I hadn’t planned on thinking about or talking about prayer but I keep getting this verse stuck in my head!
James 5v16 “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man / woman avails much” or “The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with” or “The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous believer can accomplish much (when put into action and made effective by God - it is dynamic and can have tremendous power)”.
What is prayer? My children hear me pray with them and my 5 yr old asks me to pray before I leave him for the night. It somehow reassures him and gives a peace before bedtime. I tell him he can pray too but he usually asks me to do it, sometimes saying that he doesn't know how to. So I tell him just to talk out his thoughts to God and God will hear him; I say God already knows his thoughts and his heart, but that being our heavenly father, He really likes to hear from us ... so we should talk to Him.
I appreciate that in different settings there may be a more formal presentation of prayer or a more specific agenda / purpose, but I would like to think that the heart of the person praying stays the same no matter the environment they find themselves in. At the end of the day, we are praying to God, not to an audience ... we may be leading an audience in prayer with us, and therefore we are considering them, but we are still praying to God.
So prayer is communication.
Isn't that how it started right at the beginning of time? God coming to the garden of Eden, walking and communing with Adam and Eve ... fellowship; relationship; individual attention and care, in harmony with the laws of nature and surrounded by perfect creation. God chose to do that.
So communicating with God isn't something which is forced on us or laborious, it is much rather, a natural and most pleasant way to spend time ... chatting with the creator of the universe who is waiting to hear from us! How stupendous is that?!
I understand and fully acknowledge that within the Bible there are many 'types' of prayer, including the Lords prayer. Often prayer can be focus driven for a specific reason, for example, a call to pray for our nation during a pandemic. We can have scheduled prayer meetings for those who are sick, a call for healing. A thanksgiving service where our prayers are full of grateful expressions of heartfelt appreciation to God. Worship / adoration ... this is prayer in praise form, acknowledging the majesty and awesome presence of our God. Intersession ... beseeching God on behalf of someone else or a cause. Confession ... a prayer of contrition, owning up to sin and asking for God's mercy and forgiveness. Petition ... making specific requests of God, asking for something.
There may be times when our prayers are very short and to the point. Think of Peter as he began to sink after he had walked on the water; he cried out "Lord save me" (Matt 14v30). How often have we expressed similar cries, I know I have. I may not be about to drown (although I can recall that happening once!) ... for me now it is more often "Lord give me patience" or "Lord give me strength to get through this evening without shouting"!; "Lord help me"; "Lord give me wisdom and peace"; "Lord help me be firm but fair, I need courage but compassion". There are lots of 'me' in those prayers and that's ok but it's somewhat imbalanced if they're the only prayers I'm taking the time to make. A relationship based on one side doing all the asking and taking isn't wholesome and won't develop into anything deeper than a shallow existence. On the flip side, I do often express gratitude in short bursts too ... car journeys are great for this and can be done with the kids too ... what can we see to thank God for? Trees, fields, the sky, the sun, the rain, animals, muddy puddles ... you name it!
At other times we may pray for longer, taking the time to think of all those we love, praying for them in detail; praying for our nation; our planet; those suffering; places of war; for refugees; for those in authority. We may thank God for peace in our land; for daily provision; for friends; for our homes and such like. We may even acknowledge God's greatness and share some wonder of His creation that we've enjoyed.
I do find though, that the one aspect to prayer which I fall short of so often, is really appreciating to whom I'm talking. It is amazing to me that God wants to hear from me, that He wants a relationship with me to the extent that I can approach Him as Father and chat away without Him getting cross at me or dismissing me. However, by somewhat limiting my prayer expertise to constant chatter, I diminish what I feel is an opportunity to truly learn and appreciate in a greater way, who God is ... His character; His desire to bless; His Sovereignty; His justice; His heart. After all, what better way to get to know someone, than to spend time with them, truly spend time with them ... both chatting but also just being. Being in someone else's presence will eventually lead to you knowing them intimately. We can't do this from a distance. So by inference, to get to know God, we need to spend time with Him. I need to do that a lot more.
I'm skimming over so much that has great depth to it, but I'm merely expressing thoughts as I skedaddle through to reach where I started, with the verse above.
More often than not, we pray with a hoped for outcome in mind. It may be that we pray for health, for protection on a journey, for a friend who is going in for surgery, for someone to come to faith ... there are so many things we pray for and would like to have the answer that we wish for. I am mindful though, that for us to reach this point of expectation ... to actually know that we have the power to effect an outcome; this power in prayer; we need to be fulfil and be certain things:
- righteous or right living
- have a true perspective of who God is
- fervent
- persistant
- heartfelt
The result ... power! A dynamic and tremendous power to be reckoned with. A power which avails much. It makes me shake my head because I know so little of it and yet it is at my disposal. Look at the example given in the passage, referring back to Elijah who prayed that it wouldn't rain ... and it didn't! It's really quite funny and also truly amazing. He prayed that prayer for a reason (not just because he was fed up with the rain), and since it was in keeping with God's mind and character, Elijah got his answer. His motive was right, his request was suited to the situation and he believed in his God to answer it.
I find myself so half-hearted in prayer requests even if I do believe that what I'm asking for, is in keeping with what God has laid on my heart. My motive may be right and good; the cause may be true and necessary; I may really, really want it with the ultimate goal of bringing glory to God ... yet, I often lack the faith to believe that God will answer. I know He could and I know that nothing is impossible with God and yet I still fall short of grasping for myself this dynamic power ... laying myself down before God, fervently, persistently beseeching Him in a heartfelt way for something. It's so easy to give up and move on when a prayer isn't answered to our timescale, or the answer isn't what we may have wanted. Yet there are many examples in the Bible where individuals didn't give up but persisted in prayer and were not only heard but answered according to their petition. It's like striving for something; a race; a battle; a journey ... you don't get the prize; the outcome; the medal; the solution, at the first hurdle ... you keep going; you get back up; you re-focus; you bring in others to support you, but you persist. Only in rigorous endeavour and persistent commitment does your hope become reality.
The end result is worth it. No matter what that 'end' or answer is, it will be worth it because it is of God and He, being God, is in the detail ... He cares and has the long term view, the bigger picture in mind, so will do what is best for you and your situation, of that you can be sure. Let us make our prayers something to be reckoned with so that the dynamic power of God in them produces wonderful results!
Don't give up in or on prayer. Check in on yourself, maybe re-assess and reflect, then keep going. Pete Greig (founder of 24-7 prayer international) simply said this about prayer "keep it simple, keep it real, keep it up". Remember too that "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1John 4v4) ... we have an almighty and powerful God who is on our side and wants to bless, encourage and answer our prayers. Let us grow in our faith and desire to reflect His will in our prayers and therefore live out that power for His ultimate glory.
Here are two more quotes that I love in reference to prayer:
"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tyre?" (Corrie Ten Boom)
"In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart." (John Bunyan)
I sort of feel like I should end these rambling thoughts with a prayer. Rather than type anything out, I'll simply encourage you to listen to the words of this song which to me, are a lovely prayer.
Speak O Lord ~ Keith & Kristyn Getty
https://youtube.com/watch?v=qNCHZrwlo9c&feature=share
God bless
Ingrid x
No comments:
Post a Comment