October
2, 2018
How
often do you pray the same prayer? Your heart
desires… your lost child, friend, or parent to return to the Lord. Or perhaps physical healing for yourself or a
loved one. Or yet provisions to feed
your family and friends.
We
have read so many examples in the first two Gospels of faith healing
people. They have at times gone through
great lengths to find Jesus. Pushed
through crowds. Removed roof tiles. Yelled in the streets. Just to name a few. Luke 11:9-13 are verses that always remind me
to be direct and be persistent in my prayers.
We
see Jesus many times go into the wilderness to be alone and pray. We see Him praying so intently that His sweat
becomes blood and comes out His pores.
And I asked myself as I read these verses if I am willing to bleed for
my prayer requests. I have to admit,
some of the things I have prayed for in the past embarrassed me when I thought
about them under this condition. But am
I willing to push through crowds to find Jesus?
Am I willing to ask someone else to pray for my requests? Am I willing to go out into the wilderness,
alone, to make my request to my God? Are
my knuckles bleeding from my persistent knocking?
As
I looked more into these verses I found there are three things we must do when
we pray to God.
First,
we must humbly ask according to His
will, not our own pleasures. If something we ask for is contrary to God’s
plan, no amount of persistence will force Him to give in. When requesting anything of God, most people
often stop asking when He does not immediately intervene. Human nature is easily discouraged because we
think on a physical plane; but with God all things are possible. We need to be optimistic that God has heard
and will respond in a good and faithful way (1 John 5:14-15).
Second,
we must seek to know our true motives
and God’s will regarding the request. We
seek to find out what we must do to strengthen our faith with works. (1 John 3:22), Do God’s promises include the
blessing we ask for?
Third,
we must knock. We must persevere, be persistent, pressing
the matter until we receive it. We
should faithfully go to God repeatedly, until He responds to our prayers and
grants what we ask of Him – if it is according to His will.
But
what is God’s will? Has He given us a
blank check to ask anything of Him? So
many people misunderstand this, but 1 John 5:14 says, “And if we know He is listening when we make our requests, we can be
sure that He will give us what we ask for.”
Real prayer is communion with God, and what is necessary for
communion? Common thoughts between His
mind and ours.
We need God to fill our minds and hearts with His thoughts. Then His desires will become our desires flowing back to Him in the form of prayer. “And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive in wrong – you want only what will give you pleasure.” James 4:3 If we ask for own pleasures, we are not asking according to His will and, we will not receive.
Jesus
said, “At that time you won’t need to ask
me for anything. The truth is, you can
go directly to the Father and ask Him, and He will grant your request because
you use my name.” John 16:23 But that does not mean we have carte
blanche. To ask God for anything in the
name of Jesus Christ, it must be in keeping with what He is. To ask in Christ’s name is to ask as though Christ
Himself were asking. Therefore, we can
only ask for what Christ Himself would ask.
We obviously need to set aside our own will and accepts God’s. Jesus also says in John 8:29, “And the One who sent me is with me – He has
not deserted me. For I always do things
that are pleasing to Him.” If we do
as Jesus did, we are sure to receive answers as He did. Jesus adds in John 11:41-42, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me…”
We
must come to the realization that prayer is not dictating to God, but a humble
and heartfelt expression of our attitude of dependency and need. Because of this, the one who truly prays is
submissive to God’s will, content with Him supplying His need according to the
dictates of His sovereign pleasure. The
result is this, combined with the infusion of God’s attitudes and thoughts as
we draw near to Him, will work to create us in His image.
Through
my research, I discovered this great article from John Piper on what we should pray
for. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-should-we-pray-for