Prayer

So as I have expressed in the past, the Lord has been working on me in the area of prayer. And I wanted to share some things that He has put on my heart.

For me, it started with 1 Samuel 12:23 "As for me, far be if from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right." Okay...kind of strange I thought given that Samuel is admonishing Israel to turn back to the Lord. In the middle of him telling them to serve Him and stop going after "useless idols"...in the midst of Samuel exhorting them to take courage in God Almighty, he says this bit about himself not sinning against the Lord by failing to pray for the people. I thought, "Wow, God you really do take this prayer thing seriously." But why?

So I began to allow the Lord to speak. Psalm 51:6 says "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place." And Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path." The Lord wanted to put a truth in my heart to teach me wisdom. He was going to give me His word to direct my feet along His path for my life. And it led me to Deuteronomy 4:7 "What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?"

The purpose of prayer is INTIMACY. God demonstrates cover to cover in the bible how much he desperately longs to have a deep and meaningful relationship with His creation. Prayer is the means by which He does it. Prayer is the two-way street of communication with the Holy God we serve.

So then God showed me in Genesis 30, verses 1 and 22 the answer to prayer for Rachel. Rachel in verse 1 doesn't even cry out to the Lord directly, but complains to her husband that she will "die" if she doesn't have a child. She even goes as far as to take matters into her own hands and gives her handmaiden to her husband in order to have some form of lineage through the servant girl. But in verse 22 it says that God remembered Rachel, he LISTENED to her and opened her womb. GOD LISTENED to her. He heard her heart's cry regardless of where she directed it.

Then God showed me in Exodus 2:23-25 "During that long period, the kind of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God HEARD their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and WAS CONCERNED about them." (emphasis mine) So not only does God listen to our prayers, God CARES!!!

Then turning over to Matthew chapter 20:30-34, we have Jesus' encounter with two blind men. They shout out to him despite the crowd trying to subdue them and they persist. Jesus in verse 32 stops and calls to them. They make their plea and in verse 34 it says, "Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him."
So God listens, God cares, and GOD RESPONDS!!! Now, granted, he doesn't always respond with a yes to our prayers. Sometimes, like with Paul or Jesus even, our Father says no. But I don't want you to miss that GOD RESPONDS!!

And all this because God is about relationship. He is about INTIMATE relationships! Our communication with the Lord is about enhancing the intimacy in the relationship we share with our Father through Jesus Christ. Within the realm of relationship, exciting things happen!!! That is because the POWER experienced by prayer is CHANGE!!!

Let's look at the things that CHANGE because of prayer.

First, our thoughts and emotions change because of prayer. Philippians 4:6-7 is noted usually in response to worry or being anxious. It says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understqanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Let's pull out two commands here. One is a negative - DO NOT be anxious. The other positive - DO PRAY and PETITION. Why? Because God needs to know what we want? NO! Because God wants to grow closer to us and give us peace that guards our hearts and minds. We gain peace by trust. Prayer is a sign of our trust in the Lord to be who He says He is.

Next, let's look at how prayer changes our PRIORITIES. Psalm 5:3 says "In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." Psalm 63:6 says "On my bed, I remember you, I think of you through the watches of the night." And there are so many other Psalms that talk about prayer throughout the day. The bible commands us to pray without ceasing. By obeying the word, we experience the power of CHANGED PRIORITIES. Where perhaps other things used to take precedence, an intimate relationship is built by making the Lord our 1 morning and night and everything in between!
With changed thoughts and emotions and changed priorities comes CHANGED BEHAVIOR. Our attitude is changed, Philippians 2:5-8, into the likeness of Christ and we begin to model just as Christ modeled for us, humility to the point of death, even death on a cross. The psalms also talk about our speech, (Psalm 49:3, Psalm 35:28) and how that changes. Ultimately, out of an intimate, love relationship, we obey the Lord. Just as Jesus said in John 14, "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

I love the entire chapter of John 17.

Jesus Prays for Himself

1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

6"I have revealed you[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify[b] them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Here I find the PROMISE of prayer.

In verses 19 and 25-26 we see the promise of SANCTIFICATION because of our relationship with Jesus Christ. That sanctification is for believers who have an established relationship with our Father through Jesus Christ. But when the PURPOSE of prayer is sought - INTIMACY, and the POWER of prayer is experienced - CHANGE, then the PROMISE becomes a reality - SANCTIFICATION. We become more like Christ because he is in us and we are in Him.

In summary, Matthew 6:5-8 says

5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'

We cannot expect to understand the purpose of prayer if we are superficial (praying aloud like the hypocrits on the street corners). We CAN expect to have God respond and reward when we are intent on meeting with Him and Him alone (what is done in secret). And when we pray, we are to 1) Acknowledge who God is (Mt 6:9) 2) Submit ourselves to His will (Mt 6:10) 3) Trust in His response and 4) Follow His lead. God LISTENS, God CARES, God RESPONDS because He longs for us to have an intimate relationship with Him that CHANGES who we are and in the end, it brings Him glory, of which He is well deserving!

I hope this will encourage you not just to pray, to experience prayer on a whole new level. To understand it is more than just doing away with worry or avoiding sin by NOT praying. I hope you will engage in prayer because it is the lifeline by which you experience the relationship you have with your eternal Father. And may prayer take on a whole new depth! After all, "What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?" Deuteronomy 4:7

Blessings to each of you - Shannon