Prayer Series 8: Asking

In my last blog about prayer, we discussed our heart’s motivation and attitude towards prayer – to come to Him and seek Him with a motivation to know Him.  After all, He already knows ALL of us, so our role in our relationship with God is to quiet our fleshly loud spirits that are focused on our own selves and to focus on Him with a servant’s heart that’s willing to respond.

In this blog, we are again going to focus on our heart’s motivation, but this time focusing on how we ask or lay our petitions before God.  Asking is a key component of prayer, but it’s probably the component we too easily jump right into and spend the majority of our prayer time doing.  God is not Santa, but I fully admit I regularly catch myself jumping right into my laundry list of requests for God, without: 1) taking the time to put my heart in the right place of submitting to who I am talking to through praise and thanksgiving (previous blogs) and 2) thinking about the “why” of my heart’s motivation in whatever I am asking (this blog).

James 4:1-2 says:

“Where do wars and fights [come] from among you? Do [they] not [come] from your [desires for] pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.”

The Bible says: “you do not have because you do not ask,” so it is absolutely Biblical for us to lay out our concerns before Him and to ask for His help. 

Earlier in this verse, it points out the reason we are all bent out of shape about many issues in our own lives…from our desires for pleasure.  This verse uses pretty strong language that’s easy for our self-righteous selves to skip over – wars, fights, lust, murder, and covetousness – but, STOP, we all are guilty of these sins in seeking our own pleasure.  Do you argue?  Do you have conflicts?  Do you always have to be right?  Do you want to be comfortable and have it easy?  Do you want that “perfect” life someone else has on social media?  Do you want what you don’t have- that house, that “perfect” body?  Do you hate or disdain anyone (murder)? Is there someone you haven’t forgiven that still overwhelms you with anger and malice (murder)?  We are all guilty of desiring our own pleasure – putting ourselves first before others.  In a sermon by Greg Laurie this week on GraceFM, he asked: “Are you more concerned with your own comfort than the souls around you?”  Ouch!  My answer was yes, many times I am.  Many of my requests for prayer are often fueled by these very pleasures.    

Secondly, there is heaviness and tragedy everywhere you look because of sin – cancer, death, sickness, injuries, car accidents, murder, people getting hurt because of other people’s sin, and on and on.  As Christians, we are called to intercede and pray for others (1 Samuel 12:23, Acts 12:5, Ephesians 6:18).

Quite frankly, I’m often overwhelmed with where to start – my list of requests for my own self, my family and friends, our church family, and for the world around me is LONG!  I could pray all day!  I think we can all agree we have a lot to ask for in this fallen, sinful world and God wants us to seek Him and depend on Him.  So, now, what about our heart in asking?  Stay with me for this…

James goes on to say in verse 3:

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend [it] on your pleasures.”

WHOA!  Ah-ha moment!  Sometimes we ask and we don’t receive because we ask amiss?  In Greek, the word amiss is kakōs which means "to do improperly, wrongly, or with bad intent."  We ask for things with the bad intent of “spending it on our pleasures.”  Ok, instead of what?

In studying Malachi this week, my heart literally stopped on this verse where the Lord is correcting corrupt priests.  We too, like these priests, are corrupt with sin that we know better than to commit.

“'If you will not hear, And if you will not take [it] to heart, To give glory to My name,’ Says the LORD of hosts, ‘I will send a curse upon you, And I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, Because you do not take [it] to heart.’” Malachi 2:2

We must take it to heart to give glory to God.  It’s not enough to just say the truth and hear the truth, we must be motivated to glorify God authentically from our hearts through our lives, our actions, our activities, our body language, our attitudes, our words, our thoughts, and OUR PRAYERS.

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” John 15:7-8

When we abide in Him, our desires become His desires.  We are to crucify our own flesh.  Our desire will be for Our Father to be glorified through our lives of discipleship and bearing eternal fruit (good works) in His name. 

So…what does this have to do with what and how we are asking God for?  Next time you pray, think about what you are asking for and the “why” you are asking for it?  Are you asking for your husband’s salvation because you want him to be more loving to you and you can’t bear the thought of him spending eternity in hell?  This is absolutely an appropriate prayer to ask of God, but the motivation should be that God may be glorified and not dishonored by a life not lived for Him rather than for your own pleasure (feeling loved and so you’re not grieved).  Make sense?

Let’s lighten this up here.  It’s that time of year again – cold and flu season!  When school starts, germs run rampant, and let’s face it, a lot of prayer for healing and comfort comes into play.  I had to take my three boys in for flu shots last week.  Last year it was a disaster.  They literally were screaming and crying, all three of them, at the top of their lungs: “don’t hurt me, help me, save me!” during the busy flu clinic at the pediatrician’s office.  So, OF COURSE, I prayed about it this year!  First, I will admit, I was 100% praying for my own pleasure - so I didn’t have to go through the discomfort again and be embarrassed.  During prayer, I stopped and changed my request so God could be glorified by my family while we were at the pediatrician’s office this year.  I even put on my new C4 t-shirt to project God even more (haha!).  God was glorified by my loving, respectful kids, and the prayer was answered. 

So, practically speaking, start paying attention to your heart’s motivation behind what you are asking for while you are praying.  Start focusing your prayers so God may be glorified and honored and put your own comfort and pleasure aside.  If it’s God’s will for you to have discomfort or to have to go through something you don’t want to go through, all so He can be glorified in this sinful world, it’s worth it (Romans 8:18).  Have faith that, despite the temporary discomfort, He knows all and is working it all out for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

“Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, ‘Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.’” Psalm 35:27

“My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:2-3

Prayer Series 7: Know Him

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in 1 Chronicles when King David is announcing that his young and inexperienced son Solomon will become Israel’s next king, and he is communicating that God wants Solomon to complete the mighty work of building the temple.  After David communicates God’s plans for Solomon to the leaders of Israel, he exhorts his son and future king of Israel with this verse:  

"As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.” - 1 Chronicles 28:9

I love this verse because God’s heart for how we love Him, serve Him, and seek Him first is all here.  Also, David, a loving father with the experience of being the greatest king of Israel and a man after God’s own heart, in his final years chose to exhort his beloved son with these words of wisdom.  Bottomline is, this verse is WISDOM, and it starts with “KNOW the God of your father.” 

The Hebrew word for “know” is yada,` which means to be acquainted with, to know by experience, to recognize, or to consider.  It's a relationship!  If you really think about it, God knows more about you than you know about yourself.  He created you, He’s omnipresent and omniscient (He is always present and knows everything), He sees your outward actions, He even knows your thoughts, and He knows your tomorrow.  What I love about this verse is it goes even further and says God knows your heart and understands the intent of your thoughts.  Yikes!  He knows our deepest motivations.  He knows ALL.  Furthermore, what always blows my mind is that He knows each and every person in the world on this same level and loves each one.  WOW!

So, obviously, you can’t hide anything from God, and He loves you right where you are at today regardless of your sin, your state-of-mind, your intentions, or your attitude.  Further in the verse, it says “if YOU SEEK Him, He will be found by you.”  It’s up to us to seek Him.  He is and always will be right there and available, just wanting to spend time with us.  We are wired with a soul that thirsts to spend time with God as it’s in our original DNA - the “Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day” wanting to spend time with Adam and Eve, but they were ashamed and avoided His presence because of sin (Gen. 3:8).  We are sinful because it’s our nature and it’s so easy to avoid His presence because our sinful nature separates us from His presence – we are thinking more about ourselves, our comforts, our “need” for sleep, our busy schedules, what we need to do today, how to get ahead, etc. etc, etc.

God gave us free will - free will to seek Him or forsake Him.  It’s our choice, and it has eternal implications.  He just wants to spend time in relationship with us.  He already knows all of us, so we need to know Him to have this relationship.  He is good all of the time, He wants to teach us, encourage us, bless us, grow us, change us, make us more like Him, and help us glorify Him so others can come to salvation and know truth through our lives.  Understanding that we were made to have a relationship with God and that prayer is the method for how we talk to God, prompts me to consider my heart and approach to “knowing God”. 

Yes, the “components” of prayer we’ve discussed in this blog series so far are all important, including: praise, thankfulness, praying scripture, repentance, and obedience, and we should challenge ourselves to make a habit of incorporating them into our prayer lives on a regular basis.  But don’t approach prayer with a checklist either.  Check your heart.  What is the motivation of your heart and the intent of your thoughts?  Is it to know Him?  Is it to acquaint yourself more with God’s heart and will?  Is it so you can recognize and consider His purpose and plan for your life because His thoughts are greater? 

Here’s a practical example considering prayer before Bible study.  In Matt’s powerful Rocket Fuel study a few weeks back, he said the first step of Bible study is quieting your own spirit.  You can do this and should do this through prayer.  I don’t know about you, but my spirit is LOUD!  My mind is always swirling with the things I need to do today, the people I need to call/text, emotions, etc…  This is one of the reasons I study the Bible in the morning, because my spirit is naturally a little quieter.  I haven’t fully engaged in email, texts, social media, the news, my kids aren’t awake, and my fully-packed day isn’t in full swing yet.  It is so much harder for me to quiet my spirit for an afternoon or evening Bible study.  It can be done, but it’s harder.  Regardless, whenever you study the Bible, make sure you quiet your spirit through prayer. 

What does “quiet your spirit” mean?  Purpose in your heart and mind to seek God first and suppress your flesh through prayer.  Start with a heart to know God to get acquainted with Him, not the other way around.  Praise God for who He is, and take time to be grateful for all He’s done, putting yourself in a place of submission, ready to receive from the God of the Universe who is spending time with YOU.  Ask God to teach you, correct you, grow you, show you more of Himself, change you, reveal sin in your life, show you how to love others, prepare you for the day/week/months ahead, and for you to have an ear to listen and obey Him.  Whatever you do, don’t jump into a Bible study with a loud spirit that is focused on yourself to check “do Bible study” off your list.  God wants to spend time with YOU.  He wants you to KNOW HIM.  If you really wanted to get to know a new friend, would you say “Ok, you have 30 minutes. Make me feel good please”?  No!  You would make it a priority to spend quality time with that friend.

Remember, the purpose of prayer is communication between you and God.  Keep it simple, come to Him and SEEK Him with a motivation to KNOW Him.  He already knows ALL of you, so our place is to simply come to Him, to quiet our fleshly loud spirits, let His Spirit and presence in, just spending time with Him listening and meditating on His Word, with a heart ready to serve Him and not ourselves. 

"Come to Me, all [you] who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” - Matthew 11:28

“Be still, and know that I [am] God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” - Psalms 46:10