Prayer Prayer is not just having a conversation with some Heavenly being that can be used to get what you want when this world won’t readily give it to you. There is a certain approach and mindset we should have in approaching God. He is a King, and we must come with humility.
1. Do not talk to God like He is an idiot. 2.Pray, knowing His will, will prevail over yours. 3. Prayer is for the glory of God, as we show His dependability in our dependence. 4. God no longer speaks to people directly or audibly, but instead through His Word. 5.Pray, knowing that the Holy Spirit will make up for your weakness and ineptitude in prayer. Do not talk to God like He is an idiot.
God had inflicted Job, through Satan, with the loss of his family, wealth, and health. There is a long dialogue between Job and his friends that takes up most of the book. Throughout the book, Job defends that he did nothing wrong and was passive aggressively mad at God, thus treating God like He is an idiot and doesn't know what He is doing. In reading the passage below, do this practice to make this personal. Insert your name in the place of Job. You need to know your place. We are merely creatures in the hand of the potter of all things.
Job 38:1-8:
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this that darkens counsel By words without knowledge? 'Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? “On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Pray, knowing His will, will prevail over your Peter in Acts prays to God a prayer that doesn't even ask for anything in particular. He doesn’t ask God to flip or change the circumstances of persecution; he basically says, "God keep doing your thing." Instead of telling God what to do and thus trying to use his will to control God, He knows God's will, will always prevail, and that God's will is the best of all wills because God uses His unlimited source of wisdom and insight in all events. Peter merely prays for more strength to do what He has already been called to do in the Great Commission. His prayer is primarily a cry out that He is the one who is lacking, not God.
Acts 4:27-30
"For truly in this city, there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur. And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus. Prayer is for the glory of God, as we show His dependability in our dependence. In 1 John 4:8, it says that God is love. What it means for God to be love is not that God loves us, but that God, the Father, loves God the Son, and vice versa. So the greatest God honoring prayer is done in the name of the Son of God for the benefit of the kingdom of God. God, the Father, loves Jesus way more than all things He has created. To petition based on God the Father's most prized person in the universe is the easiest way to touch the heart of the Father and to pray in a way that is pleasing to Him."
Matthew 3:17
"Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
John 14:13-14
"Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."
God no longer speaks to people directly or audibly, but instead, through His Word. God has spoken to us adequately and finally, in Jesus. Hebrews 1 shows this to be true. Also, in the New Testament, we never have any of the Gospels or Epistles expecting or commanding us to listen for God to speak to us audibly. If there would have been anyone that had the chance to hear from God audibly, like Moses, in the New Testament, it was Paul. When Paul was converted, He heard Jesus’ voice, but that was the exception. God guided Paul inaudibly through dreams and through the passive and secret guidance of the Holy Spirit. The fact that we seek to hear a "still small voice" or a billboard like clarity in the sky says we do not trust God to secretly accomplish His mission unless we are in the conference room hearing the orders.
Hebrews 1:1-2
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Acts 16:6-10
"They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, immediately, we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them."
Pray, knowing that the Holy Spirit will make up for your weakness and ineptitude in prayer. God the Father has graced His church with two helpers who come alongside us in different ways and bring us to the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Many things can potentially hinder us from God: our flesh, sin, the world, and the Devil. So we need God's "secret service" to make sure we are brought to glory in the way and time in which God the Father has willed. They have direct access to the Father and can work on His behalf and, therefore, on our behalf.
God has a special place for the Elect in His heart. He has the primary purpose in the accords of man to make sure He is working all things for those who love Him.
Romans 8:26-28
"In the same way, the Spirit also 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; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit i, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Conclusion
We should be praying in a way that is more apt to say less and trust more. God has all things in control and allows us to come to Him in order to glorify Himself. We are just little children who know nothing about a car but want to bother the master mechanic who can build and destroy a car in a second if he wills it. He does not need us telling Him what to do, He is a competent and good king.
#Prayer #ReverencetowardGod #GodsWill #Humility
Tim Bankes II
Tim is a Christian author. His worldview that informs his writing is Calvinist, Baptist, and Libertarian. His main series is his Christian picture book series, "About God for Kids", where he discusses the attributes of God in a way kids can digest. He also wrote a Christian Romance novel, libertarian book for beginners, and Christian coloring books. He graduated with a Bachelor's in Biblical Studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
He has written a book on freedom called “Are You Free” (If you are into listening to books I have it in audio also, Are You Free Audiobook )and he has written multiple children’s books about God. Be Sure to check out the podcast version of the blog, Labor for Truth Podcast. And check out “The Truth About” Youtube Channel. You can find his works at his amazon author page, https://amazon.com/author/timbankes. He even has a free digital ebook on how God is the creator. Get your free copy today at, Greater Creator .Also If you are into Christian Fiction, he has made his first book in his Futuristic Christian Fiction series free, Her Dying Wish
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