Category Archives: On Prayer

Fragrant Prayer

26 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Discipleship, On Prayer

≈ Leave a comment

Temple_BurningIncense

“May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:2 

When we begin to cultivate a prayer life, one of our first concerns is how we should pray, and what we should pray for. We want to pray in the right way; we want to pray correctly! And this is very important. The way we learn to pray the “right way” is to use the Bible as our prayer guide. How did Jesus pray? How did He teach us to pray? What examples do we see in scripture to help us to know how to pray? How did Paul the Apostle pray? What do the Psalms teach us about prayer? The Bible should be our guide as to how we should approach God in prayer, what we should pray for,  and the Holy Spirit will also guide us and enable us to pray.  Most important of all, we need to actually spend time praying! Like anything else in life, we learn how to do it by doing it!

But as we grow in the practice of prayer our focus will shift from praying correctly to praying in a way that brings pleasure to God. Prayer becomes a spiritual romance! As we spend time in God’s presence, He will reveal Himself to us, and transform our desires! 

In the Tanakh, (Old Testament) the incense offered in the temple represents the prayers of the saints. The same is true in the book of Revelation (Rev. 5:8). Why incense? Because incense rises and gives pleasure to those who inhale it.

It brings great pleasure to God when we come to Him in prayer! We are a “fragrance of Christ to God” (2 Cor. 2:15). Yet there are things that hinder our prayer lives. The most obvious is sin. If we want to walk with God, we must be in agreement with Him. If we have sin in our lives, we must confess and forsake it. Other distractions include feeling inadequate, unworthy, and wandering thoughts. Let me encourage you to work through these things! The truth is that “…we are a fragrance of Christ to God…” and the Father loves it when we come to Him! He welcomes us into His presence! Persevere, and linger in His presence!

 

The Food of Christ

23 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in On Prayer

≈ Leave a comment

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.”

John 4:34 

One day when Jesus’ disciples were urging Him to eat something, He responded by telling them about His food. It was a spiritual food, and He was inviting His disciples to partake of it.

The word that stands out to me in Jesus’ statement is, accomplish. Jesus’ food was not just resisting temptation; it was not just doing kind things for others. His food was accomplishing, finishing the work that the Father had given Him to do. And in order to accomplish something, you have to have a goal and a plan.

How can we know what the Father wants us to accomplish? We get a glimpse of how Jesus did it in Mark 1:35-39. He arose early in the morning and went to an isolated place to pray. Peter went looking for Him, and when he found Jesus, he told Peter, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” It appears that Jesus got His direction from the Father during His time of solitary prayer.

We’re designed to accomplish things. Think of the satisfaction you get when you accomplish a difficult task. The longer the task takes, the more difficult it is, the more satisfaction you receive when you accomplish it. Conversely, our lives are miserable when we drift along without any goals or sense of purpose.

Here are five things that can help us to know what the Father wants us to accomplish:

  1. We must be willing to do what He shows us, and be willing to persevere until He shows us. We must also believe that He wants us to know His will. If we are struggling with being willing, He can help us with that. But we must at least desire to desire to do His will.
  2. God’s desire for us is already embedded in us. By that I mean that there are things that we are attracted to; there are spiritual gifts and natural abilities that God has given us that can give us a clue as to what God’s purpose for our lives are. What activities are you drawn to?
  3. There is a preparation period involved. Jesus did not begin His public ministry until He was about 30yrs old. Moses spent years in the wilderness before the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and commissioned him. Joseph spent years in prison before God raised him up and fulfilled the prophetic dream the Lord had given Him. I am not saying that we cannot serve the Lord now, only that it may take some time before we have a clear understanding of what God wants us to accomplish.   
  4. We must daily abide in His word, the Bible. God uses His word to shape us, change us, give us faith, cleanse us, and speak to us. It is impossible to have an active prayer life and close relationship with Jesus apart from reading and meditating upon His word.
  5. You cannot do this alone. No matter where we are spiritually, we need mentoring, and the counsel of others in order to grow spiritually. God has just designed things this way. I am not just talking about attending church either. I am talking about doing ministry together as disciples of Jesus. The Lord’s plan is to build our lives together into a holy temple in the Lord (Eph. 2:19-22).

Once we start to get an understanding of what God wants us to do, then we can begin to set goals and make plans to accomplish that work. We go from wishing and dreaming to doing and accomplishing! We can also begin to streamline our activities by pulling away from things that do not fit into His plan for us.

May the Lord increase our appetite for His food!

Why is it so hard to develop a prayer life?

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in On Prayer

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

prayer-with-another

If you were to ask most Christians about the health of their prayer life, you would probably hear something like, “I know I should pray more” or “I don’t pray as much as I would like to”, or “I have tried to have a prayer life, but my mind always wanders”, or something to that effect.

Even Christians who attend church regularly, read their Bibles, and share their faith openly sometimes have real difficulty cultivating a healthy prayer life. By “healthy prayer life” I mean having a time set aside each day to talk to the Lord and to hear from Him. I am not talking about “saying a prayer”. I mean really communicating with God; pouring out our heart to Him; having a conversation with your heavenly Father; letting your requests be made known to Him, worshiping Him, and contemplating Him.

We know from the gospels that Jesus got up early in the morning to go somewhere secluded to pray (Mark 1:35). He would often slip away from the crowd to pray (Mark 6:46). King David rose up early to pray (Psalm. 5:3). I could list many other examples of, reasons for, and commandments to, pray. And I believe God has put within all believers a desire to pray. So why is this so difficult for us?

I have struggled with all of the above problems as much as anyone. And what I would like to share are some things that I have learned over the years in seeking to know God more intimately through prayer. I hope these will encourage you in your prayer life!

#1 We have to make a firm commitment to have a prayer life. 

When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, he found that Israel had reverted to idolatry by worshiping a golden calf. He broke the tablets with the ten commandments inscribed on them (Ex. 32). When God called Moses to return to the mountain, he told him the day before to prepare himself, climb the mountain, and present himself there to God (Ex. 34).  There are two very important points we can learn from this account:

1. Moses had to make up his mind the day before to go up to meet with God on the mountain. We too must resolve the day before to get up and meet God in prayer. We can’t wait until morning to decide; it’s just too easy to back out. It’s true we could resolve to have a prayer time in the evening. If this works for you–that’s fine. But I think the examples we have in scripture clearly point to having a prayer time in the morning. It sets the course of our day and gives God the best part–the first fruits–of our day.

2. Going up on the mountain to meet with God is a recurring theme in Scripture. Abraham climbed mount Moriah to offer Isaac (Gen. 22:2); Moses went up Mt. Sinai to meet with God (Ex. 19:3), to hear from God (Ex. ch. 19 & 20); Jesus went up on a mountain to pray (Mt. 14:23), to choose His Apostles (Mark 3:13-19). Jesus gave the greatest sermon ever recorded at the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. ch. 5-7). Jesus revealed Himself to three of his disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:1-9); He met His disciples after His resurrection on a mountain and gave them “the Great Commission” (Matt. 28:16-20). These are just a few examples. Why did these events take place upon a mountain? What is God trying to tell us?

It takes effort climb a mountain. And we don’t normally spend time and effort for things that we don’t value. I think God is telling us that we must value spending time with Him in prayer enough to make the effort required to do it.

I am not suggesting that we earn our way into God’s presence, or that we come to Him based on our own merits. We have access to God the Father only through the unmerited favor given to us through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. We have “confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). But as anyone who has tried to have a regular prayer time knows, it does take effort and determination.

#2 God has already equipped us to have a healthy prayer life.

If you have been born of the Spirit–repented of your sins and put your faith in Christ as your Lord and Saviour–you have been given all that you need to have a healthy prayer life. The Spirit of Christ dwells within the believer and can enable us to pray. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church, “…the Spirit helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words…” (Rom. 8:26). Sometimes the trouble we have is that we try to have a prayer life through our own efforts. We must realize that we are unable by our own strength to have a healthy prayer life, but that God has provided His Spirit to enable us to pray, and that it is God’s desire that we get to know Him through prayer. So we put our trust in His enabling us to pray, not in our ability to pray.

#3 Find a secluded spot to pray.

The only thing I have found that works in our house is for me to get up before anyone else does, so that I can devote my attention to prayer without distractions. I also think it helps to pray audibly. Speaking my prayers helps to keep my mind from wandering.  I whisper my prayers because I don’t want someone else in the next room to hear my prayers. Sometimes the things I want to pray about are intimate; things I want to share with God alone.

#4 Start with the Bible.

I like to start by reading a Psalm or praying the Lord’s prayer (Matt. 6:7-13). Praying the Lord’s prayer helps my faith and gives me direction in prayer. It helps me to realize that God wants me to spend time with Him in prayer, and that He is really listening. Some christians object to praying wrote prayers and believe that all prayer must be spontaneous in order to be authentic, “from the heart”. I don’t think this is necessarily true. There are many wonderful prayers in the Psalms, in the English Book of Common Prayer, and recorded for us down through the church’s history. Many of these prayers are well thought out and rich in content. As with anything we do in service to the Lord, we need to be on guard against the danger of doing it as a meaningless ritual. In teaching His disciples to pray, Jesus warned against “meaningless repetition”. On the other side of that coin, it is important to communicate to God what is really on our heart, and not just say to God what we think He wants to hear. What I have written in this section may seem like a contradiction, but it is not. We learn how to pray from Scripture. Prayers in Scripture can give us direction, and we can pray those prayers if we agree with their content and if what they say reflects what we want to communicate to God. If we pray wrote prayers because we have been told to do so, or we think that is how we are supposed to pray, but would really like to talk to God about something else, then we may veering off course from meaningful prayer into “meaningless repetition”.

#5 Confess sin.

The prophet Isaiah wrote: “Behold the Lord’s hand is not so short that He cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that He cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you.” (Is. 59:1-2). It’s very important that we open our hearts to let the Holy Spirit reveal to us any unconfessed sin, resentment, unforgiveness, or jealousy we might have in our hearts. If we are willingly, habitually sinning, this will prevent us from having real fellowship with God. However, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). And if we are struggling with sin, we should still come to God in our prayer time to confess it, and let God deal with it in our lives. In other words, don’t let failure in your walk with the Lord keep you from having your prayer time. We all fail at times.

#6 Help against distracting thoughts.

I think we all are plagued with distracting thoughts when we try to pray–anxious thoughts, things we have to do that day. I heard a tip that I have found very helpful. When I am praying and start to think of things that I have to do on that day, rather than be worried that I may forget these things, I just jot them down and then forget about them until the end of my prayer time. I actually use what Satan wants to distract me with to my own advantage. In the end, I have a “to do” list, and I am not distracted from prayer.

#7 Pray with confidence according to God’s will.

Cultivating a prayer life is a learning process. The Bible tells us to pray according to God’s will. But how can we know God’s will? We learn God’s will through His word, the Bible, and by the direction of the Holy Spirit. It’s very important that we spend time reading and studying God’s word as we spend time in prayer. And as you read the Bible, notice how people in the Bible pray. Notice how and for what the Apostle Paul prays for. When we can discern God’s will, we can pray with confidence. Most of the time that I have lacked confidence in prayer was when I just wasn’t sure that what I was asking God to do was really God’s will in a given situation. There are times when we don’t know what the will of God is. If you study the apostle Paul’s intercessory prayers, you will find that they were not that specific. I have heard people pray for others and they were so specific about what they were asking God to do that it seemed more like they were directing God in what to do rather than making requests from our omniscient Father. God doesn’t need our direction. He invites us to pray to Him and participate in what He wants to do in the lives of others. And if we are students of the word, we can have a much better idea what the mind of God is, and pray in a way that is pleasing to Him.

#8 Be steadfast in prayer

“Devote yourselves to prayer…” (Col. 4:2). We learn how to pray by praying. There are all kinds of books out there to read about prayer, but the best way to learn how to pray is to pray. Set aside a certain amount of time each day for prayer and Bible reading. Start small, but stick to it,  and I think you will soon find yourself wanting more time to pray.

May God bless you and keep you as you meet with Him!

Mark

Ask rain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain… Zechariah 10:1a

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in On Prayer

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

In its context, the prophet Zechariah in this passage is exhorting the people of Judah to turn from their idolatrous practice of attributing the blessing of rain to the false god Baal, and return to asking the Lord (YHWH), the true giver of rain, to give them the rain they needed for their sustenance.

What strikes me about this passage is that the prophet Zechariah is exhorting the people of Judah to ask God for something that they would probably be getting anyway: rain in the time of the spring rain.
Have you ever thought something like, “Why do I need to ask God for this? Doesn’t He know my needs? Doesn’t He already know my wishes and desires? Doesn’t He want to bless me? Why do I need to go through the process of asking Him for things He already knows that I want, and things which He probably already wants to give me?” Why ask God for rain when He is going to give the rain anyway? Why does God want us to pray to Him?

I believe there are at least three reasons why God wants us to spend time with Him in prayer, and ask Him for things He already knows about. The reasons can be categorized under the headings of Transformation, Fragrance, and Love.

Transformation
God is taking us through a process to transform us to be like Him. When we spend time with God in prayer, we are transformed, re-created so to speak, into His image. The more “face time” we spend with God in prayer, the more we are transformed. We get a glimpse of this truth when we read the account of the disciples experience with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Luke’s account tells us, “And while He (Jesus) was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming.” (Luke 9:29). I realize that Jesus did not need to be changed; He was and is already the perfect reflection of who God the Father is. But I believe that when Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and directed His attention from this world to His heavenly Father, He began to reflect the glory of the Father as He came into His presence; and this was what was being revealed to His disciples.*

Moses face was changed after spending 40 days and nights in the presence of God on Mt. Sinai (Ex. 24:12-18, 34:29-35). And the Apostle Paul relates this experience that Moses had to our experience as we come into the presence of the Lord:

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit”. 2 Cor. 3:18

The Apostle Paul also writes to the Colossians that they are to “put on” the new self, “who is being renewed (lit. renovated) to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him…”
Col. 3:10 NASB

When the human race fell in Adam’s transgression, the image of God in us was tarnished/distorted. When we are born again by faith, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, God begins that work of renovation in us–like renovating a building–removing what is old and rotted, and replacing it with the new. We are being re-created in His image to be more like Him. Spending time with Him in prayer acts as a catalyst to move this process along. He doesn’t need us to pray, it’s the other way around. He wants to bless us, and cause us to reflect to the world around us what He is like! The was Adam’s original purpose: to be a reflection of the invisible God to the physical world. Adam failed in this, but Jesus, who is called “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45) succeeded.

Fragrance
“For we are a fragrance of Christ to God…” (2 Cor. 2:15a)
When we come to God the Father in prayer, He “smells” the fragrant aroma of His Son on us. We manifest “the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him” (2 Cor. 2:14). In other words, when we come to God through His Son, it brings pleasure to Him. God enjoys the pleasure of our company. We are His treasure, His inheritance. We are the reason He sent His Son to die on the cross. He loves it when we come to Him in prayer!

Love
Our Heavenly Father wants the best for us. He wants to transform us; He wants to spend time with us. He wants to include us in accomplishing His will “on earth as it is in heaven”. He wants to reward us for being involved in accomplishing His will on earth by building His church and reaching out to a lost world. He lets us pray to Him to accomplish these things; He lets us in on what He is doing; and He rewards us for playing a part in accomplishing His will.

Ask the Lord for rain in the season of spring rain. Don’t do it out of duty or obligation; do it to bring pleasure to Him.

*I recognize that there are other equally valid ways of interpreting this passage: namely that Jesus was simply unveiling His glory to His disciples at this event. I believe that these views are not mutually exclusive.