I need to see your glory fall.

I need the joy of salvation, the light of life awakened anew.

I need to renew my mind in the joy of Christ Jesus.

I want to be fuel, where one spark of your Holy Spirit can land and ignite into a blaze of faithful service.

I want to sing and dance and speak and cry and laugh for you.

I want to live like life is all about you. It is.

I want to live in the light of eternity.

I want to feel the eternal weight of glory and respond in awe and worship.

I want to know you, not just know of you.

I want you to ignite the deepest corners of my heart to love you.

I want to be passionate about the gospel.

Lord, show me your glory!

Praying in Jesus' Name

What does it mean to pray “In Jesus’ name”? 

I remember when I was younger, I used to finish off prayers with a hasty "Jesus' name, amen". It didn't even register in my mind what those words actually meant. It was just the postscript, the Prayer Finisher. These were the words that let everyone else know you were finished praying. How ignorant I was! Thank God that by His far-reaching mercy, He even hears the prayers of the weak and the foolish. 

I think praying in Jesus' name means acknowledging that we have no self-grown merit before God; but we trust in the promises and sacrifice of Jesus, so we have the confidence to come before the throne of God our Father. This confidence is based solely on what Christ has done for us, and the righteousness He has attributed to us. To pray in the name of the Saviour means remembering how we are even praying to the glorious, holy God in the first place. 

If we pray in Jesus’ name, we must pray for what He would pray for. He will not be our representative in praying for sinful, selfish things. To pray in Jesus' name means to pray for His will to be done, for His Word to be spoken, and for His character to be shown rather than our own. Asking according to His will means praying within the bounds of what He has revealed His will to be. To pray like that means we must be representatives of Jesus' requests. When I pray in Jesus' name, when I say those words, they remind me that my whole life is submitted to the will of my Saviour and Lord. I do not always understand what He is doing in my life, but I know that I can trust Him, and that He will keep me, and that no one can snatch me out of His hand. 

To pray the way Jesus would pray means praising God for His holiness. He is perfect, He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. This means that He will never do anything evil or wrong. Because He is good, we can trust that what He orchestrates for our lives is good.  

It means praying that God would grow and strengthen His kingdom. It means praying for the souls of men, all the while knowing it is God Who moves hearts and awakens souls. 

It means praying God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven - that is, God's will being perfectly experienced, eliciting the praise God deserves for His perfect mercy. We will not experience God's will perfectly until Christ returns, for we are still debilitated by sin. Yet this prayer asks, "amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" This prayer looks forward in hope to the Lord's return, and lives in the light of that promise. 

It means praying that God would provide, recognizing that it is God Who provides your daily needs, whether bread, or life and breath and everything.

It means seeking forgiveness from God, and living in the light of the forgiveness found in Christ by expressing forgiveness to those who have wronged you. 

It means asking the Lord to keep you from temptation, acknowledging that He has the power to deliver us from evil. It means knowing that God will not let us suffer anything beyond our endurance (1 Corinthians 10:13).

It means declaring God to be the Sovereign Lord, the Owner and Ruler of the kingdom, the Possessor of omnipotent power...and all glory belongs to Him exclusively. The Lord in Whose name we pray is able to hear and to answer our prayers. The Lord in Whose name we pray intercedes for us Himself before the Father. We can trust Him. We can seek Him. We can ask Him. 

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)

God is not surprised...

God is not surprised by our prayers. He sends His Holy Spirit to help us with them.

God is never thrown off by what we pray. He knows what we need before we even ask. He is prepared with an answer before we make the request. Why then, you might ask, does He even wait for the request? Like everything else, prayer is a means through which we can develop a closer relationship to God. He wants us to put effort into knowing Him and communicating with Him.

How to Pray

How do you pray? Alone? As a family? In a group? Out loud? Within? Writing prayers down in a notebook? There is no real specific way to pray, since we already learned that there are many different kinds of prayer. If prayer is our tool of communication with God, then we should know that, just as we communicate in many different ways with people, so we communicate in many different ways with God. Still, there is something to be said for learning how to pray, for prayer can be taught and learnt.

Prayer is sometimes messy – look at Hannah praying in bitter grief, Elijah praying in depression, Isaiah praying with a question, asking God where He is…questioning God does not always indicate unbelief, though our questions should be asked in the right way.

1 John 5:14-15 (if we ask according to HIS will…),

James 4:1-2, 3 (you do not have because you ask wrongly…)…

Hebrews 5:7 “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”

We should always pray with the knowledge of Who God is and who we are in mind.

1. Praying God's Word back to Him

We have to be careful that we do not hide evil motives under a pretense of prayer. For instance, praying “God, please strike so-and-so dead because I can’t stand him. In Jesus’ name, amen” won’t get you very far. Sometimes we demand from God rather than seeking God. We want Him to answer and provide for us without developing a real relationship with Him.

If we pray using Scripture, then we will protect ourselves from falling into that kind of false prayer. We can pray, "O Lord, please teach me your Word. Let love abound in me more and more, with all knowledge and discernment (Philippians 1). Give me the wisdom to approve what is excellent (Philippians 1:10) and flee from what is evil. Help me to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving (Ephesians 4:32). Help me to walk in the light (1 John 1:7). Help me to imitate Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:1). Amen." That is a prayer God will delight to answer. 

Prayer is Important

Why is prayer important?

Prayer is a valuable weapon against our enemy. God has ordained prayer as a weapon against the schemes of the devil. In Ephesians 6, it says this:

...and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, (Ephesians 6:17-18 ESV)


It is interesting to note that prayer is mentioned directly after the Sword of the Spirit. Scripture is our first offensive weapon against the schemes of the devil. Prayer is second.


God has commanded us to pray.

Luke 18:1 "And he told them a parable … that they ought always to pray and not lose heart."

1 Thess.5:16-17 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing…”


God has given us the armour we need in battling the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We are at war against Satan, sin, and death. Scripture helps to build our armour against these things. Prayer is like the straps holding the armour in place. 


 God has promised to hear and answer our prayers.

Jeremiah 29:12 "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you."

Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

Psalm 13 – prayer strengthens our faith:

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the Lord,

because he has dealt bountifully with me.

You can see from this psalm that the speaker begins with questions and doubts, sorrow and humiliation. Yet in speaking to God he reminds himself of the promises and attributes of God, and his faith is restored in verses 5 and 6.

We should remember this when our lack of faith hinders our prayers. If we would only pray, our faith would grow!

Prayer reveals where our true confidence lies.

We should pray through confusion, and recognize hindrances to prayer. What are some hindrances to prayer? 


Unbelief. Sometimes we can have doubts that God will hear or answer our prayer. Is this prayer important enough for God to hear it? Does He care? 


Turning away from Scripture. The Word and prayer go together. The more we read God's Word and understand more about Him, the more we will pray more in line with His will. When we neglect the Word of God, we are neglecting an essential part of the armour of God we have been given. 


Selfish motives. When we seek our own will in prayer, or we make demands, that can be a hindrance to prayer. Even if we are praying, our prayer is rendered ineffective if we pray against the revealed will of God. 


Fear. What if God doesn't answer my prayer? What if He does?  


Pride. This goes back to the idea that we think we are strong enough to accomplish things on our own. We have no need of God for what we determine are "little" things. 

Prayer does not always lead to the end that we wish it to.

It is not our “get out of jail free” card. God does not have to answer prayer as we think He should. Prayer does not make God our servant. Especially as we remember the prayers of the righteous men and women in Scripture, we see that their prayers were based on the fact that God is Lord, not that we are. Those who pray in Scripture always prayed in accordance with the will of God. 

Prayer is an entreaty to the God of the Universe that He would come down, save, rescue, restore, and build up. We are asking the King of kings to help us when we pray. Prayer is not a command, but a request.

Prayer

What is prayer?

 As Christians, there is no greater means we have from God than prayer.

Prayer is our lifeline.

As a lifeline is thrown to a drowning man to save him and keep him afloat, God has "thrown" prayer to us. He has taught us how to pray. 

Prayer has indeed kept me afloat on the best and the worst of days. 

It is our tool.

It is fascinating to me to read or hear the prayers of "giants" of the faith. They wield prayer with the expertise of those who practice daily, moment by moment. Someone who paints for twelve hours every day soon knows exactly how to use the brush in order to bring about the greatest beauty in a picture. 

God has given us prayer as a tool to use, both in growing ourselves and in seeking Him. 

It is through prayer that we communicate with God.

Prayer takes us into the very presence of God. When we pray, we are in a sense standing in the throne room of grace. It is our God-given method of speaking to our Father. He wants us to pray. He has taught us how to pray. He has commanded us to "pray without ceasing". 

There are different kinds of prayer – thanksgiving, petition, worship, praise, lamentation, intercession, etc. All of these, God hears and acknowledges. We’re not speaking to the ceiling when we pray. We converse with God Himself through prayer.

Why is prayer sometimes so difficult?

Every believer knows that prayer is important, but no matter to whom I speak it always seems like you hear “I don’t pray as much as I ought. I mean to, but I never really get around to it…”

Part of the problem is that prayer is a relinquishing of control. What I mean is, when you pray, you are essentially giving everything over to God, and admitting your own weakness and inability. We would prefer to be in control of our own circumstances, and make our plans without God’s input. That is one reason why we can find ourselves reluctant to pray. I know that in my own life, it can be very easy to go ahead and do regular things without praying. Prayer is reserved for the toughest times, the things that I feel I need a "little back-up" for. God is patient, and mercifully shows me that, whether or not I know it at the time, I need Him for everything. I can't draw a breath without His grace. 

What else do you think can hinder prayer? What stops you from praying?

Another problem is that we can often have a lack of faith. We don’t quite believe that God will answer us. Spurgeon said it well:

“If there be anything under heaven that I am as sure of as I am of the demonstrations of mathematics, it is the fact that God hears prayer. Answers to prayer have come to some of us not now and then, on rare occasions, so that after a series of years we have a few facts to collate, but they come to us as ordinary circumstances of everyday life.

God has heard for us prayers about great things and prayers about little things; prayers about things that we could reveal to others, and prayers about secret matters in which none could join us. We have had so many answers to prayer that the fact is far beyond any further question with us; and yet there may be a matter pressing upon our heart for God’s glory, and it may be a subject about which we could plead a precise promise, such as this — “If two of you are agreed as touching anything concerning my kingdom, it shall be done unto you,” and yet we are half afraid that our prayer will not be heard: the husband afraid that the conversion of his wife will never occur; the wife fearful that that swearing husband of hers will not after all yield to the importunate entreaties which she has addressed to heaven; a teacher in a Sunday-school class still afraid that his children, though often prayed for, will not be converted. We have many prayers, but how little faith is mingled with them!” 

~ Spurgeon

Praying - for the Upwards, Downwards, and Sideways Benefit

"Upwards" Benefit:

Through Jesus Christ we have access to the throne room of God. We can come before Him with our requests boldly, knowing that He will hear, because He sees us through the lens of Christ's perfection. He hears our prayers, He listens, and that in itself is a benefit for us - knowing that God, the Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe and all things within it, listens to the lowliest subjects, delighting in them because of His mighty love and grace.

So prayer is important because it teaches us that God is listening, that even the smallest of requests can come before Him, and they will be accepted through Christ.

"Downwards" Benefit:

We do not always receive answers to our prayers as immediately as we would like, but God always blesses us. Whether in tangible answers or growth in faith and love and every grace, we learn through prayer that God is working, and we also learn that we have a responsibility to wait on the Lord and seek His will while moving forward, trusting His Word and seeking the guidance of His will. I believe that God ordains our prayers to align with His will in circumstances.

Prayer is a divinely given gift and tool for us to use in changing the world. Prayer has stopped the mouths of lions, healed broken relationships, rescued souls from death, opened the eyes of sin-sick hearts, and been the means through which all other sorts of miraculous workings have been accomplished. The downward flow of God's blessing is invoked through prayer. That alone makes it extremely important and necessary for life.

"Sideways" Benefit:

As we develop relationships, and learn of the deep struggles, longings, and praise that our friends and family share, we become more and more burdened to seek God on their behalf. I know that I pray more often and more sincerely for those whom I know rather than for those with whom I share a surface acquaintance.

Praying for others develops our own faith, and teaches us to rely on God not only for ourselves, but those we love.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Reading Old Notebooks: A Prayer from 2008

Dear Lord,

What praise can I give that is adequate for Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of my faith? What praise can I give that is of any worth? Lord, You are so far above me. You are worthy of praise from the Seraphim!

Lord, let me not forget the cloud of witnesses that surrounds. Let me remember always that they are their and that their stories are told so that I may learn Who You are. Lord, your grace surpasses knowledge.

Father, give me strength to run the race with endurance. Let me finish strong, for your glory, O God. Whether my finish be soon or late, let me complete the race with a heart bursting with love for You, and lungs screaming Your praise.

Lord, let me be like You and remember the joy to come - joy in knowing You completely. Lord, nothing is as important as You. If I lose all, let me not lose You. Lord, you are worthy of praise forever!

Let me remember what Christ did, and keep that close so that I do not grow weary or fainthearted.

Lord, I have not yet shed my blood for Your sake. If it comes to that, I pray I may endure, knowing that You call me your child and by Your grace I call you Father.

Lord, let me not forget that You chastise whom You love. Lord, let Your discipline come freely if it means fellowship with You. Create in me a clean heart, a heart that follows hard and clings to You.

Let me not sit back and expect things from You, Lord, just because You are my Father. Help me to think of these things and strive for holiness, as You call me to.

Help me never to be the cause for any root of bitterness; rather, help me to clear those roots away. God, I cannot do that on my own. I need You, Lord, now and always.

Gracious Father, thank You for the new covenant. Thank You that Jesus came down and bled for me - that He loved me while I was His enemy. Lord, You loved us even while we hated You. Thank You, precious Lord, thank You. Let me never refuse Your words! Please, Lord, give me a mind to hear what You say.

Thank You, Father, for Your kingdom, which cannot be shaken. Thank You for the encouragement from this. Though my body die, yet I will praise the Lord, the Founder and Perfecter of my faith.

Amen.

An Old Prayer

I was going through old documents on my computer, and came across one where I had saved a few written prayers of mine. I had been reading through John, and trying to pray through it as well. I did not keep that up, but I've been meaning to start again. Finding this old document was another kick in my memory's behind!

~

Reading: John 17 Date: Sept. 26, 2008

Father,

Thank You that you sent Your Son, Jesus, to the earth to save us. To save me, Lord. O God, it is no good to make it impersonal. You came for me. Thank You. No matter how many times I say it, it will never be enough. I will say it for eternity, Lord. I will praise You for ever.

Lord, thank You for your example in this prayer. Thank You that You have been given authority over all, to give eternal life to all whom the Father gives You. Let me know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent. Precious knowledge, never depart from me!

Let me always keep your word, O Lord. Thank You for the promise that You are praying for us. I cannot fathom the grace that brought me into the fold. Father, thank You. I am in awe, I cannot speak properly when I think about it. O the depths of the grace of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ!

Lord, let You be glorified in me. Let people not see me when they look at me, but let them see You. Lord, let your image be clearly seen in me I pray.

Lord, let me remember this prayer of Yours, and take it to heart. Let me remember it whenever I feel frail, whenever I lose heart. O God, You are my God. You will keep me by Your grace, in Your name.

Let me never leave the word behind, but remember that the word is God’s Word.

Lord, keep me from the evil one. Sanctify me in the truth, for your word is truth. Let me saturate myself in the word, let my mind be filled with the word, O God let me never forsake the word!

Lord, thank You that You prayed for me, for those in my generation – for all those who read the words of those with you and believed them.

Lord, I desire to be with You where You are, but I know that Your purposes are perfect. I will say along with Paul: To live is Christ, to die is gain. Lord, let me live with the intent of proclaiming Your name.

Lord, let the love with which the Father loves You be in me, Your servant. Thank You, Lord, for Your promises.

In Christ my Saviour’s precious name,

Amen.

A Disciple's Renewal

From the Valley of Vision:

O my Saviour,
help me.
I am so slow to learn, so prone to forget, so weak to climb;
I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights;
I am pained by my graceless heart,
my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.
I am blind while light shines around me:
take the scales from my eyes,
grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.
Make it my chiefest joy to study thee,
meditate on thee,
gaze on thee,
sit like Mary at thy feet,
lean like John upon thy breast,
appeal like Peter to thy love,
count like Paul all things dung.
Give me increase and progress in grace so that there may be
more decision in my character,
more vigour in my purposes,
more elevation in my life,
more fervour in my devotion,
more constancy in my zeal.
As I have a position in the world,
keep me from making the world my position;
May I never seek in the creature
what can be found only in the creator;
Let not faith cease from seeking thee until it vanishes into sight.
Ride forth in me, thou king of kings and lord of lords,
that I may live victoriously, and in victory attain my end.