PRAYER
Job 22:27,28 You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways.
Even though I have been a Christian now for almost sixty years, it still amazes me that God actually hears my prayers and even answers them. I can’t get over that he even knows me by name! Who am I? I am not anything worthy of God knowing me. There are a lot of people that know me, and don’t necessarily want to hang around with me. This is hard for me to understand, but it seems to be the case with some people. Ha! What I am getting at is who am I, or who is anyone that God would honor us with his attention, let alone send his only begotten Son to die for us so we could be forgiven? Then there is that whole aspect that God would call us his Father, and want us to be with him forever having a personal, intimate relationship with him? David even points this whole aspect out himself in Psalm 8:4-6a where he says, “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:.” God is certainly amazing and a mystery to say the very least! But one thing I do know is that he is very real, he does know me and answers my prayers. He answers prayers that I don’t even say out loud. He answers prayers of very little importance, such as helping me find something or remember something. He has answered seemingly impossible prayers that most people, certainly non-believers would even ask. He has answered prayers instantly, and at other times it came about in years. He has answered prayers exactly the way I asked for them, and at other times he just said no. The reason I can say that he said no was after time I was thankful that he didn’t give me what I asked of him. Every day he answers my prayers in ways I can see and ways I can not. An example of this is that I pray every day that he will keep us safe as we drive, keeping us from accidents, having problems or getting tickets. I am confident that he does it every day I ask it. I can’t say that it wouldn't have happened if I didn’t pray, but I do know when my day went as I prayed. I am thoroughly convinced that there is a Almighty God that knows me personally, loves me, cares for me and answers my prayers to him. Can I prove it 100%? No and I can’t prove 100% my life is real, and it is not just a dream either! I can certainly relate to David in that it is all mystery that God should relate to us as he does, but I believe it just the same.
What is prayer anyway? For me it is simply a matter of me talking to God the Heavenly Father, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. I do not believe that God wants us to pray to angels, Christians that have died and went to heaven or even people like the apostles. This is why God doesn’t want us to consult mediums, spiritists or who consult the dead. (Deut 18:9-13) I don’t think that God wants us praying to Mary the earthly mother of Jesus. She is not God, and to think that she has the characteristics of God hearing prayers all over the world at one time, being able to answer them in the best possible way or have the ability to do it is certainly not scripturally sound. We can not put anything or anyone above or equal to God in our lives. If God can not answer our prayer then what makes us think someone else can? Who can we trust more to do what is best for us? Of course the answer is no one! When we have the best, why settle for the least? It doesn’t make sense to me.
How should we pray? Mark 11:22-25 says, “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it , and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Jesus also tells us in John 14:13, that whatever we ask in his name he will do, so it will bring glory to his Heavenly Father. Then in Matthew 18:19 he says that if two of you agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
Before I continue I must warn you of a temptation. It is that as much as you want, you can not use this or any other thing to make a formula or a system to bring about answered prayer. If you do God will not answer your prayers. Satan and the powers of darkness might, but God will not. The reason for this that God want us to totally depend on him and not some other source. Some people use scripture as a hammer lock to make God answer their prayer. We can not make God do anything, and if God doesn’t answer our prayer the way we want we should be glad, because he will always do what is best for us. Sometimes no from God is what is best just as I have said before. The same can be said using Jesus’ name. We can misuse Jesus’ name thinking that the Heavenly Father has to answer our prayer, or getting a dozen prayer chains to agree with us about our prayer! God will never allow himself to be munilipated that way. God is God and he intends to keep it that way!
This is why we must always be humble in our relationship with God! Bringing our prayer to the Heavenly Father is our means of showing our love and trust in Jesus. Having others in agreement helps us to pray correctly as it does with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Once again for me prayer is very simple! It is simply talking to God, and trusting him to do what is best no matter what I ask. I believe that it is not how much faith I have, but rather who I have faith in. This is why I believe that I always have an answer to my prayers. We can never go wrong praying about anything. We can go wrong in expecting God to always answer our prayer the way we want, or not asking at all. James 4:2 tells us that we have not because we ask not. God will always respect our free will. If we become so stubborn not to ask God for help like Asa in II Chron 16:12, well then we shouldn’t be upset when God doesn’t help us!
Prayer: Thank you Lord for answering our prayers. You are a good good Father, yes you are, yes you are. And Holy Spirit you are a good good comforter, yes you are, yes you are. And Jesus you are a good good Savior, yes you are, yes you are. You are a good, good God yes you are, yes you are!
