protect

Sanctified prayer life

prayer as worship leading to sanctification

I love the shepherd analogy of Psalm 23. God fully keeps His promises, He faithfully sees them through to the end. He leads people until each one finds their place to settle. At the end of the day, when the plans are complete, we are better off than we were before. Here are the four unmistakable traits of a shepherd that I can meditate on in my devotional prayer life.

He will cause us to:

  1. move when we need to
  2. lead and protect us along the way
  3. bring us to new and fruitful lands
  4. fully establish and settle us in them

These are big things to consider along the way, but God cares about the little things as well. For instance, praying before a meal – it matters to God what that looks like.

Everything that God has created is good; nothing is to be rejected, but everything is to be received with a prayer of thanks, because the word of God and the prayer make it acceptable to God. – 1 Timothy 4:4-5 GNT

The first thing I notice is that the actual emphasis is not on God blessing the food, but on thanking God for the blessing of providing food to eat. While it is good and proper for me to pray before a meal, it should not be done in a ritualistic, superstitious way. Nor should it be done to show others how spiritual we are. I remember my pastor taking me out to lunch one day and he suggested we not pray over our food as it was an unnecessary tradition. I quickly rejected that idea and am thankful that this was confirmed today as the right attitude to have and not to neglect prayer just because one thinks it could be traditional.

While the food we eat may not be pure – everything we eat is holy when received as His gift with thanksgiving and with prayer – that is what sanctified means. In other words, all food is sanctified by a grace before a meal. There is no formula as to what that prayer should look like, but if I keep referring everything to God as the giver of all – taking everything as a gift from God – I come with thanks to God from my heart and my prayer will reflect this.

Not that this is a formula prayer, but I found a prayer written, they say it may be the oldest form of Christian grace before a meal recorded in the Apostolic Constitutions. It is simple and not too long.

“Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who nourisheth men from very youth up, who givest meat to all flesh; fill our hearts with joy and gladness, so that we, always enjoying a sufficiency, may abound unto every good work in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom be ascribed to Thee glory, honour, and power unto the ages. Amen.”

“In speaking of our daily bread, we do not bid farewell to God’s glory, but we ask only what is expedient for Him. We come with our needs, expecting a positive response, but we do so, changed by our satisfaction in Him and our trust of Him. Because of that, we do not come arrogantly and anxiously telling Him what has to happen. Many things we would have otherwise agonized over, we can now ask for without desperation.” – John Calvin

Pray this to God

Woman hands place together like praying in front of nature green bokeh and blue sky background.

Just think about it. Right now, all your sins, every single sinful thought, desire, word, deed, the things that you are really thankful nobody else knows about – God knows about all of it. And by the blood of Jesus, it is all covered. Your sin has been atoned for.

These regulations are to be observed for all time to come. This ritual must be performed once a year to purify the people of Israel from all their sins. So Moses[c] did as the Lord had commanded. – Leviticus 16:34 GNT

When you and I pray, and tell Jesus that we are sorry that we have turned our back on Him and believe that He died, was buried and rose again, then our sins are gone and grace covers us with the blood of Jesus.

Even my hidden faults, I ask God to forgive them.

None of us can see our own errors;
    deliver me, Lord, from hidden faults!
Keep me safe, also, from willful sins;
    don’t let them rule over me.
Then I shall be perfect
    and free from the evil of sin. – Psalm 19:12-13 GNT

When I pray for this specific request, I usually find that God does not just wipe them away and that’s it. I find that He wants me to deal with them. He may send someone, He may cause His word to jump from the pages of the Bible, He may use a sermon – but in some way or other I am suddenly confronted with what I say or have done and I find that it is ugly and I do not like it. God has His way of opening up the secret places.

There is only one prayer in all of Proverbs and here it is.
I ask you, God, to let me have two things before I die: keep me from lying, and let me be neither rich nor poor. So give me only as much food as I need. If I have more, I might say that I do not need you. But if I am poor, I might steal and bring disgrace on my God. – Proverbs 30:7-9 GNT

You can learn a lot about someone when you listen to them pray. This prayer addresses God on the spiritual weaknesses in my life that either block or detour the pursuit of godliness in my life. It also teaches me to pray with an ask that comes from humble submission.

I liked that Agar simply asked God for what he wanted, like a child addressing his father, like a servant speaking to his master, like a sinful man praying to a holy God. He had his spiritual priorities in place and did not waste his time on trivial superficial things. It was weighted down with the gravity of eternity.

“In praying one should think about dying and then pray accordingly.” – Matthew Henry

The idea of being set free from lying may very well be a confession of sin or it may be a prayer to protect him from lying.
I am challenged not only to ask Jesus to remove my sin from my life but to present any attitude and perspective that would block my pursuit of being godly. I do not want to be detoured from pursuing Him.
​
No matter what season in life I am in I want to pray knowing God has everything under control. 
“Grant us grace to bear willingly all sorts of sickness, poverty, disgrace, suffering and adversity and to recognize that in this your divine will is crucifying our will.” – Martin Luther