All tagged praying
I love the Bible verse we will contemplate in Philippians this morning, It leads us into the promise of eternity in a wonderful way. But before we speak of it, we must first remind ourselves to concentrate on seeking Jesus more every day. Coupled with the idea of obedience and the increase in faith it brings, we should strive to live our lives just as verse 12 speaks...
Friday morning started very early like every other morning for me, my days begin with prayer, reading scripture, a devotional, and then with the Holy Spirit moving over me, I write this devotional you are reading now, which I share across the country and around the world. Little did I know that three days later I would be sharing something wonderful with a brother in Christ that I had met a few years ago through a friend who had asked if I would send him my morning devotional messages, someone that to this day I have not met personally. I had no idea that this dear brother would share something with me on Friday, that I would meet an Angel on Saturday, or that the Spirit would ask me to deliver this Angel’s message to my brother today, Sunday morning.
Bumper stickers, and sometimes bumper snickers, we see them everywhere. Some make us think, others make us laugh, occasionally they fill us with introspection, but there are those that disappoint us too. I have heard Pastors comment on them in sermons by warning us not to have Christian bumper stickers on our cars and then lean out the car window shaking our fist (or worse) when someone cuts us off on the interstate. What are we telling the world around us about Jesus, and His impact on our life when we don’t offer them prayer when they are hurting? We are meant to live our faith as Jesus did His, and be representative of it. What are we showing the world through our lives?
Scripture says we should be further transformed in our thinking each day through studying the Word and redirecting our thoughts towards godly pursuits. As we draw closer to Jesus and The Father, we will be able to discern God's will and display to the world the image of Jesus. Our prayers will likewise be transformed, and the less mature or selfish prayers we once prayed will be transformed into prayers of intercession, or to those of deeper spiritual construction.
As we look about ourselves today, what are our distractions from faith, and what are those things that bless us as we seek out the Lord? When we begin our prayers this morning what will we thank God for, and what will we ask Him to help us overcome? Sometimes we find that it is the little things in our lives that bless us most... but it is also the little things that can trip us up in our faith.
When God is working in another’s life do we find ourselves getting in His way? Are we one of those people that are referred to as a “fixer”, but who lets themselves get out of control on a regular basis? Do we find that in an attempt to repair a situation we can come between God and the miracle He is about to perform? Do we let our own will and intellect overreach its bounds? Well if so, get ready to be corrected... and to possibly hurt the lives of others.
We frequently say that all things are possible, but do we really believe it? If we hear someone praying an outlandish ask of God do we believe that He is able, or willing, to give it to them? Well, all things ARE possible, but quite often we throttle our prayers by only praying for those things that we know are possible in the physical world. I have been guilty of this before; how about you? Let’s think back on our prayers today and count the times we have asked the Lord to give us something we thought was impossible in the world. Can we think of even one time when we truly stretched our faith in prayer?
When we pray to God, do we ask of Him in the name of Jesus? So many of us think that this simply means that we are to say the words “In the name of Jesus I pray.” as we conclude our prayers, but it is much more than that… it is praying as if we were Jesus Himself. Do we pray in this way? Do we pray as heirs and joint heirs, with the full righteousness of Christ, and ask only for those things that conform to the will of our Father? Jesus was not born to be a symbolic of God on earth, but to speak with the full authority of His Father… do we pray with the full authority of Jesus Christ when we pray in His name, and what does that mean?
When we are in need of something miraculous to occur, or we want something that is so far above us that we believe it is just too great, or much, to ask for, do we temper our prayers, and ask God for what we believe is actually doable? Do we ask God for a lesser thing because we think it is possible for Him, and that He might be capable of providing it? Perhaps we believe we are unworthy, or that our true desire is presumptuous in nature, and so we weigh our prayer requests against who we think He is, and how much we believe He loves us, but this is only an indication of our lesser faith, and not how God wants us to come to Him, or ask of Him.
We ask very little of God, and yet He has so much more that He wants to give us. We ask in prayer, and yet we only ask for a sip from His cup, when He actually wants us to drink our fill, cup after cup of His boundless blessings, the blood of Christ, and from the endless flow of His living water. Do we think that if we ask too much it might be presumptuous, or that we might exceed His grace? Do we fear that we will strain His mercy, or ask for something that is beyond His ability to give? No my brothers and sisters, our God can satisfy our every need, and will keep asking us if we want more. The name of Jesus is like the master key that opens up every storehouses of our Lord’s provision, and treasure to us.
When was the last time we prayed for something and it did not happen? We asked the Lord if this was His will, and then we simply stopped praying when our prayer was met with silence. Sometimes we need to be more like Elijah when he asked for the rain to come again. When we tell this story it is easy to tell it like James did, by overlooking the fervency and frequency of Elijah’s prayer, and that he sent his servant to look towards the sea seven separate times. The first six times… “nothing”, and then on the seventh, a small cloud the size of a man’s hand. How will our story of prayer be told… will it be said that we went once and “nothing”, or, that on the seventh time it rained? What is our nature when we pray?
In our prayers today, are we asking God to do something for us? Are we asking Him to heal someone, to take care of a personal situation in our family, provide us with a better job, for more money, or any one of a million other daily needs? Well if these are righteous requests that are within God’s will, and we ask Him in the name of Jesus, He will act upon them. The question becomes this… are we committed to our belief in Him when He says He will do these things for us, do we trust Him enough to put whatever it is in His hands, and only do what He asks us to do? Are we within His will in what we have asked? Are we praying as Jesus?
Do we subconsciously limit our prayers to fellow believers, and our church, then occasionally branch out to include others like our countrymen, and those of the world? We might not do this consciously, but if we actually account for our time spent in prayer it would most likely surprise us. We take a prayer list from church and diligently work our way through it, and fervently pray for those who are closest to us, but in doing this are we leaving out the sick, wounded, and the dying, who are the lost souls in a world of sin?
When we pray we should simply say what we mean, and mean what we say. Unlike a writer who might get paid according to the number of words he writes, or their timeliness, God gives us no additional credit for the number of words we pray each day, nor for the number of minutes spent in prayer. Gods wants to hear what we have to say, and for us to say it sincerely, and directly. There is no benefit to chanting, or repeating ourselves; when it comes to prayer, a one minute prayer from the heart carries with it more strength than a one hour prayer recited because we have read, or been told, that we should spend more time praying. Sitting silently listening to, or for, God carries much more weight if we do so from our heart.
When we pray and do not receive it can be because we are meant to wait, but many times it is because our motives are not right, and we are not praying for those things that are in accordance with the will of God. When we are preparing to ask Him for something have we examined our own desires, and insured that we are not asking out of our selfish earthly vanities, or wants? Are we asking as we should for something meant to glorify God? Are we praying rightly?