The Proper Perspective on Prayer - Part II

Luke chapter 18 begins with the statement,

“And he spake a parable unto them to this end,
that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”

Jesus preached prayer, and he practiced prayer.

In Luke 6:12 Jesus spent the entire night in prayer before choosing his twelve disciples. In Matthew 14:23 Jesus departs into a mountain to pray alone. After being baptized by John in the Jordan River, the spirit of God drove him into the wilderness for 40 days of prayer and fasting. We see him in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before the crucifixion praying for God’s will to be done, for the apostles, for the coming church, and even for you and I – those who would believe through the Apostles’ ministry.

Christ was all about prayer.

Men of God were all about prayer.

- Seth prayed in the book of Genesis and men began to call on God.
- Noah prayed and God instructed him to build an Ark
- Abraham prayed and gave him a promise and a people
- Jacob prayed and wrestled with an angel
- Joseph prayed and was elevated to the highest offices of Egypt.
- The Hebrews prayed and God raised up Moses
- Moses prayed and God parted the Red Sea
- The Israelites prayed and God gave them manna from Heaven
- Joshua prayed and the sun stood still for 24 hours
- Samson prayed and renewed his strength
- Deborah prayed and delivered a nation
- Gideon prayed and destroyed the enemy
- David prayed and defeated his giant
- Solomon prayed and found wisdom

And the list goes on and on.

Prayer is one of the most basic fundamentals of Christian living. It is our refuge, our medium for obtaining supernatural power in a natural world. It is our source for boldness to proclaim the gospel, Grace to face the toughest situations, and hope for a promised future. It is our means of communicating with an interested Father.

It is our way of life.

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” – Martin Luther King Jr. –

In part 1, we discussed what prayer is not. In this post we look at what prayer is.

A way to bring your mind and heart in line with God’s

In prayer, we surrender to God, making his priorities our own. While teaching the disciples to pray he noted the importance of submitting our preferences to his will.

“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10)

Prayer does not twist the arm of a disinclined God. Rather, it gives God permission to work in our lives and bring us in line with his thoughts, priorities, and desires.

God has given us free will. He will not force himself, or his desires, into our lives. We can not automatically assume that he will step into our situations and act on our behalf without our expressed invitation.

As David Bernard notes in his book Growing A Church

“Prayer does not change God’s attitude, but it changes our attitude so that we are ready to receive what God has planned for us.

Prayer molds and transforms us so that we are prepared to receive the answers that God wants to give us.”

In short, Bernard concludes, prayer gives us the ability to

1. discern God’s will
2. to do God’s will

Christ himself gave us an example of this when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:41-42)

We can come to God and ask him to move how we want him to, but in the end we must always leave prayer submitted to doing it God’s way.

When we get lost in prayer, truly lost in prayer, it transforms our minds and brings them in line with God’s mind. It brings our hearts in line with God’s heart. It makes God’s priorities our priorities. It makes God’s desires our desires.

Prayer is how we bring our minds, our hearts, our wills, and our priorities in line with God’s

It is also,

A way to die to your old nature so that Christ can be formed in you.

The apostle Paul made the statement.

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,” (Galatians 4:19)

The word formed means “to fashion.”

Prayer is a way for us to die to our old nature of sin so that Christ can be fashioned in our lives. Paul said, “I die daily.”

A daily prayer life will consistently kill the old man so that God can fashion us into the man or woman of God he has purposed for us to be.

Jesus told the disciples, “Pray that ye enter not into temptation.” (Luke 22:40). Every one of us will face temptation, but a consistent and daily prayer life will stop us from giving in to those temptations.

Paul told the Galatians, “This I say, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16)

Prayer has a way of keeping our spirits in subjection to the will of God, allowing us to walk in the Spirit of God and not after the manner of our flesh.

If you find yourself struggling with the desires of the flesh; that is a good indication that your prayer life is in a weak spot right now. Prayer, coupled with fasting, will crucify your flesh. It will bring your flesh under subjection to the spirit of God.

It will kill your fleshly, humanistic desires, and it will birth in you Godly desires.

The Proper Perspective on Prayer - Part I

Whatever your view point on prayer is, we should all agree that prayer is a necessary component in a Christian’s life if they are going to grow in Christ.

Doctrinally speaking…

There are three basic fundamentals to Christian living. As a child of God, you will not grow in God’s grace without these three fundamentals actively working in your life.

Church will give you a measure of growth. Weekly services will give you a measure of growth. However, if your life lacks these three fundamentals, then your growth will be greatly hindered if existent at all.

The first fundamental is the word of God. Without the word of God active in your life, you can not grow beyond the maturity level of a babe in Christ.

The second fundamental is fasting. Fasting is a way for us to crucify our flesh so that the desires and lusts of our flesh will pass away and God’s nature can be revealed in a greater light through us.

The third fundamental is of course, prayer.

But……

Before we discuss what prayer is, let us examine what prayer is not.

Prayer is not twisting God’s arm.

We do not pray to get God to do what we want him to do. It is ok to go to God with supplications and prayer requests, asking God to move in your life, but we do not go to God for the purpose of persuading him to act.

You don’t have to persuade God.

Who is sly enough in negotiating that they can be successful in persuading God? He knows every thought you think. Every word you say before you even say it. He knows the desires, the motivations, and the intentions of your heart.

Persuade – to prevail on someone to do something. To induce to believe, to convince.

Who can convince God of something? He already knows everything! Who can prevail on him and induce him to believe what they want him to believe? No one can.

Paul asked the question, “For do I now persuade men or God?” (Galatians 1:10).

Later, this same apostles declares

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come,

nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Prayer does not give us the ability to persuade and twist God’s arm. Rather, prayer persuades us that God’s promises are yea and amen!

Prayer persuades us that God’s truth is real. It persuades us that God’s spirit is real. Prayer persuades us, and brings us in line with God’s way of thinking.

Not the other way around.

Prayer is not winning brownie points

Prayer is not a mechanical process whereby we earn favors from God. Rather it is a way of communicating with God and maintaining our relationship with him.

You don’t win brownie points by praying. Some people approach praying as a points system. For every hour you pray, you rack up points in heaven. If you pray thirty minutes, you rack up lesser points, but points none the less.

I’ve talked to people who sincerely believe God is obligated to do what they want him to do because they have been faithful in prayer. They act as if their time in prayer has been storing up brownie points for when they need to cash in on a divine favor.

God will always respond to prayer. I believe God will be swift to answer the prayers of a faithful saint. However, praying does not win us brownie points.

This isn’t Chuck-E-Cheese; we don’t win tickets that we can cash in later. Prayer allows us to build a consistent relationship with God; a relationship through which God will move and God will respond. However, prayer does not win us points that we can use to purchase power from God.

Prayer is not working to convince God to do what you want him to do.

I’ve often heard people in the prayer room begging God to move for them. I’ve heard people at the altar begging God to fill them with the Holy Ghost.

I’ve heard people begging God to heal their loved ones, save their children, touch a need, and respond to their voice.

We do not have to beg God.

God is not some obstinate deity sitting on a celestial throne saying, “C’mon, let me hear you beg.”

When we pray we should approach God in faith, believing that he rewards those that diligently seek him.

To beg God for something shows a lack of faith. We are working hard to convince him to do what we want him to do because we don’t believe he will do it without our convincing him.

Another reason people tend to beg God is because their prayer life, and general walk with God, is weak and they feel that God may be upset with them, or that they don’t have the influence they need with God.

So, if you find yourself begging God to move,

stop and evaluate why you are working to convince God to do something. Is it because your walk with God is weak at that time? If so, repent for the lack of faithfulness and believe God is still as willing and able to meet your need as ever.

If you are working to convince God because your faith is low, pray for faith and believe that God will hear you because you prayed.

Prayer is not just communication.

Prayer is not your daily “tag in” with God. It’s fine to talk to God about what has happened during your day, your week, this year, etc.

However, prayer is not where you come to God and give a report of what happened today.

It is so much more than that.

It is the intimate communication between a God and his people. It is the loving conversation between a father and his child.

It is our opportunity to bring God into our lives, and it is God’s opportunity to bring us into his heart.


To be continued…. Part II – What prayer is.