Prayer

So how are we supposed to pray? Is there a secret formula? If we say the right words does it make it more powerful? Does using sophisticated verbiage and really “religious” sounding words make it more effective? What time of day is best to pray? How long does it have to be? 10 minutes? An hour? 30 seconds? Should we pray out loud? Silently? In public? In our closet? Should we get on our knees? Which is better? Corporate prayer or personal prayer?

There are so many questions about how we should best approach prayer. Most of our questions, if we are honest with ourselves, are to appease our conscience by telling it that we tried our best to pray, but that we don’t want to fully commit if we aren’t doing it perfectly right. It is a rather clever cop out. I submit to you that prayer is less about logistics and more about personal communication with our Father. He is more concerned with our heart than our methodology.

With this in mind, there are some “strategies” or guidelines to biblical prayer that can be useful for us to apply to our prayer lives. Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9 can be used as a model prayer from which these strategies are drawn. Israel has been in captivity for nearly 70 years and Daniel is praying for God to show mercy on the nation of Israel. Daniel bases his prayer on four things.

1. God’s person – He is praying on the basis of God’s greatness. He worships by telling God of His faithfulness in how He never turns back on His promises. Daniel reflects on God’s righteousness. He also states that mercy and forgiveness belongs to our Lord. This mercy is evidenced in the compassion He shows after repeated failure by the Israelites. His repetitive forgiveness proves that He is not stingy with his mercy.

Personal Application – We are to worship God in our prayers by telling Him how awesome He is. He literally is AWE-inspiring. God doesn’t need us to remind Him that he is all-powerful, but we do it out of love and respect for Him. You don’t tell your girlfriend she is beautiful because you have to, but you tell her because you love her.

2. God’s promise – Daniel recounts specific times when God’s promises came true in the past. This goes to show that Daniel was familiar with His Scriptures. In turn, Daniel began reminding God of promises He had made to the nation of Israel. Daniel was holding God to His promises, or keeping Him accountable.

Personal Application – Again, God does not literally need to be reminded of the promises He has made to us. It causes us to put our faith into action if we pray promises back to God. For example, God promised in Matthew 21:22 “Whatsoever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” If, in prayer, we “remind” God of this verse it naturally strengthens our faith. The very fact that we bring His very words back to Him is proof of our faith.

3. God’s power – Daniel recalls the time when God brought His people out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Daniel gives God credit where credit is due. This is another form of worship. In praying for mercy and deliverance, Daniel is calling upon the full power and strength of God.

Personal Application – We ought to recount the times when God has worked miracles in our lives. The more we dwell on the power of God, the more we will realize how His power is all around us. If we look at our lives we will undoubtedly see times when God’s hand was evidently at work. This will naturally lead to worship. It is appropriate to call on this power for current struggles we find ourselves in.

4. God’s promotion – Daniel does not pray for mercy on Israel for Israel’s sake, but for God’s sake. He desires for the name of God to be honored and respected. Daniel does not present his pleas before God for his righteousness, but because of God’s great mercy (Dan. 9:18). His true heart’s desire is for God to receive the honor and glory through answered prayer.

Personal Application – We should greatly desire for God to become famous. Our motive for prayer should not to receive the spotlight in any way, but it should be to promote the glorious name of Jesus Christ!

God is pleased when we pray with these arguments; He wants to hear this. It shows that we are in His Word and we have a genuine desire to live for Him, and for Him to be number one in our lives. God is a holy God; we must confess our sins as we approach His throne of grace. He is also our Father and desires to give us good things.

Pray!

I Can’t Help It!

Basketball is a huge part of my life. I am loving March Madness this year, especially because my favorite team, Duke, has been winning! One of my lifelong dreams came true this past Friday. I got to go to a Duke NCAA Tournament game with some friends and watch Duke knock off the number 16 seed! It was an amazing experience! I got to see all my favorite players up close with some amazing seats a few rows behind the Duke bench. We sat right behind the family of Miles and Mason Plumlee. I also got an autograph from 7 foot-tall Marshall Plumlee who will be joining the team next year. We were surrounded by people who were far more significant than we could ever imagine being. Two seats to my right was none other than Miami Heat owner Pat Riley.

When we got back from the game I was ecstatic. I told anyone and everyone about the game and all the great experiences I had. I called my family and replayed half the game to them. I was texting one of my friends who I would see the next day and told her that I would have to tell her all about the game. Not sure that she was sharing my enthusiasm I texted this: “I’m so excited about it that I can’t help but talk about it!!”

As soon as I hit send I was convicted. How is it that I can get so worked up and passionate about a simple Duke basketball game, no matter how amazing it is, yet sometimes it’s like pulling teeth when it comes to talking about God!

I’m convinced of this fact

What we love is:

1)what we talk about,

2)what we spend time doing, and

3)what we think about

It is a well known fact that I am a Duke fan. But is it a well known fact that I am a born again follower of Jesus? How often do I talk about God and what He has been doing in my life in comparison to how often I talk about the latest basketball game, or any sporting event for that matter? How much time during the week goes into practicing basketball versus the time that I spend in God’s Word or doing His work? Do I catch myself daydreaming about the imminent reality of the splendors of heaven or about the far-out dream of playing real college basketball? I know the answers to these questions, and they are rather embarrassing. You can personalize these questions to your own lifestyle and hobbies to see where your priorities lie.

You already know where I’m going with this, but I’m going to say it anyway. The awesomeness of God far outweighs the awesomeness of your favorite team. There is no real comparison. Our God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for every sin of every human who has ever lived. It is only natural that we should want to talk about someone has done so much for us. It is our job to make Him famous! How do you make someone or something famous? Talk about Him. Get to know Him. Share with others what you have learned about Him. Tell people how awesome He is. It sounds so simple, yet we so often fail to make the most worthy one famous in our own lives.

Mark 16:15 Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

The flawless example of True Humility

I often struggle with humility. It’s one of those things, when you think you got it, you just lost it. The moment you think you have arrived, you are back at square one. It feels like climbing up a downward moving escalator. But the more I learn about Christ and what He has done for us, the more absurd the fact  that I see myself as so significant. In my Bible class this semester I memorized the passage from Philippians 2:3-11.

3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

4. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

6. Who, being in the form of God, thought in not robbery to be equal with God:

7. But made himself of o reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Verses 3 and 4 present the challenge to us to change from our natural habit of thinking, which is to put self first and to have an inflated view of oneself. The challenge is to transform the way we look at others in relation to ourselves. Through a humble spirit I am to look at others as more significant than myself. This is a steep task, very difficult if not seemingly impossible. But God, knowing that we would get discouraged with the impossibility of this command, decided to give us a flawless example to show us exactly what this humility should look like. The example was sent in the form of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who, in verse 7 took upon the form of a servant by stepping down into this earth was made in the likeness of man. If you stop to ponder this act of love and the amount of sacrifice involved you can’t help but stop and worship. Verse 6 states that He would have been absolutely just in coming to earth as a rich, mighty, powerful king donning upon himself unlimited wealth, fame and prestige. But He decided based on what would be best for us; setting the perfect example of a servant leader. Jesus spend the last 3 and a half years of His life in full-time ministry showing His disciples what it meant to serve. He washed their feet as a symbol of true humility; putting the interest of others before the convenience of self.

The ultimate act of humility was displayed by Jesus on the cross. In Jesus’ day, crucifixion was the was the most inhumane way to execute a human. It was the epitome of humiliation; being publicly displayed naked, beaten, bruised, and torn, with a crown of thorns mocking His kingship. He did not die from the 10 inch nails driven into his wrists and feet, but from suffocation upon not being able to lift himself up for his next breath from sheer exhaustion. And to think, all this to save some wretched sinners like you and me in order to have a personal relationship with us. The way he carried Himself though life, putting others first and considering His own interests last was in order to give us an example of true humility. If that is not inspiring and and encouraging I dont know what it. So, the next time we struggle with arrogance or pride consider how the King of Kings and the Creator of the vast universe took upon lowly human flesh and put others first.