Another chapter in Judges grabs my attention again. It is filled with violence and war but this time it is undergirded by God’s presence and it is holy war in a sense because it began by prayer.
All the people of Israel from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, as well as from the land of Gilead in the east, answered the call. They gathered in one body in the Lord‘s presence at Mizpah. – Judges 20:1 GNT
It did not end there – they prayed again just to make sure they were doing what the Lord wanted done.
God’s Covenant Box was there at Bethel in those days, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was in charge of it. The people asked the Lord, “Should we go out to fight our brothers the Benjaminites again, or should we give up?” The Lord answered, “Fight. Tomorrow I will give you victory over them.” – Judges 20:27-28 GNT
This is what Matthew Henry had to say about this passage:
“Before they only consulted God’s oracle, Who shall go up first? And, Shall we go up? But now they implored His favour, fasted and prayed, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings , to make an atonement for sin and an acknowledgment of their dependence upon God, and as an expression of their desire towards Him. We cannot expect the presence of God with us, unless we thus seek it in the way He has appointed. And when they were in this frame, and thus sought the Lord, then he not only ordered them to go up against the Benjamites the third time, but gave them a promise of victory: Tomorrow I will deliver them into thy hand.”
Compare this to what Jeremiah had to go through. He served a king who seemed to gravitate to counsel that was built around evil. This king reminds me to pray that God would keep me and if not, deliver me, from having such a hard heart, from having contempt of His Word and having no regard for His commandments.
Sin – its orgin and its cause – brings about an unchanged heart. Try as he could Zedekiah could and would not change. I pray that God would show me if I am being self-deceived and that He would renew my heart each and every day.
Such a prayer is found in the Psalms.
Listen to my words, O Lord,
and hear my sighs.
Listen to my cry for help,
my God and king!I pray to you, O Lord;
you hear my voice in the morning;
at sunrise I offer my prayer[b]
and wait for your answer. – Psalm 5:1-3 GNT
There are so many ways to pray. All I really need is for God to listen. I am assured that He does listen.
To God alone do I pray.
“This is the fittest time for [connecting] with God. An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening. While the dew is on the grass, let grace drop upon the soul.” – Spurgeon
I have a general habit of praying in the morning. It allows me to pray with a reflecting mind throughout the day. It allows me to receive instructions for the day, before I begin it in earnest. There is a confidence in me when I yield myself and the day to God.
“What is a slothful sinner to think of himself, when he reads, concerning the holy name of Jesus, that ‘in the morning, rising up a great while before the day, he went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed!’” – Horne
I think that confidence comes because I am not really thinking about myself, but am conscious on God and His presence.
“Very much of so-called prayer, both public and private, is not unto God. In order that a prayer should be really unto God, there must be a definite and conscious approach to God when we pray; we must have a definite and vivid realization that God is bending over us and listening as we pray.” – Torrey, How to Pray
There is an expectancy when I pray – I expect God to listen and then I wait for His answer.
The idea behind direct is not “to aim” but “to order, to arrange.” “It is the word that is used for the laying in order of the wood and pieces of the victim upon the altar, and it is used also for the putting of the shewbread upon the table. It means just this: ‘I will arrange my prayer before thee,’ I will lay it out upon the altar in the morning, just as the priest lays out the morning sacrifice.” – Spurgeon
I feel that maybe more important is not my ability to have created a habit of prayer, but rather a spirit of prayer.
“Do we not miss very much of the sweetness and efficacy of prayer by a want of careful meditation before it, and of hopeful expectation after it? Let holy preparation link hands with patient expectation, and we shall have far larger answers to our prayers.” – Spurgeon
I like how this Psalm worded its statement on prayer – it sounds like a resolution, a determined choice. He would no sooner die than live without prayer.
“It is manifestly a mistake to pray at haphazard. There is too much random praying with us all. We do not return again and again to the same petition, pressing it home with all humility and reverence, and arguing the case, as Abraham did his for the cities of the plain.” – Meyer
I come into the presence of God, not in a rush, but rather with some humility. My meditation is always “on” so that I never miss what God might be saying and leading me to hear. I enter into prayer with a sense of fervency. I want the work of the Holy Spirit to speack into my life, it is He who authors my prayer. May my preparation allow me to enter prayer with patient expectation.
“Ultimately, there is no such thing as unanswered prayer…. God, being a
good Father, tries to give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything he knew.” – J.I. Packer
The Practice of Prayer 