real

Short and serious prayer

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Samson delivers a powerful 21-word prayer that catches my attention.

Then Samson became very thirsty, so he called to the Lord and said, “You gave me this great victory; am I now going to die of thirst and be captured by these heathen Philistines?” – Judges 15:18  GNT

It speaks to me about who Samson is and about his relationship with God. There was a note of humility in this prayer compared to the choice of words he used just a few verses earlier. I loved the language of honour/shame used in this prayer too. He chose to exalt God as God – His power, His person, and His preeminence.

What makes the prayer so dramatic is God’s response.

Then God opened a hollow place in the ground there at Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank it and began to feel much better. So the spring was named Hakkore;[d] it is still there at Lehi. – Judges 15:19  GNT

 Samson prayed, God heard, and God responded. I am beautifully encouraged and reminded that God hears and answers my prayer.

This was real, and the real thing can always call out the fake.

Jeremiah had to do this on a regular basis. I tried to discern what was missing in this sham prophecy.

That same year,[a] in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king, Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple. In the presence of the priests and of the people he told me that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said: “I have broken the power of the king of Babylonia. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the Temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylonia. I will also bring back the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, along with all of the people of Judah who went into exile in Babylonia. Yes, I will break the power of the king of Babylonia. I, the Lord, have spoken.” – Jeremiah 28:1-4  GNT

It sounded good and it made the people who were listening very happy. It did sound a bit “religious” and with too much confidence in regards to prosperity. I say that because there was something missing that needed to be there – where was the counsel that God usual gives in regards to repentance, reform, returning to Him, to prayer, seeking His face and the understanding that all of these actions would prepare them for the favour God would give them?

Then in the presence of the priests and of all the people who were standing in the Temple, I said to Hananiah, “Wonderful! I hope the Lord will do this! I certainly hope he will make your prophecy come true and will bring back from Babylonia all the Temple treasures and all the people who were taken away as prisoners. But listen to what I say to you and to the people. The prophets who spoke long ago, before my time and yours, predicted that war, starvation, and disease would come to many nations and powerful kingdoms. But a prophet who predicts peace can only be recognized as a prophet whom the Lord has truly sent when that prophet’s predictions come true.” – Jeremiah 28:5-9  GNT

This pretended prophecy was one of good will but it lacked an element of intercession for the people – it omitted and depreciated the judgement and the future judgements of walking away from God. A false prophet will give in to the temptation of ingratiating themselves to people by promising peace and there was no gurantee whatsoever of it. May I not find myself yielding to the flatter and especially not persecuting that one giving me the greatest gift of telling me the truth and interceding on my behalf.

So any unperverted mind will conceive of the scriptural idea of prayer, as that of one of the most downright, sturdy realities in the universe. Right in the heart of God’s plan of government it is lodged as a power. Amidst the conflicts which are going in the evolution of that plan, it stands as a power. Into all the intricacies of Divine working and the mysteries of Divine decree, it reaches out silently as a power. In the mind of God, we may be assured, the conception of prayer is no fiction, whatever man may think of it. – Austin Phelps

 

 

 

Talk with God, my prayers are heard

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There was a song that we sang in youth group on Friday nights that would come out of the core of my being. It is hardly sung these days, but when it is, it still rocks my soul.

As a deer longs for a stream of cool water,
    so I long for you, O God. – Psalm 42:1 GNT

Thirst is the second strongest bodily desire after the need for air. That is where I was at in my journey of discovering and expressing my love for Jesus. I discovered that I could worship Him anytime, anyplace because of the Holy Spirit who was within me.

It was part of David being honest that makes the prayer so real. He goes on…

Why am I so sad?
    Why am I so troubled?
I will put my hope in God,
    and once again I will praise him,
    my savior and my God.

Here in exile my heart is breaking,
    and so I turn my thoughts to him.
He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul;
    chaos roars at me like a flood,
    like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan
    from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar.
May the Lord show his constant love during the day,
    so that I may have a song at night,
    a prayer to the God of my life. – Psalm 42:5-8 GNT

In other words – “I know it is foolish to be down, but I am.” What about the expression he uses at the end – “a prayer to the God of my life.” God’s love never fails and His ear is ready to hear.

The intimacy that exist here is real.

While I slept, my heart was awake.

I dreamed my lover knocked at the door.

Let me come in, my darling,

    my sweetheart, my dove.
My head is wet with dew,
    and my hair is damp from the mist. – Song of Solomon 5:2 GNT

 

I have seen God delighting and joying over me. I am just as important to Him as a lover is to their loved one. He longs to hear my voice – why is it so easy to forget to pray? He reaches out to me but I am too busy. I am His dove that He wants to hold and speak gently to, but I struggle and keep trying to fly away.

Jesus time of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was given a different perspective from the author of the Book of Hebrews.

In his life on earth Jesus made his prayers and requests with loud cries and tears to God, who could save him from death. Because he was humble and devoted, God heard him. But even though he was God’s Son, he learned through his sufferings to be obedient. When he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him – Hebrews 5:7-9 GNT

Jesus came to pray that night as a high priest – He is interceding – standing between me and God and praying on my behalf. The following day, like the high priest practiced, He will offer a sacrifice for sin. Rather than an animal, He would offer Himself.

Jesus prayed and God heard Him – not because of His loud cries, or even because of the quantity of tears – He heard Him because He was humble and faithful. Rather than demanding, He prayed for the will of God to take place. He learned to be obedient, not that He was disobedient, but rather that I might have a model, an example, of what it looks like to learn obedience in suffering.

The reason became clear – He was made perfect three days later and the source of eternal salvation. So when I pray, I pray as a child of God who is talking to His Father in heaven. That is where I begin my prayer – with the confidence that God hears them for Jesus’ sake – Jesus intercedes for me. So I do not worry if they are passionate enough, or articulate, whether they come as cries or with tears, they are heard because of Jesus. I pray humbly and faithfully as Jesus did.

“Our prayer must be in full, grateful awareness that our access to God, as Father is a free gift won by the costly sacrifice of Jesus the True Son, and then enacted in us by the Holy Spirit who helps us know inwardly that we are his children. To pray in Jesus’ name is not meant to be a magic formula, as if the pronunciation of the words coerce God’s power or mechanically taps into supernatural forces. Jesus’ name is shorthand for his divine person and saving work. To come to the Father in Jesus’ name, not our own, is to come fully cognizant that we are being heard because of the costly grace in which we stand. This is the one principle of prayer that makes it possible to be heard by God even though no one can follow all the other guidelines and ‘rules’ as we should” – Timothy Keller