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Inspiring prayers are answered

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Acts 4:24-30 contains one of the most inspiring prayers in Scripture. The believers were living in dangerous circumstances. Peter and John had just been arrested after the healing of a crippled man.

When they prayed for boldness they knew what they were praying for. The mission the Lord had given them had not changed, and neither had the source of their power. The prayer recorded in this passage is marvelous in its simplicity and its comprehension of the Person and purposes of God.

Compare that to a person, maybe the one who knows about God but chooses each and every day to ignore Him.

He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbor’s wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure? – Jeremiah 13:27  GNT

One thing is noted in both these cases – without God is is impossible to believe in the impossible. Can I be made pure? Though difficult, it is not impossible. When could I say that something is impossible? When my obstinate refusal of God’s grace renders it impossible. I cannot change myself, I need to come before God and pray for Him to do it and I do that through Jesus Christ. If I can pray and believe what I am praying, God’s power is available to me. If I do not, I will not survive.

Think about Jesus’ own words.

At about three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me? – Matthew 27:46  GNT

That was a difficult moment. I know that as a teenager I asked the question – where was God? I know now that He was in the same place He was yesterday, today and forever. My immediate response is – God show up now and deliver me now. In my spirit I know He will show up in His time. I have learned that when God is quiet, He is up to something. I am inspired to pray, which is an expression of my trust in God, and then wait for an answer. The answer will not be what I think it will be so I best be on the lookout and careful not to miss it.

Other inspiring prayers include Hezekiah who was so sick he was going to die. God called it out and told him so. He did not freak out and start to swear and curse God, he did not complain, pout, beg or go into a depression, and he did not feel that God was picking on him. What he did do was turn to God in prayer, remind Him that he had been serving Him since he was a young. He turned his face towards the wall and started praying.

As a result he was given another 15 years of life. Such was the strength of his prayer in the face of adversity and such was the importance of having a relationship with God where He can be trusted and who would come when needed.

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. – Martin Luther

 

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