Conversing With The King

Prayer....

What is it? Well, we should begin with what it isn’t. Prayer is not some rambling or chanting repetitious lines in hopes that some god will hear our halfhearted remarks. Prayer is not summoning demon possession as some people think. Prayer is not talking to the walls, prayer is not a time to sleep. Prayer is not, which might surprise some people, a time to just ask God for stuff. Prayer is about bringing God the glory in our lives. It builds up our relationship with Him and is a private demonstration of our brokeness before Him. Yes, sometimes our prayer is corporate, but that does not mean it is less personal. Also just because you have a corporate prayer life, it does not give you excuse to ignore your private prayer life! Instead of praying just for our own needs, we are to praise God with our innermost being, believing EVERY word that we say. Jesus gave us such a profound sample to pray by in the Lord’s prayer.

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

This concept of God being our father amazes me. It so amazing to think that the King loves us rebellious people enough to not only adopt us as His own but also die for us to pay our death sentence to sin.

Hollowed be your name, or God, may your name be exalted. Let’s give God the glory and all our praise. As Hillsong’s “With Everything” says, “With everything we will shout forth Your glory. With everything we will shout forth His praise. Our hearts they cry, be glorified high above all names.” Does this ring true in our life?  Do we praise God with everything we are and have and do? 

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.... Some majorly profound statements are being made here. If we pray this, and truly desire to see God’s will being done it begins in our life. We have to open up ourselves and let God do his will in our life. It may be painful, but sin is so deeply rooted in who we are that God has to pull hard in order to get it out of us. Then after He has begun that work in us, we have to begin serving Him and proclaiming His word and living a life that glorifies Him.  In heaven, God’s will is done completely. The angels obey His every command, even Satan has to obey God’s commands. When God told Satan in Job not to harm Job physically, Satan had to listen. Yet, we humans, made in God’s own image, who blatantly rebelled against the King, committing high treason,  yet God, Himself, had compassion and mercy upon us and humbled Himself to become a human, like us, live here with us, be beaten and abused beyond comprehension and die a death that we could never imagine the extreme weight of it, we were forgiven through His sacrifice if we seek God, and yet so often we still ignore His will and don’t obey. We don’t allow His will to be done in our life. Why? Can we not put ourselves aside each day and just let God take control? Are we scared that we might actually be used to bring Him glory? Or are we scared of what the world thinks about us? Matthew 10:28 says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” This means that we are not to fear the thoughts of man, but rather the thoughts of God. We are not to fear what man does to us, but rather God who holds our eternity. Let’s be like Isaiah and just say, “Lord, Here I am, send me.” Let God use you, just as you are. He will transform you into the man or woman that He desires you to be, if you just seek Him and let Him take control.

The next topic is on trusting God. We know that He will provide. We need to have total trust in Him. This does not mean being stupid and giving up means to provide because God has likely provided that job for you so that you can provide for yourself and your family (if applicable). Trusting God is hard. BUT, it is proof in your faith. Faith requires action to be proved. Whether you are trusting God in finances and tithing, even though money is very limited, whether it be with college and where you will go or what you will do, whether it be with relationships and finding the One that God has for you instead of taking matters into your own hands, you must trust God. He will provide, but you must seek Him  with everything.

We next ask God for forgiveness. This demonstrates our need for forgiveness from God all the time. I heard it said by Randall Creasey that “forgiveness is based upon the willingness of repentance of the transgressor.” God will forgive you as much as you are willing to turn from. If you turn from it all, God will completely forgive you. If you are not, God will forgive you for what you do repent from. Also, we are to forgive in unlimited amounts to people. We have been forgiven of so much by God, let’s forgive others even more. Who are we to judge or condemn them while we are so guilty, even if we think that their sin is worse than ours, it does not justify any of what we have done. We were under the same slavery to sin that they are or were. What makes us any better?

This prayer closes with the statement of keeping us from the evil one. We need to not only ask God to keep us from evil, to keep us from falling, but also to prepare us to fight temptation. We need to be armed with the armor of salvation, prepared to fight off temptation and stand firm for our King and His rule of our life in every area of our life.

Prayer is also seen as crying of to God. Persistence in prayer is so important. God wants us to be persistent in prayer so that we pursue Him so much more. Philippians 4 talks about us presenting our requests to God and not being anxious in these requests, but waiting on God’s timing and praying that His will be done, not our own. We are not to give up after praying one time. God wants to see us pursuing Him by hitting our knees as much as possible. Also, we don’t pray to get stuff from God. We pray to grow closer to Him. So often we treat God like a magic genie, asking Him to grant our every wish. It is like we do not understand that we are the Creation and He is the Creator. He deserves respect. We need to come humbly before our God for He is worthy while we are so unworthy. We do not deserve to be allowed to approach His throne. We have no right to be able to speak to Him or even have a relationship with Him since we have fallen short of His standards, but He has mercy on us and allows it and loves every second that He can spend with us. Let’s spend time on our knees, crying out to the King, seeking that His will be done in our lives, that it not be us, but God living through us. 

When I look at the prayer life of people in the Bible, aside from Christ, I see Elijah, who called out to the Lord in I Kings 18 and God responded mightily. I see men like Daniel, that had were so passionate about prayer that they would rather die than give up their prayer life. Abraham sought God, pleading with God to grant Him a son, and sure enough after years of prayer and even once God promised Abraham a son, Abraham still had to wait, yet God fulfilled His promise! Are we this passionate about prayer? Do we have a firm belief that God can move mightily in our lives if we just allow Him? In comparison to these great men of faith, do we have a prayer life? 

Family, let’s truly learn how to make prayer a core part of our life.

Blessings