God has been highlighting so much to me over the last few days. I wasn’t sure what to write about whether it was the fear of the Lord, our hearts turning away from Him, or boasting in our weakness and suffering. Yes, you read that right. Like Paul we can boast about our weakness and suffering. He said in 2 Corinthians 11:30 that if he should boast, he will boast in the things that show his weakness. And Peter tells us it is good when we suffer for Christ.
For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps. 1 Peter 2:19-21.
It makes you look at suffering in a different light, doesn’t it? The Light of the World suffered in this dark world because it was His Father’s will so that we would be saved. This was the greatest miracle, and miracles don’t happen without some form of suffering. Jesus prayed that the cup of suffering be taken away from Him, but it wasn’t the Father’s will. The Father had a plan for eternity. When we are weak, He shows Himself strong. But suffering is not the focus of this article. This week I want to look a little more at prayer.
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will 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 prayer made in this place. 2 Chronicles 7:13-15
So, when we pray we have to have a certain attitude for God to listen to our prayers. We must put away our pride and approach God with humility and repentance and we must also want to seek His face. King Rehoboam of Judah did evil because he did not set his heart on seeking the Lord. (See 2 Chronicles 12:14). We must be ready to seek the Lord, longing to be in His presence to hear from Him. Prayer is not a one-way conversation where we just give our requests and walk away. That would be a bit rude and shows no reverence for the Lord. And He is not pleased with this attitude towards Him. Many times, we do not get what we ask the Lord for because we ask with the wrong motives, and we disobey Him.
You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:2-3
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. Isaiah 59:2
When our heart is wrong, we cannot expect a righteous God to answer our selfish requests that are rooted in sin. Sin separates us from a Holy God. Also, we should not go to God in prayer with doubt in our hearts and minds. We need to believe that He can do what we ask if it is His will. Afterall, He is the God who can do the impossible and there is nothing too hard for Him. So why doubt? I am declaring this to myself here as far too often I am like doubting Thomas and I have to see to believe, when God expects me to walk by faith and not by sight. Abraham believed God and because of his faith he was counted as righteous. And God did the miraculous in Abraham’s life as he continued to step out in faith.
God loves it when His people pray, calling out to Him with a pure heart and in faith. Many people quote Psalm 37:4 a lot, but most times their focus is on God giving them the desires of their heart, and not so much on delighting in Him. However, it is when we delight in Him that He will give us the desires of our heart. And, when we delight in Him, we will do what He desires and as we do this, His desires become our desires and so our prayers will be aligned with His heart.
It is God’s desire that we pray for others and for this reason James tells us to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (See James 5:16). Praying for each other is very important. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, who is considered one of the most effective leaders of these times credited the success of his country to prayer. Within a short time the nation, which had one of the highest murder rates in the world soon had one of the lowest murder rates. He called the war against the gangs an impossible task, so they prayed several times in the security cabinet meeting for wisdom and little civilian casualties. When the war was over, there were no civilian casualties. Great things can happen when people pray. Let me leave you with the prayer from Paul to the Colossians.
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Colossians 1:9-12
Komentarze