Prayer can often times feel like a mystery. Other times, it can feel like direct, tangible, connection with our Creator. We can feel Him near, hear His whisper, and experience His power. Prayer can feel like we're venturing into the mysterious, into the unknown, and that's a reality that is daunting, yet beautiful, because - we are.
Within the adventurous exchange with our Creator, we can experience many things - clarity, power, peace, joy, healing, completeness. We obtain a fuller understanding of who He is each time we enter into a dedicated time of prayer. Each time we go into His presence undistracted, we leave with a more clear glimpse of His character - His humility, gentleness, wisdom, love, and authoritative power. Each time we pause and step away from prayer until our next meeting with our God, we leave a little more whole than the time before. In His presence He sanctifies us. In His presence He makes Himself know to us, and makes us known to ourselves.
The more time we spend in conversation with our Father, the more He shifts our prayers to align with His heart. Our desires become less and less our own, and increasingly more like His. We begin to realize what to pray for, what we do and do not have power over, and what prayers our God desires to answer in our lives and in the lives of others. Prayer ultimately alters our will to align with His, and transforms our character to reflect the reality of our image bearing nature. Each time we pray and are still in worship to our God, He changes our perspectives and aligns our minds with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:6-16).
As Christ followers, it is likely that each of us has seen tangible results of prayer through the power that only comes from the name of Jesus. It's also quite probable that you've noticed that His answers to your prayers, in His name, have only reflected that which has been His will. Any Christian who has spent ample time in prayer has likely come to the realization of the seriousness of asking in the name of Jesus; as, at that point, your ask no longer becomes your own, but is subject to His decision and outworking according to His purposes. One should realize that when closing our prayers in the name of Jesus, we're declaring that it be done for and in His name, as though it should represent Him and associate with Him perfectly. Ultimately, the meaning of this declaration is that we are forfeiting our right to demand or bargain for a certain outcome of our prayers, rather in humble submission, we honor and thank Him for whatever His response is.
With this being said, in a Christian's prayer life, there's often a misconception that if we don't hear God's answer immediately in our spirit or in our circumstances, that He hasn't answered us, or pushes aside our prayers as foolishness. Rather, I'd like to suggest that the opposite is true. Instead feeling as though God hasn't heard your petition or request, it would be wiser to think that God has responded according to His will and now our job is to simply wait and thank Him for His action. Our God always responds... He has been eternally responding, as once He speaks His word never returns void. This means that if His answer is "no", then He's moving in accordance to His future "yes", and if His answer is "yes", then nothing can get in the way of His positive response. Either way, His plan prevails, and as we've seen by the Cross, His response to us is always covenant and His intentions for us are always holy.
The next time we wonder if God has our best interests at heart, may we look from Genesis to Revelation and notice how faithful our God is – so much so, that He bound His future to ours, no matter how many times we tried to sever the cord.
So, what can we do? What can we take away from this simple thought around prayer? A simple thought calls for a simple response –
May we become less greedy in our prayers – less self-indulgent, less self-concerned, and may we communicate with God in ways that reflect His heart and His cause rather than our own. May we start thanking Him for His will in situations, no matter what that may be. May we humble ourselves and stop declaring our opinions and rather start thanking Him for the provision that will come from His ways. May we offer our worship in our prayers, making it the cornerstone of our exchange with Him. May our prayers be God focused, Spirit led, Kingdom purposed, and anchored in the identity and power of Christ... The next time we pray, may we ask ourselves whether or not we're praying in His name, or our own.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Within the adventurous exchange with our Creator, we can experience many things - clarity, power, peace, joy, healing, completeness. We obtain a fuller understanding of who He is each time we enter into a dedicated time of prayer. Each time we go into His presence undistracted, we leave with a more clear glimpse of His character - His humility, gentleness, wisdom, love, and authoritative power. Each time we pause and step away from prayer until our next meeting with our God, we leave a little more whole than the time before. In His presence He sanctifies us. In His presence He makes Himself know to us, and makes us known to ourselves.
The more time we spend in conversation with our Father, the more He shifts our prayers to align with His heart. Our desires become less and less our own, and increasingly more like His. We begin to realize what to pray for, what we do and do not have power over, and what prayers our God desires to answer in our lives and in the lives of others. Prayer ultimately alters our will to align with His, and transforms our character to reflect the reality of our image bearing nature. Each time we pray and are still in worship to our God, He changes our perspectives and aligns our minds with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:6-16).
As Christ followers, it is likely that each of us has seen tangible results of prayer through the power that only comes from the name of Jesus. It's also quite probable that you've noticed that His answers to your prayers, in His name, have only reflected that which has been His will. Any Christian who has spent ample time in prayer has likely come to the realization of the seriousness of asking in the name of Jesus; as, at that point, your ask no longer becomes your own, but is subject to His decision and outworking according to His purposes. One should realize that when closing our prayers in the name of Jesus, we're declaring that it be done for and in His name, as though it should represent Him and associate with Him perfectly. Ultimately, the meaning of this declaration is that we are forfeiting our right to demand or bargain for a certain outcome of our prayers, rather in humble submission, we honor and thank Him for whatever His response is.
With this being said, in a Christian's prayer life, there's often a misconception that if we don't hear God's answer immediately in our spirit or in our circumstances, that He hasn't answered us, or pushes aside our prayers as foolishness. Rather, I'd like to suggest that the opposite is true. Instead feeling as though God hasn't heard your petition or request, it would be wiser to think that God has responded according to His will and now our job is to simply wait and thank Him for His action. Our God always responds... He has been eternally responding, as once He speaks His word never returns void. This means that if His answer is "no", then He's moving in accordance to His future "yes", and if His answer is "yes", then nothing can get in the way of His positive response. Either way, His plan prevails, and as we've seen by the Cross, His response to us is always covenant and His intentions for us are always holy.
The next time we wonder if God has our best interests at heart, may we look from Genesis to Revelation and notice how faithful our God is – so much so, that He bound His future to ours, no matter how many times we tried to sever the cord.
So, what can we do? What can we take away from this simple thought around prayer? A simple thought calls for a simple response –
May we become less greedy in our prayers – less self-indulgent, less self-concerned, and may we communicate with God in ways that reflect His heart and His cause rather than our own. May we start thanking Him for His will in situations, no matter what that may be. May we humble ourselves and stop declaring our opinions and rather start thanking Him for the provision that will come from His ways. May we offer our worship in our prayers, making it the cornerstone of our exchange with Him. May our prayers be God focused, Spirit led, Kingdom purposed, and anchored in the identity and power of Christ... The next time we pray, may we ask ourselves whether or not we're praying in His name, or our own.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.