Thoughts on Prayer

During these past few summer months, the pastors at my church have been going through a study called “Jesus’ School of Prayer.” I have been really encouraged and challenged by it, although in all honesty, I cannot say that it has revolutionized my prayer life. =/ However, the knowledge and realization that I need to be dependent upon the Lord more in prayer has been lingering at the back of my mind all summer. Because of that, I have decided to take the outlines of the sermons and use them for my small group topic this next year.

As I was reading through the first outline this morning, there were a few things that really stuck out to me. First, in understanding the importance of prayer, our pastor quoted O. Hallesby who wrote, “Prayer is an attitude of our hearts toward God. It is an attitude of helplessness.” When we pray, a lot of time we are admitting to God—although He already knows—that we are helpless and we are humbling ourselves before Him and surrendering ourselves to His work. This reminds me of one of my favorite passages found in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” When we are weak and acknowledge our weakness and frailty before God, He is more than willing to display His power in us.

The second thing that stood out to me was a list of reasons that God might delay answering our prayers. (Or at least giving us the answer of “wait.”)

1) Sometimes the believer is not in a position to receive the answer.
a. There are things God desires to do in the life of the petitioner before the request is granted.
b. His delay is driven by His love for us not some heartless whim.
2) Other times our request is superficial. We ultimately do not feel strongly about the matter—which becomes evident when we stop praying about it.
3) James 4:3 – our motives are wrong: the delay is designed by God to expose and flush out the self-centeredness of our petition.
4) 1 Kings 19:1-8 – our request is foolish…like Elijah, we over-react in our weariness. Mercifully God tells us no.
5) Psalm 66:18 – we have unresolved sin…in these cases our prayers get no higher than the ceiling. God does not even hear us.
6) Mark 11:22 – the object of our faith is misplaced…Jesus: “Have faith in God.”
7) Mark 11:24-26 – we are withholding forgiveness…this is not an option for a forgiven child of God
8) Luke 5:1-11 – God may have something better for us
a. Sometimes God withholds what we ask for to give us something better
9) 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 – God desires us to experience the sufficiency of His grace

When the answers to our prayers are delayed from our perspective, God always has a good reason. Our responsibility is to examine ourselves first and then trust Him as we keep asking.

I was especially struck by point number 1…it is very easy for me to forget that God has the higher purpose of sanctifying me and forming me into the image of His Son. I know there have been many times when God has said “wait” and then used that following time to grow my faith, patience, and trust. I love being able to look back and seeing God’s faithfulness in the situations of my life…He is so gracious in letting us look back and see His fingerprints all over our lives.

I hope and pray that this study would be an encouragement to the girls that the Lord places in my small group, but even more so I pray that He would use my preparation time now and each week to help me to realize the importance of prayer!