The lesson I'm teaching today in Bible Class...
The Lamb then broke the seventh seal, and there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Next I saw seven trumpets being given to the seven angels who stand in the presence of God. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. A large quantity of incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that stood in front of the throne; and so from the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense went up in the presence of God and with it the prayers of the saints. Then the angel took the censer and filled it from the fire of the altar, which he then hurled down onto the earth; immediately there came peals of thunder and flashes of lightening, and the earth shook. Revelation 8:1-5 (The New Jerusalem Bible)
Question Number 1: How important are your prayers?
Your prayers are so important that Heaven puts everything on hold so that they can be heard and acted upon. What an awe-inspiring picture of what happens when we pray!
Question Number 2: How big is your God?
“I strongly believe that the way we live is a consequence of the size of our God. The problem many of us have is that our God is too small. We are not convinced that we are absolutely safe in the hands of a fully competent, all-knowing, ever-present God.” John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat. Ortberg then makes the following points.
If we live with a small God…
- We live in fear and anxiety because everything depends on us.
- Our mood will be governed by our circumstances.
- We will live in a universe that leaves us deeply vulnerable.
- We cannot be financially generous because our financial security depends on us.
- And so much more…
When human beings shrink God, they…
- Offer prayer without faith,
- Work without passion,
- Serve without joy,
- Suffer without hope.
Question Number 3: Does prayer change things?
“The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best.” Dallas Willard, Divine Conspiracy
How often when someone is diagnosed with cancer do you go through the motions of praying, all the time feeling that the future is already set by the course of the disease?
How frequently, when you hear that a marriage is in trouble, do you pray for acceptance and comfort for the parties rather than pray for reconciliation, believing that things have gone too far for the future to be changed?
Accepting that everything will happen exactly as it does regardless of prayer kills faith, destroys hope.
If that’s where you find yourself even part of the time, Jesus Christ has brought you Good News. God the Father wants to grant the petitions of your heart! He wants to change the future! He wants to write history the way your heart desires!
Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened. Is there anyone among you who would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or would hand him a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! Matthew 7:7-11 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Walter Wink, commenting on Revelation 8, writes, “History belongs to the intercessors – those who believe and pray the future into being.”
History is in your hands – not because you’re powerful or wealthy or smart – but because you believe and pray, and because Jesus Christ himself intercedes for us.
If God is for us, who can be against us? Since he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us, then can we not expect that with him he will freely give us all his gifts? Are we not sure that it is Christ Jesus, who died – yes and more, who was raised from the dead and is at God’s right hand – and who is adding his plea for us? Romans 8:31, 34 (NJB)
The Petitions of Your Heart
May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests. Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. O LORD, save the king! Answer us when we call! Psalm 20 (NIV)
What does your heart desire? What do you want to accomplish? What are your petitions, requests? These are important questions, because God wants to know! He wants you to trust in him and ask for them.
“Prayer simply dies from efforts to pray about “good things” that honestly do not matter to us. The way to get to meaningful prayer for those good things is to start by praying for what we are truly interested in. The circles of our interests will inevitably grow in the largeness of God’s love…Many people have found prayer impossible because they thought they should only pray for wonderful but remote needs they actually had little or no interest in or even knowledge of.” Dallas Willard, Divine Conspiracy
Richard Foster, in Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, writes, “We bring ourselves before God just as we are, warts and all. Like children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests. We do not try to sort out the good from the bad…We tell God, for example, how frustrated we are with the co-worker at the office or the neighbor down the street. We ask for food, favorable weather, and good health.”
That’s the “daily bread” of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.
That’s the “praying for each other’s healing” of James 5.
That’s the “praying for those who mistreat you” of Luke 6.
That’s the praying for “peace” of Psalms 122.
That’s the prayer for “healing” of I Kings 13.
And it’s the prayer for “forgiveness of our debts” in Luke 11.
Prayer is simply “talking with God about what we are doing together.” Dallas Willard, Divine Conspiracy
Question Number 5: So what?
All of this is just good theology unless you do something with it. So what are you going to do? Here are some suggestions.
1. Spend some time writing down what really matters to you. What is it that your heart really wants to have happen? Who (including you) and what are really important to you? What do you want to happen in their future? How do you want their history to read? God made each of us with different interests, different passions, and different circles of acquaintances intentionally.
2. Pray regularly about those things with all the trust that God will hear and act that you can muster. Decide to be someone that truly shapes the future, someone that helps write history.
3. Record the results that you observe – what God has caused to happen or change as a result of your prayers.
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