10/09/2024
Trust and obey... What a message regarding prayer! We have noticed certain themes throughout our study of praying... trust, obedience, compassion, persistence, and consecration, among them. We learned that these are the tools of prayer. Then, as we exercised them in praying, we witnessed divinity, and received its products which are a flourishing of faith, holiness, righteousness, relationship, power, wisdom, understanding but most of all... a dispensations of grace and mercy; all of which culminate in our salvation, and an eternal existence with God. We have found that as we were taught to use these tools in our prayers we received the Lord’s peace, and the other products of His divine nature.
“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Philippians 4:9 ESV
Through these divine conversations, that we call prayer, we allow God to hear our acknowledgement of his glory and existence, and He in turn communicates His love and desire for us. Then, on bended knee, we build a relationship with Him that culminates in our becoming heirs and joint heirs with Christ, and a child of God Himself.
“And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Galatians 4:7 ESV
As we heard in John 14:20 “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” What a wonderful ending to our story of prayer! The final sentence which reads… "And they lived happily ever after" which every child longs to read on the last page of their book. This is the assurance that the story continues on, that love triumphs over all, and that we can be at ease, and at peace, in life.
“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
John 14:20 ESV
So, in our prayer closets we take all of these things we have learned about prayer and praying, and use them as we have been instructed. Humbled before the Lord we find that His strength is being applied daily to our lives, and that even in the softest whisper of His promises there is hope, and that each will be fulfilled mightily as we call out in prayer. We thank our Father for hearing us, and answering us, then we give Him the glory in all things, from the smallest provision to the greatest and most awesome of miracles. In this, our life of prayer, we come to discover that the greatest miracle of all is prayer itself. It is being in the presence of God.
Prayer:
Father thank you for your faithfulness, thank you for standing by us in all of our frailties and faults; thank you for your forgiveness, your grace, and your mercy. Most of all Father, thank you for meeting us in our prayer closets or our secret places, where we express our love for you and hear your voice. Thank you Abba for talking with us in every way… through a whisper, a shout, and even the silence we sit confidently in. Help us to reach out to you as we should, by using all of the tools of conversation you have taught us. Help us to be patient as we await your answer, and at peace as we rest, and silently wait on you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who walks with us, and talks with us throughout our days. Holy are you who shares yourself with us. You gave us your son who showed us how to pray, and then redeemed us through its use, even as He continues to intercede for us now. You are our God who has sent your Holy Spirit to be with us as we pray, and to pray for us when we have no words to express our soul’s needs and desires. You are our God who fulfills every promise, and gives life to our faith, and our prayers. This is indeed the day that you have made, and we will pray to you, love you, and rejoice in it. Praised be your name Father, for every moment you spend with us in our places of prayer, in our prayer chairs, and within the hushed whispers of our every breath. In prayer we thank you, and give you all the glory for all you do for us, every promise fulfilled, and every mercy shown us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you the God of prayer, and the embodiment of all goodness, hope, and blessing we find there. In praying, as your children, we know that we will live happily ever after, and we express this with all confidence in every Amen we utter.
Amen.
“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.”
2 Chronicles 7:14-16 ESV
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV
Rich Forbes