"All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." ( Isaiah 66:2 )
"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." ( Hebrews 4:16 )
And it's always a time of need, isn't it?
One of the areas I had to relearn and grow in after being in a word-faith church was our most basic privilege: prayer.
In the Scriptures we are invited to come with confidence and humbly pray to God, to ask him for anything. ( Matthew 7, Luke 11 )
So, we see that we are encouraged to pray for everything, to ask, seek, knock. Jesus told his disciples parables that they would pray and not give up. ( Luke 18:1 )
In Paul's epistles we are told to pray for all manner of things concerning the saints. I recently typed out Paul's prayers throughout the New Testament to pray back to him for my family and for others.
When Jesus was on earth he prayed. We have the pleasure of being privy to some of his prayers. In John 17, known as "The High Priestly Prayer" we are given an entire chapter of Jesus praying to the Father, humbly and faithfully. For us! He prayed for Peter after satan asked to sift "all of you" like wheat. ( Luke 22:31-34 )
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus "fell to the ground and prayed." ( Matthew 26:39 )
Throughout the gospels we see Jesus up early in the morning praying in a desolate place. We see him praying all night sometimes.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray when they asked him. Even people who aren't Christians know "The Lord's Prayer."
Jesus is our Lord and Savior if we repent of our sins and trust him to save us. He tells us then to take up our cross and follow him. He asked that God not take us out of the world, but keep us from the evil one. God has that power. Of course, he does.
Jesus is able to save us to the uttermost, since he always lives to make intercession for us. ( Hebrews 7:25 ) That has to be one of the most comforting verses in the Bible.
Jesus taught us to pray in more ways than one.
Listen to this verse from Hebrews 5:7; it has guided and changed my prayer life:
"In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence."
My ESV commentary says that 'supplication' indicates a submissive request.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was heard because of his reverence.
We never see Jesus declaring and decreeing things from God.
And it's okay to cry; it means we're weak. It shows we are dependent on him. His strength is made perfect through our weakness. Jesus wept.
In many churches and movements today, we see leaders teaching their congregations to "decree and declare," "command and demand," "name and claim" No where does it tells us to do this in the Scripture. It took me awhile to get this disrespectful jargon out of my head.
We've lost our reverence for a God who is holy beyond anything we could ever imagine in our wildest dreams or nightmares. A God so clothed in holiness that anyone in Scripture who came near to his presence was on their face in the dirt. In a nano second, they found out, not only how holy, holy, holy Yahweh is, but how holy they are not. For the most part, I don't see this reverence in the American church today.
We also see in Scripture that our motivation in prayer is important. God cares about the state of our hearts.
"He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." ( 1 Peter 5:5-6, James 4:6-7 )
Because what are we approaching when we come in prayer?
A throne of "grace."
To receive "mercy and grace."
"Confidently," we can come confidently only because Jesus made a way back for us and now we are God's children. Adopted. Dearly beloved. Created. Not begotten. That's important. We are not little gods.
Daniel's humble prayer of repentance in Chapter 9 for his people is a wonderful model of what we should be praying for in regards to our nation, not just in light of wicked leaders and a volatile election year, but always.
We hear celebrity pastors and prophets talk about God in such flippant ways displaying little respect or reverence. They say that God told them this and God told them that, but did God really tell them those things? We need to seriously examine ourselves and what we are hearing.
Jesus was heard because of his reverence, and he is God.
If Jesus is reverent toward God, shouldn't we be?
Jesus commanded the waves and the wind, but he is God. He created the waves and the wind.
Jesus commanded Lazarus to come forth, but Jesus conquered death.
Contrary to what is being said in word-faith, prosperity gospel circles, we are not "just like Jesus." All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. Not us. Jesus gave his disciples authority for a specific purpose - for evangelism. All authority is given by him. ( John 19:11 )
In Christ, we are now clothed in his righteousness. We stand accepted by God through what Christ has done for us. We are blessed in Jesus with every spiritual blessing, and are given all things that pertain to life and godliness. We have God the Holy Spirit living in us forever. We have been blessed beyond measure, beyond anything we can wrap our minds around. ( 1 Peter 1:3, Ephesians 1 & 2, John 14:16 )
We have a living hope that one day we will be made holy too. Can you even imagine that? The Farmer and I encourage each other with this beautiful hope as we struggle in our sin and weaknesses during the difficult times. ( Romans 8:30 )
This knowledge should cause us to live in a state of thanksgiving and reverence continually to our holy, gracious Father, that he would love and save sinners such as us.
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice."For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. " ( John 3:16 )
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