The other day I wrote a post about how sometimes when we pray, we feel as if God is not answering, but the truth is we simply need to look more closely for the answers to our prayers in our lives. Today I would like to right about a different kind of question: are we praying for the right thing?
Most of the time, when we pray or seek divine help for our problems, we phrase our prayer as a request for assistance. All of us who pray regularly have, at one time or another, made some kind of a demand in our prayers. We phrase them politely, of course, but something along the lines of "bless me with this and that because of this" has, at one time or another, crossed the lips of almost all of us; some (like myself) with more frequency than others.
Most of the time, when we pray or seek divine help for our problems, we phrase our prayer as a request for assistance. All of us who pray regularly have, at one time or another, made some kind of a demand in our prayers. We phrase them politely, of course, but something along the lines of "bless me with this and that because of this" has, at one time or another, crossed the lips of almost all of us; some (like myself) with more frequency than others.
Now, let me make an important clarification before I move on: it is NOT a bad thing to ask for blessings in our prayers. Indeed, we are encouraged by God to ask for blessings, with faith, and promised that we will receive according to our righteous desires and our faith (John 16:23-24) (James 1:5-6). God WANTS to bless us; every moment of every day he wants us to call on him, to depend on him, to rely on him. The topic on which I would like to share a few of my thoughts today is how to make sure we are praying for the right thing, to make sure we are asking for things that are in harmony with God's will.
The first and one of the most important steps is preparation. Before we begin, before we call on the name of our Father in Heaven, we need to consider exactly what we are going to say to him. Prayer should never be a casual thing, without preparation and without purpose. If we had a meeting with the President of the united states, or a top executive of a company that we would like to work for, or an interview with a professional sports team, do you think we would go in there without thinking the slightest bit about what to say? Of course not. We would spend hours thinking, memorizing, practicing, rehearsing, and doing whatever else was necessary to make sure we were ready for this discussion with this person in a position of power. When we pray, we are preparing to talk to the most powerful being in the universe, through by whom all things were and are made and through whom all things are possible. It always helps me to try think about this, consider my day, and then proceed to pray.
There have been many times in my life where I felt as if my prayers have not been answered. "Bless me with this and this," I've said, and then I've sat back with faith, knowing that I'll receive according to my faith. Unfortunately, that's not exactly how prayer works.
What we think we need and what God knows we need are two entirely separate things. Let me give a small example:
There is a small child who is having a lot of fun playing with his brand-new toy cars. He is driving them up and down, all around, and knows there can't possibly be anything more fun than this. However, his bedtime soon arrives, and his father inform him that it is time for bed. Desperately the child pleads with his father, begging him to give him more time to play, using every excuse he can think of to get more of this thing that the child knows will make him more happy. But the wise father, knowing that the child has school bright and early in the morning and what a miserable day it will be for the child without his sleep, sends him off to bed. The child lays awake for hours, wondering why his father wouldn't grant his earnest request for something that he was so certain would bring him happiness; had he even heard his reasoning? But because the child did not heed the council of his father and did not attempt to reconcile his will with his fathers, he ended up staying awake for a very long time, and the next day he had a miserable day anyway because of a lack of energy caused by lack of sleep.
We, like small children, think we know what we need, what will make us happy, and what will be best for us in the long run. We might pray for an opportunity at a certain company, to be friends with a certain person, to win a certain contest, to be immediately cured of a certain sickness. However, our all-wise, all-knowing, all-loving father in Heaven knows whats best, even if we can't see it in the moment. Prayer then, is not the process of requesting blessings; it is acknowledging God's hand in our lives through gratitude, and then seeking diligently to discover what is God's will for us in our lives. If we listen closely, we will be given the words to say in our prayers, the things that God wants to bless us with in our lives.
The Bible dictionary on prayer says the following: "We pray in Christ’s name when our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ—when His words abide in us (John 15:7). We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in no way represent His mind but spring out of the selfishness of man’s heart."
Have we ever stopped to consider the significance of what we are doing when we say "we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ?" When you do something in the name of someone else, you are doing it in place of them, as if they are the one doing it. An ambassador to another country comes in the name of the country from which he came; an attorney speaks on behalf of his client; a spokesperson speaks in the name of his company. When we close our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, we are testifying before God that the things that we have said in our prayer are in accordance with the mind and will of Jesus Christ, our advocate with the father. If we fail to do the steps I have mentioned and properly align our will with the will of the Father and of the Son, our prayer will be in vain.
I hope you have been able to learn a little bit about how we can recognize the Hand of God in our prayers. It is my solemn testimony to each and every one of you that God does here and answer prayers, and that if we pray with faith, attempting to discover what the will of the Father is and then praying accordingly, our prayers will take on deeper and more significant meaning and we will feel God's hand in our lives, answering each and every one of our prayers. So go, and try and find the Hand of God in your lives as you speak with him today.
The first and one of the most important steps is preparation. Before we begin, before we call on the name of our Father in Heaven, we need to consider exactly what we are going to say to him. Prayer should never be a casual thing, without preparation and without purpose. If we had a meeting with the President of the united states, or a top executive of a company that we would like to work for, or an interview with a professional sports team, do you think we would go in there without thinking the slightest bit about what to say? Of course not. We would spend hours thinking, memorizing, practicing, rehearsing, and doing whatever else was necessary to make sure we were ready for this discussion with this person in a position of power. When we pray, we are preparing to talk to the most powerful being in the universe, through by whom all things were and are made and through whom all things are possible. It always helps me to try think about this, consider my day, and then proceed to pray.
There have been many times in my life where I felt as if my prayers have not been answered. "Bless me with this and this," I've said, and then I've sat back with faith, knowing that I'll receive according to my faith. Unfortunately, that's not exactly how prayer works.
What we think we need and what God knows we need are two entirely separate things. Let me give a small example:
There is a small child who is having a lot of fun playing with his brand-new toy cars. He is driving them up and down, all around, and knows there can't possibly be anything more fun than this. However, his bedtime soon arrives, and his father inform him that it is time for bed. Desperately the child pleads with his father, begging him to give him more time to play, using every excuse he can think of to get more of this thing that the child knows will make him more happy. But the wise father, knowing that the child has school bright and early in the morning and what a miserable day it will be for the child without his sleep, sends him off to bed. The child lays awake for hours, wondering why his father wouldn't grant his earnest request for something that he was so certain would bring him happiness; had he even heard his reasoning? But because the child did not heed the council of his father and did not attempt to reconcile his will with his fathers, he ended up staying awake for a very long time, and the next day he had a miserable day anyway because of a lack of energy caused by lack of sleep.
We, like small children, think we know what we need, what will make us happy, and what will be best for us in the long run. We might pray for an opportunity at a certain company, to be friends with a certain person, to win a certain contest, to be immediately cured of a certain sickness. However, our all-wise, all-knowing, all-loving father in Heaven knows whats best, even if we can't see it in the moment. Prayer then, is not the process of requesting blessings; it is acknowledging God's hand in our lives through gratitude, and then seeking diligently to discover what is God's will for us in our lives. If we listen closely, we will be given the words to say in our prayers, the things that God wants to bless us with in our lives.
The Bible dictionary on prayer says the following: "We pray in Christ’s name when our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ—when His words abide in us (John 15:7). We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in no way represent His mind but spring out of the selfishness of man’s heart."
Have we ever stopped to consider the significance of what we are doing when we say "we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ?" When you do something in the name of someone else, you are doing it in place of them, as if they are the one doing it. An ambassador to another country comes in the name of the country from which he came; an attorney speaks on behalf of his client; a spokesperson speaks in the name of his company. When we close our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, we are testifying before God that the things that we have said in our prayer are in accordance with the mind and will of Jesus Christ, our advocate with the father. If we fail to do the steps I have mentioned and properly align our will with the will of the Father and of the Son, our prayer will be in vain.
I hope you have been able to learn a little bit about how we can recognize the Hand of God in our prayers. It is my solemn testimony to each and every one of you that God does here and answer prayers, and that if we pray with faith, attempting to discover what the will of the Father is and then praying accordingly, our prayers will take on deeper and more significant meaning and we will feel God's hand in our lives, answering each and every one of our prayers. So go, and try and find the Hand of God in your lives as you speak with him today.
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