Evaluating Our Prayers

I always feel rather inadequate in writing here on the blog. I want to encourage you to stand on the Word alone and to live it out while knowing that, while I desire to live it out myself, there are so many times I just totally fail. There are few subjects I feel more inadequate in writing about than prayer. I wish I could tell you that I get up at 4am and pray for hours. Sometimes when I awake at 5:30, I think to myself “I should get up and pray,” but then I roll over and go back to sleep. Now, I don’t want you to think I never pray. For that wouldn’t be true, either. But I also know that my prayer life could be so much more powerful and it is an area I long to grow in.

I have been especially thinking about this over the past couple of weeks. Mostly because of our Sunday School teacher. I will be right up front and will begin by letting you know that much of what I am writing today comes from him. He has been focusing on prayer and some of the things he said and has had me thinking on have been so convicting. I wanted to share some of these things with you because I thought you, like me, might be convicted and encouraged.

Why don’t we pray like we should? Why don’t we make the time?

One of the things our teacher challenged us on was on how we spend our time. Was whatever we did (instead of praying) better than prayer? OUCH.

Bottom line: We all have time and we get to choose how we spend it. Oh, how often we get my priorities so mixed up or are just plain lazy. Or is that just me??!

Another thing that was really convicting were his questions regarding our actual prayers:

Is the aim of my prayers focused on pleasing God and submission to His will? Or do I focus most of my prayers on what will make me or someone else comfortable and happy in this world?

In other words, am I more concerned about the temporal things of this life or do I have an eternal perspective?

He took us to I John 3:22–

And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

Prayers are answered when we are living in right relationship with God. If we are living in right relationship with God– keeping His commandments and desiring to please Him then our prayers will be a reflection of these priorities.

Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with praying for healing or help in a certain area. God wants us to come to Him with our broken hearts and our desperate needs. I don’t think He even minds hearing our wants.

But we really need to consider two questions, as we share our hearts with God.

Will I willingly and joyfully submit if He says no?

Our teacher said this: God’s will is oppressive if you are rejecting it. But when we realize it’s good it becomes a blessing.

Only through faith and by God’s strength can we understand that God’s will is perfect. It reminds me of Romans 12:1-2–

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Only through sacrifice of our wills and intentionally not conforming ourselves to this world, will we be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We can expect no peace or trust or faith without doing what Paul encourages us to do at the beginning of Romans 12. Our acceptance of God’s perfect will hinges on it.

And a second question: Do I pray for the spiritual fruit that could come from this trial?

For example, so often we pray for healing but it is in these deepest, darkest trials that so many find Christ. It is in these trials that exponential growth often takes place. If we are praying for a Christian friend who has health issues, do we pray for them to be given many opportunities to share the Gospel as they visit doctors and spend their time in the hospital? Or are our prayers focused solely on their health issues? Do we pray that they would grow stronger in faith through this trial?

I think it is just so easy for us to get caught up in focusing on simply the health issue or some other need and keep our prayers focused only on getting that need met. And yet, God is so often working and using these trials to spread the Gospel and to grow His people. Are we partnering with Him in this or are we only focused on the things of this world as we bring our requests before God?

Another thing he mentioned is how often we try to conquer sin on our own and how this is like putting the cart before the horse! I had never thought of it quite like that before. Only through Christ, can we truly conquer our sin and our love for the world. We can’t do it alone. Philippians 4:13, a favorite verse of so many, reminds us of this truth–

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

We can have victory through Christ and His strength, but how often do we go this route of conquering sin or turning away from the world all on our own strength?!? How often do we pray diligently and fervently for help in eradicating a specific sin or our love for the world?

Do you see why I was so convicted? But, as I told my husband, sometimes God has you hear something that you feel was just for you. Such was the case with these lessons on prayer. I think God knew I needed to hear them. Maybe some of you don’t. I know some of you have vibrant and powerful prayer lives. But perhaps there are some of you that needed to hear these words as much as I did. And so it is to you who I write today. I hope this was an encouragement as we endeavor to renew our minds and grow in our faith.