I love to pray. I have discovered that while it is not uncommon to meet people who pray, it is a rare pleasure to encounter another who truly loves to pray; whose heart rejoices at the idea and delights in the privilege of speaking with the Lord. I once had someone say to me, “I wonder what the rest of us are missing?” And I thought I would attempt to write a little bit about what prayer has looked like in my life...not that I know the answer to the question, but maybe I could give a glimpse into my oddity.
Growing up, I remember two things about prayer being emphasized:
1) The Lord’s prayer was sufficient and it was prideful to think I needed to pray anything above or beyond those words, and
2) Matthew 6:6 was taught repeatedly when the topic of prayer arose, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” In other words, you talk to God alone and quietly.
Don’t get me wrong, I was told TO pray. But my experience with prayer growing up was limited to the prewritten prayers in the back of our hymnal that were read every Sunday.
The main reason I left my childhood church was because I knew there was more than what I was being taught (not just surrounding prayer). I found that as I sought the Lord alone, reading my Bible and seeking His face, I was overwhelmed with a joy and hunger that left me thinking, “What am I doing wrong? A Christian walk is a sobering and serious thing, what is this joy and life I feel?” But I knew it was real, I wasn’t the one creating it in me; and when I met a person whose eyes and life resonated with the joy and hope I felt, my heart leapt that the Lord had opened the door into the “more” I knew existed...and I ran through it.
My first encounter with prayer when I entered into this new and exciting chapter of my walk with the Lord came when I joined a small group of women for a bible study. On my very first visit, they went around the circle and asked for prayer requests. This surprised me, and I remember marveling that these women who didn’t even know me wanted to pray for me. And then God sort of just tossed me into the deep end; the women split up in pairs to pray together. I had never prayed out loud before and I had never prayed WITH anyone before...and yet, I didn’t run away. The Spirit tugged at my heart and I knew that while I didn’t know HOW to pray, I just wanted to do it. I wanted to be a part of this marvelous thing called prayer, and so with both feet, I leapt into the waters of prayer and never looked back.
I see the invitation to pray as possibly the sweetest extension of love in the bible (second only to salvation in Christ). God Himself, perfect and holy and mighty and majestic, has asked us to sit with Him and commune with Him; He has extended His ear and the pleasure of being heard by the Creator God; He has invited us to approach Him with boldness and in an unceasing fashion...how can we resist such a marvelous hand reaching out to us?
To me, prayer is as close to the relationship between God and man as we see in the Garden of Eden that we can experience this side of eternity; where God and man walked and talked side-by-side, and where humanity was “naked and unashamed” in the presence of the Lord. Let me try to explain this: To me there is great freedom in prayer. Psalm 139 states just how thoroughly God knows me as it speaks of God knowing all of my days before i even existed, how He knit me together in my mother’s womb, how He is with me no matter where I go, how He knows my thoughts and words even before I speak. To me this reality of being so fully known brings about great freedom in my prayer life. It was only after the fall into sin that man and woman hid themselves...we were not made to be hidden from the eyes of the Lord; and for me, prayer is me simply walking and talking with God...raw and unhidden and utterly free. He knows everything about me--my failures, my triumphs, the deepest longings of my heart--and He wants to be with me anyway. For a girl who grew up feeling as though I was always on the outside of relationships looking in, this knowledge that God has invited me into a relationship with Him--not out of convenience, pity or obligation, but out of love and desire for me--is almost too overwhelmingly sweet. I get to be with Him...and in prayer, I get to talk with Him and hear from Him.
Earlier this year i had the urge to write down a few of my favorite verses on prayer; verses that fuel, encourage and uplift my spirit right into the throne room of God. I shared a few with my life group and they probably thought I was a little loopy as I giggled my way through the loveliness of God’s invitation and promises. But the appearance of loopiness is not enough to stop me from sharing several of these life-changing verses with you:
Lamentations 2:19: “Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord”
Unfiltered, raw, real...God knows the reality of my heart (with it doubts, fears or faith); and brother and sisters, I truly believe that it is honoring to God to trust Him with our mess. Poured out in His presence, could there be a sweeter way to live?
Hebrews 4:16: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
What I love about this verse is the boldness that should accompany our need. I often hear people talk about “God helping those who help themselves” (which totally removes God from the picture, by the way) and think of this verse. No, God knows our every need and tells us to boldly approach His throne and find in Him all we need to help us. Boldly seeking grace and mercy. Yes, let us, a desperately needy people, boldly seek grace and mercy at the foot of His throne.
Daniel 9:18: “O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.”
The book of Daniel bowls me over, it will teach you so much about a correctly positioned prayer and what true confidence in the character of God looks like. It is totally worth your time if ever you will stop to wring it out. These words melt me as Daniel pleads with God for vividly undeserved mercy for a rebellious people, not one ounce of his prayer banks of the merit of man but instead on the great measure of the mercy of God and the faithfulness of His character. You must read Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9. Knowing the character of God makes all the difference in a prayer life, the Bible is where God tells you who He is, what He is like and His promises to you. I cannot tell you enough how utterly important it is to read and know the revealed word of God.
1 Samuel 12:23a: “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you.”
God wants me to pray for others, and He desires it to such an extent that it is as sin to me to neglect such a call. Prayer is a way to intentionally seek the good of another, and the fact that God calls us to bring others before His throne should bring us to our knees to lift them up.
Jeremiah 33:3: “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
Oh, such lovely words. He will answer my call and He will show me great and wonderful things; sometimes He directs me through His word or reveals His truths in visions or comforts my heart through a song or speaks a word into my heart or lays out His purposes through my pen...But whatever way He chooses to reveal Himself, He never fails to share with me depths of the greatness and the wonder of Him that I have not known. Prayer brings about revelation of the heart of God that we would be hard-pressed to discover any other way. I desperately desire to know His heart, and so, I pray.
There are more verses, if you want to hear them, ask. I realize that words and time are far too limited to adequately describe my thoughts on prayer, but if this would encourage your voice to be heard in heaven or your ears to open to the voice of God, I am grateful to have taken the opportunity to share even this small amount.
The bottom line is this: God has extended to you and to me an invitation to enter His presence, to be heard by Him and to hear from Him...and there is deep joy (and yes, deep sorrow...my forehead wrinkles are actually prayer lines) that awaits you in stepping into His Almighty presence and resting at His feet.
Growing up, I remember two things about prayer being emphasized:
1) The Lord’s prayer was sufficient and it was prideful to think I needed to pray anything above or beyond those words, and
2) Matthew 6:6 was taught repeatedly when the topic of prayer arose, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” In other words, you talk to God alone and quietly.
Don’t get me wrong, I was told TO pray. But my experience with prayer growing up was limited to the prewritten prayers in the back of our hymnal that were read every Sunday.
The main reason I left my childhood church was because I knew there was more than what I was being taught (not just surrounding prayer). I found that as I sought the Lord alone, reading my Bible and seeking His face, I was overwhelmed with a joy and hunger that left me thinking, “What am I doing wrong? A Christian walk is a sobering and serious thing, what is this joy and life I feel?” But I knew it was real, I wasn’t the one creating it in me; and when I met a person whose eyes and life resonated with the joy and hope I felt, my heart leapt that the Lord had opened the door into the “more” I knew existed...and I ran through it.
My first encounter with prayer when I entered into this new and exciting chapter of my walk with the Lord came when I joined a small group of women for a bible study. On my very first visit, they went around the circle and asked for prayer requests. This surprised me, and I remember marveling that these women who didn’t even know me wanted to pray for me. And then God sort of just tossed me into the deep end; the women split up in pairs to pray together. I had never prayed out loud before and I had never prayed WITH anyone before...and yet, I didn’t run away. The Spirit tugged at my heart and I knew that while I didn’t know HOW to pray, I just wanted to do it. I wanted to be a part of this marvelous thing called prayer, and so with both feet, I leapt into the waters of prayer and never looked back.
I see the invitation to pray as possibly the sweetest extension of love in the bible (second only to salvation in Christ). God Himself, perfect and holy and mighty and majestic, has asked us to sit with Him and commune with Him; He has extended His ear and the pleasure of being heard by the Creator God; He has invited us to approach Him with boldness and in an unceasing fashion...how can we resist such a marvelous hand reaching out to us?
To me, prayer is as close to the relationship between God and man as we see in the Garden of Eden that we can experience this side of eternity; where God and man walked and talked side-by-side, and where humanity was “naked and unashamed” in the presence of the Lord. Let me try to explain this: To me there is great freedom in prayer. Psalm 139 states just how thoroughly God knows me as it speaks of God knowing all of my days before i even existed, how He knit me together in my mother’s womb, how He is with me no matter where I go, how He knows my thoughts and words even before I speak. To me this reality of being so fully known brings about great freedom in my prayer life. It was only after the fall into sin that man and woman hid themselves...we were not made to be hidden from the eyes of the Lord; and for me, prayer is me simply walking and talking with God...raw and unhidden and utterly free. He knows everything about me--my failures, my triumphs, the deepest longings of my heart--and He wants to be with me anyway. For a girl who grew up feeling as though I was always on the outside of relationships looking in, this knowledge that God has invited me into a relationship with Him--not out of convenience, pity or obligation, but out of love and desire for me--is almost too overwhelmingly sweet. I get to be with Him...and in prayer, I get to talk with Him and hear from Him.
Earlier this year i had the urge to write down a few of my favorite verses on prayer; verses that fuel, encourage and uplift my spirit right into the throne room of God. I shared a few with my life group and they probably thought I was a little loopy as I giggled my way through the loveliness of God’s invitation and promises. But the appearance of loopiness is not enough to stop me from sharing several of these life-changing verses with you:
Lamentations 2:19: “Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord”
Unfiltered, raw, real...God knows the reality of my heart (with it doubts, fears or faith); and brother and sisters, I truly believe that it is honoring to God to trust Him with our mess. Poured out in His presence, could there be a sweeter way to live?
Hebrews 4:16: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
What I love about this verse is the boldness that should accompany our need. I often hear people talk about “God helping those who help themselves” (which totally removes God from the picture, by the way) and think of this verse. No, God knows our every need and tells us to boldly approach His throne and find in Him all we need to help us. Boldly seeking grace and mercy. Yes, let us, a desperately needy people, boldly seek grace and mercy at the foot of His throne.
Daniel 9:18: “O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.”
The book of Daniel bowls me over, it will teach you so much about a correctly positioned prayer and what true confidence in the character of God looks like. It is totally worth your time if ever you will stop to wring it out. These words melt me as Daniel pleads with God for vividly undeserved mercy for a rebellious people, not one ounce of his prayer banks of the merit of man but instead on the great measure of the mercy of God and the faithfulness of His character. You must read Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9. Knowing the character of God makes all the difference in a prayer life, the Bible is where God tells you who He is, what He is like and His promises to you. I cannot tell you enough how utterly important it is to read and know the revealed word of God.
1 Samuel 12:23a: “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you.”
God wants me to pray for others, and He desires it to such an extent that it is as sin to me to neglect such a call. Prayer is a way to intentionally seek the good of another, and the fact that God calls us to bring others before His throne should bring us to our knees to lift them up.
Jeremiah 33:3: “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
Oh, such lovely words. He will answer my call and He will show me great and wonderful things; sometimes He directs me through His word or reveals His truths in visions or comforts my heart through a song or speaks a word into my heart or lays out His purposes through my pen...But whatever way He chooses to reveal Himself, He never fails to share with me depths of the greatness and the wonder of Him that I have not known. Prayer brings about revelation of the heart of God that we would be hard-pressed to discover any other way. I desperately desire to know His heart, and so, I pray.
There are more verses, if you want to hear them, ask. I realize that words and time are far too limited to adequately describe my thoughts on prayer, but if this would encourage your voice to be heard in heaven or your ears to open to the voice of God, I am grateful to have taken the opportunity to share even this small amount.
The bottom line is this: God has extended to you and to me an invitation to enter His presence, to be heard by Him and to hear from Him...and there is deep joy (and yes, deep sorrow...my forehead wrinkles are actually prayer lines) that awaits you in stepping into His Almighty presence and resting at His feet.
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1 comment:
Love it.
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