THE CRITICAL ELEMENT
Issue #5 26-March, 1990
We all know that prayer is a simple act of talking to God.
Did you also know that prayer is the act of moving closer to God?
In the account of the transfiguration given to us in Luke 9:27-
36, we see Christ as he prays. "And while He was praying, the
appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became
white and gleaming." Christ moved so close to God in His prayer
that His closeness caused Him to be visually surrounded by the
glory of God.
"For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it
as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him?" (Deut 4:7). I
believe that prayer is not only the act of moving closer to God,
but it is also the process and result of moving closer to God.
By this I mean that prayer is a self-sustaining process. Prayer,
as demonstrated by Christ, moves us closer to God. We become
closer to God not only in spiritual proximity, but also in spir
itual identity. As we pray, we are able to break down the barri
ers that separate us from God; that is, sin. As this occurs, we
are able to move closer in our fellowship and our relationship to
the Father. The effect is making us more aware of our need for
prayer. Do you see the cyclic effect here? God sustains our
prayer life by showing us how important it is. Then why is our
prayer life often not consistent? There is nothing that God does
to cause our falling away from prayer. That act is the product
of our own apathy and sinful nature.
Prayer is not just a one-way street. God does hear and
answer us. Faith comes into play here. Now I'm not going to
attempt to define faith right now. That would take another
10,000 words. For now let's just call faith trusting God to do
what God says He will do. In Mark 11:24 Christ tells us this.
"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask,
believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted
you." While that statement is very true it is not a blank check
for our every whim. This is stated in Matthew 7:8-11. "For
everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him
who knocks it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you,
when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or
if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will
he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give
what is good to those who ask Him!" Yes, God answers our prayer,
but only by giving us the things that are to our best interest.
Our faith is to be applied here. Have faith that God will answer
your prayer and He will give you what is rightly suited for you.
Man was created to have fellowship with God. Prayer is part
of this fellowship. By fellowship I mean rapport or togetherness
with God. This fellowship is also a two-way street; however, we
must first clear our side of the road. God is always talking to
us. Maybe His speech doesn't always echo in the hills like
thunder, but He can speak in other ways. It could be in a
reassuring feeling, a word or note from another person, or from
the Bible. Unfortunately whatever form this message from God is
in we will not hear it unless we are open in fellowship with Him.
Prayer comes into play here. If we have been seeking the Lord in
prayer and have broken down the barriers that separate us from
God, then we will be open to hear God's voice and receive God's
love.
And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for
they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street
corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they
have their reward in full. (The public recognition of men.) But
you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have
shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your
Father who sees in secret will repay you. And when you are
praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do,
for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
(Thereby impressing both God and man.) Therefore do not be like
them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.
Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed
be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it
is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us
our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead
us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." (Matthew
6:5-13).
Christ, in this concise passage, gives us everything we need
to know about praying. If you will notice, I have underlined
various words and phrases in the Lord's prayer. For the next
segment of this letter, I will attempt to look at this prayer in
detail and point out its explanation of how we are to pray. In
order to preserve some sense of reading ease I will not discuss
these words in order of their occurrence.
Malachi 1:6 explains the idea of Father. "'A son honors his
father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where
is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says
the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name." We can
see from this that God, as a Father, is to be honored, and that
God, as a Master, is to be respected. Think about your relation
ship with your earthly father. If your relationship with him is
on good terms, then chances are that you communicate with him
well. You probably know a great deal about his past and his
personality. This knowledge brings about your respect, and your
honor follows. It is the same way with our heavenly Father. If
we communicate with God, then we tend to build up our knowledge
of and our fellowship with Him. This brings about our honor and
respect. Therefore the attitude we are to have during prayer is
one of wanting to get to know God more. By this we will learn to
honor God.
Luke 6:46 gives us an idea of hallowing the name of God.
"Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"
Webster's defines a lord as one having power and authority over
others. When I think of the word lord, I think of a final au
thority; a court above which there is no higher appeal. Do we
allow God to have the final authority over everything in our
lives? I know in my life I have made many decisions without once
consulting God to hear what He has to say. This is perhaps one
of the most sorrowful errors that a person can make. God wants
so desperately to give us the best of everything. When we choose
to make our own decisions, we deny ourselves the privilege of
getting God's best. We are not only keeping God from doing His
best work through us, but we also short change those around us.
If we are going to call God our Lord, let's show Him the honor He
deserves. In this way His name will become holy to us. Do you
sometimes prevent God from doing His best work in you? Do you
sometimes deny God the right of being your lord, your final
authority? I know that I do.
What does He mean when Christ says for God's will to be
done? I think that John 5:30 answers that question. Christ
says, "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I
judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own
will, but the will of Him who sent Me." In the past this has
always confused me. God, the Father, and God, the Son are all
part of the same Godhead. Therefore they must share a common
will. Right? Yes, that is correct; however, when Christ was
made incarnate He had a carnal or human will, as well as, a
divine will. How else could Satan have tempted Christ in Matthew
4 when, as we will see in a moment, God cannot be tempted? Satan
was tempting Christ's human will.
Christ lived His incarnate life with His human will in total
submission to the will of the Father. This is exactly what God
wants us to do. He knows we are not going to be perfect and that
is okay. He does, however, want us to try. How do we do this?
"He must increase, but I must decrease," (John 3:30). I'll spend
more time talking about this in a future letter, but for now be
thinking about how you could let yourself decrease so that Christ
might increase.
God has total dominion over heaven. Therefore the will of
God being done there is no stretch of the imagination. Here on
earth, however, the devil is free to roam and deceive much as he
chooses. Although God still has the final authority, Satan will
try to hamper our execution of God's will. Remember, God has
given us the power of choice. We can, at any moment, choose to
do the will of God; we also can choose to follow our own will,
thereby allowing Satan a victory.
"Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by
God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not
tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and
enticed by his own lust," (James 1:13-14). If God does not tempt
anyone, why does Christ ask the Father not to lead them into
temptation? I think Christ meant for God to lead us away from
the devil's snares. Whatever He meant, I know three things. God
doesn't tempt us, He will not let us be tempted beyond what we
can stand, and there is always a sinless way out of the situation
(1 Cor 10:13).
Does Satan have a true victory when we fail to take the
sinless way out of the temptation? Remember this: Satan has
already been tried and convicted. His punishment is simply
pending the end of the age (Rev 20:10). However, when Satan does
succeed in deceiving us, the fellowship that we had with God is
then broken. That is were we lose out. Whenever we allow sin to
separate us from God, we turn our back on our best friend. There
is nothing we can do to eliminate sin completely from our lives.
Because we are human, sin is our nature; and if you are like me,
sin comes often and in great abundance. Thankfully, God is
always there waiting for us to come back to Him.
Asking for forgiveness comes in here. What good does this
do? Isn't it true that the penalty for our sins has already been
paid? Isn't is true that at the moment of our conversion we were
forgiven for all our wrongdoings? Think about this: when we ask
God to forgive us for our sins we are actually doing three
things. First, we are admitting to God that we have done wrong
ly. Second, we are thanking God for His Son's bloodshed that
made it possible for our sins to be forgiven. Lastly, we are
asking for a filling of the Holy Spirit in order to change our
attitude. By doing all this we are reestablishing our broken
fellowship with God. Notice I said fellowship, not relationship.
Our relationship with God is not broken by our sin. Matthew
6:14-15 illustrates the importance of forgiveness. "For if you
forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father also
will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your
Father will not forgive you."
Once we have broken down the barriers separating us from
God, we are then able to receive our daily bread. This is not
only in the great blessing of hearing His voice, but also in the
provision of our daily needs. This idea is illustrated in Luke
12. When you read this, look first at verses 1-12, and then
closely consider verses 22-34. Verse 31 says, "But seek His
kingdom, and these things shall be added to you." From this we
can truly see the great advantages of prayer. God will provide
for us if we seek Him in prayer and have faith that He will
answer.
How does all this relate to God's kingdom coming? Consider
Amos 5:18-20. "Alas, you who are longing for the day of the
Lord, for what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you? It
will be darkness and not light; As when a man flees from a lion,
and a bear meets him, or goes home, leans his hand against the
wall, and a snake bites him. Will not the day of the Lord be
darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it?"
A characteristic of one who genuinely loves Christ is a longing
to look Him in the face. I'm not sure how many of you have ever
been in love with someone, but consider this. After you first
begin to know someone in a dating relationship, you begin to have
feelings of love for them. After getting to know them better,
your love deepens for them. As our prayer life increases, we
begin to learn more about God .and how He works in our lives.
This starts the self-sustaining process I was speaking of earlier
that causes us to be more able to love God for who He is. There
fore we do not have to dread the day of the Lord, but can look
forward to it with great hope.
So just what does all this say about prayer? Prayer is
truly a complex thing to define. It is an act, a process, and a
result. There is no question that it is one of the main pillars
that support our relationship with God. To remove it would be
foolish at best.
We are always to look upon God as our Father, giving Him
honor and respect. This respect for God's word and person con
victs us to do His will. By this we bring glory to His name. In
order to do His will we must place ourselves in submission to
God. We must give up our own carnal desires in order to accom
plish His will. We are not always going to do this successfully.
Satan is always there to trip us on our daily walk with God. The
fact that we are forgiven allows us to move on. All along the
way Christ is nurturing us and building us in our faith.
I encourage you to set aside a few minutes each morning in
which to seek the Lord in prayer. It has been my experience that
I have a greatly improved spiritual attitude throughout the day.
I have also found that my resistance to sin is much greater
because of this prayer time. Of course, we are all going to
fall, but remember that God loves us. He is always there to pick
us up and carry us through the hardest of times.
"Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will
rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me,"
(Micah 7:8).
For further reading:
Matthew 18:23-35 Forgiveness
Romans 12:1-20 Executing God's Will
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