition.

I wait patiently for God to save me;
I depend on him alone.
He alone protects and saves me;
he is my defender,
and I shall never be defeated. – Psalm 62:1-2 GNT

“There is in it throughout not one single word (and this is a rare occurrence), in which the prophet expresses fear or dejection; and there is also no prayer in it, although, on other occasions, when in danger, he never omits to pray.” – Amyraut, cited in Spurgeon

But even here he is sure to remind us all to pray.

Trust in God at all times, my people.
    Tell him all your troubles,
    for he is our refuge. – Psalm 62:8 GNT

Isaiah gives us a description of what Jesus will look like and I think that helps when we have prayer times like this.

The spirit of the Lord will give him wisdom
    and the knowledge and skill to rule his people.
He will know the Lord‘s will and honor him,
    and find pleasure in obeying him. – Isaiah 11:2 GNT

Wisdom and knowledge speak of authority. It is the ability to give good and right advice and skill to the ability to carry them out.

He will not judge by appearance or hearsay;
    he will judge the poor fairly
    and defend the rights of the helpless. – Isaiah 11:3 GNT

I see Jesus life as one who wants to walk with me, just like He did with Nicodemus. He speaks into the ABC’s of spiritual life, truth that could never come from human wisdom. He describes how angels live, what happens after death, how prayer works, and even how the devil works. He examplied what and who I want to be and live. What does a prayer of faith look like?

James talks about that and he does so in the arena of healing and in the encouragement to pray in all circumstances.

Are any among you in trouble? They should pray. Are any among you happy? They should sing praises. Are any among you sick? They should send for the church elders, who will pray for them and rub olive oil on them in the name of the Lord. This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven. So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect. Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years. Once again he prayed, and the sky poured out its rain and the earth produced its crops. – James 5:13-18 GNT

This is a place where I take all that trust I mentioned before and exercise it. I might see a physical healing, but I also might see an emotional or spiritual healing too. I look to Jesus, with His wisdom and understanding, and I know that with Him as my source of healing, He will know best how these healing should look like.

I like how James ends a session on discipleship with this call to pray with faith.

Prayer, true prayer, does not allow us to deceive ourselves. It relaxes the tension of our self-inflation. It produces a clearness of spiritual vision. Searching with a judgment that begins at the house of God, it ceases not to explore with His light our own soul. If the Lord is our health He may need to act on many men, or many moods, as a lowering medicine. At His coming our self-confidence is shaken. Our robust confidence, even in grace, is destroyed. The pillars of our house tremble, as if they were ivy-covered in a searching wind. Our lusty faith is refined, by what may be a painful process, into a subtler and more penetrating kind; and its outward effect is for the time impaired, though in the end it is increased. The effect of the prayer which admits God into the recesses of the soul is to destroy that spiritual density, not to say stupidity, which made our religion cheery or vigorous because it knew no better, and which was the condition of getting many obvious things done, and producing palpable effect on the order of the day. There are fervent prayers which, by making people feel good, may do no more than foster the delusion that natural vigour or robust religion, when flushed enough, can do the work of the kingdom of God. There is a certain egoist self-confidence which is increased by the more elementary forms of religion, which upholds us in much of our contact with men, and which even secures us an influence with them. But the influence is one of impression rather than permeation, it overbears rather than converts, and it inflames rather than inspires. This is a force which true and close prayer is very apt to undermine, because it saps our self-deception and its Pharisaism. The confidence was due to a lack of spiritual insight which serious prayer plentifully repairs. So by prayer we acquire our true selves. – P. T. Forsyth, Soul of Prayer

 

 

 

 

Watch and pray for those in authority

watch and pray

Those in authority not only include those outside my world but it also includes me. I need to be specially on guard against common and offensive sin. Even though Leviticus describes something outside my practice, the analogy to watch and pray against the commission of wrong-doing is not lost on me.

The priests shall not profane the sacred offerings by letting any unauthorized people eat them; this would bring guilt and punishment on such people. I am the Lord and I make the offerings holy.” – Leviticus 22:15-16 GNT

I am under special temptation to commit sin in this area because of my very professional familiarity with the truth and service of God, I am likely to have irreverence, pronounce God’s word without feeling or act without divine inspiration.

My example is far more influential. When I am any of these things, either in time or immediately, those who I lead will know it. It will be communicated and will seriously lessen or at least lower the impression God could have had on their hearts and lives.

I therefore try to stay away from my human tendency to speak without thinking before God and others. It is foolish to speak too much and hear too little in God’s presence.

Be careful about going to the Temple. It is better to go there to learn than to offer sacrifices like foolish people who don’t know right from wrong. Think before you speak, and don’t make any rash promises to God. He is in heaven and you are on earth, so don’t say any more than you have to. The more you worry, the more likely you are to have bad dreams, and the more you talk, the more likely you are to say something foolish. – Ecclesiastes 5:1-3 GNT

“When we come before God, our minds are full of our own business rather than with the worship of God. When we talk too much, we usually talk like fools. This can be especially bad in the house of God.” – Wright

J. Edwin Orr used to advise brief, earnest prayers, especially in prayer meetings. He said that when one prays in a meeting, for his first three minutes everyone prays with him. Should he continue a second three minutes, everyone prays for him. Should he continue for a third three minutes, the others start to pray against him.

“For as it is not the loudness of a preacher’s voice, but the weight and holiness of his matter, and the spirit of the preacher, that moves a wise and intelligent hearer, so it is not the labour of the lips, but the travail of the heart that prevails with God.” – Trapp

“As personal and business cares produce dreams, which are unsubstantial things; so many words produce foolish and empty prayers.” – Wright

So I cry out to God to hear me.

O Lord, my defender, I call to you.
    Listen to my cry!
If you do not answer me,
    I will be among those who go down to the world of the dead.
Hear me when I cry to you for help,
    when I lift my hands toward your holy Temple. – Psalm 28:1-2 GNT

For those who only pray as a formality, they may be content to go in life without their prayers being answered, but I cannot. I need more than just the comfort and submitting of my will – I need God to respond and I cannot rest completely until I hear from Him. I dread when even a little bit of time goes by when God is silent.

So I am not put off when I am in the spirit of prayer until I hear from God. My voice is not what I speak audibly, it is my heart voice. Raising my hands is an act of seeking mercy. Raising of hands has always been a form of devout posture, a readiness, and eagerness to receive blessings. I stretch my hands, empty as they are, seeking for them to be filled with everything I need. My expectation of a response is on His mercy. May I have a humble heart as I approach the throne of God.

We petition that forgiveness comes to us, as we forgive our debtors”, namely
as we spare and pardon all who have in any way injured us, either treating us
unjustly in deed or insulting us in word. Not that it is ours to forgive the guilt of transgression or offense, for this belongs to God alone (Isa 43:25). This, rather, is our forgiveness: willingly to cast from the mind wrath, hatred, desire for revenge, and willingly to banish to oblivion the remembrance of injustice. For this reason, we ought not to seek forgiveness of sins from God unless we ourselves also forgive the offenses against us of all those who do or have done us ill. If we retain feelings of hatred in our hearts, if we plot revenge and ponder any occasion to cause harm, and even if we do not try to get back into our enemies’ good graces, by every sort of good office deserve well of them, and commend ourselves to them, by this prayer we entreat God not to forgive our sins. – Calvin