The Path of Prayer

“I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God” (Nehemiah 1:5a).

Prayer that gets past the living room ceiling is prayer that recognizes first and foremost that God is Sovereign Creator and man is the servant. Proper prayer places God above all and man at His feet. Prayer recognizes that God is seated and He cannot be unseated. He is not a genie that we get three wishes if we rub hard enough on the prayer lamp.

When we learn that God desires holiness then we will seek Him. Prayer is not about our having our way with God–it is God having His way with us. Prayer is God guiding us to do His will. Again, God is not a doting grandfather who has lollipops in His pockets for spoiled children.

We do not pressure God to do anything in our praying. We allow God to pressure us and to press us into His will. God cannot be bribed, cajoled, convinced, or impressed to change. God is unchangeable. Prayer changes nothing of God but everything of us. Therefore, if we do not want to be changed, we will not be praying prayers that effect change.

What is it about our praying that matters? God controls all and yet if He cannot control our actions and attitudes then our praying will be in vain. God moves us to surrender but if we continue to live in our own weather pattern then the storms of life will continue to pour out upon us because of our own lack of reverence and order. God is merciful but we must recognize His sovereignty over our lives. True praying brings us to God!

Similar Posts

  • God Created Us for Relationships

     “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established” (Proverbs 16:3).

      When we do the right things we will experience God working in and through us that will change our minds and attitudes as well. We usually take the opposite approach. We try to change our thinking before changing or reforming our actions. Obedience and doing are the best ways to get your thinking in line with God’s ways.

       As we personalize God’s truths we will experience God working through us in touching others for Christ. Instead of evangelism being “something we do” it will become that which is natural. Why? Because it is of the outflow of the Holy Spirit working through us. It is the practicing of the truth we know.  What power and freedom!

     

  • Rich in God

    “So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him…Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left. Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company…” (Genesis 13:1; 9-10).

     

    Abraham and Lot were men who both acquired wealth from God. Abraham developed his wealth to do the work of God, while Lot used his wealth to build his own empire, pleasure, and building.

     

    At the end of life we find Abraham won more, for his inheritance was of the Lord. Lot lost it all, even his own family. His resources were depleted and he ended up in heaven with his soul but lost his life and all things he lived for.

     

    Lot depended on Abram early on. He had a second-hand faith, a faith that was dependent on another, even though he had a genuine faith. But a Lot cannot live like that forever. It will show up eventually. His dependence was with Abraham as long as the heat was on. But one thing that Lot could not handle was his prosperity.

     

    There is one type of test that a carnal Christian cannot handle or stand – it is the test of prosperity. And it will show up eventually. When all is going well then a Christian will let go of his dependence, a strong Abraham, and will find himself dependent in his prosperity. He has moved on

     

    May we realize that if our faith is lived by the presence of another, that eventually we will fall to the test of prosperity, and most of the time prosperity and materialism will win. There are too many Lots in our midst who have lost their way to glory. May we learn from the lesson of Lot!

  • Then and There

    “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose…a time to gain, and a time to lose” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 6 NKJV).

    A police officer pulled over a distinguished-looking woman, the story goes, and asked why she had exceed the posted speed limit.  The old gentlemen sitting in the passenger seat laughed and said, “Well, young man, we were speeding to get to the place before we forget where we are going!”  Many people forget that they are going somewhere — either  Heaven or Hell.   And many have forgotten, just as importantly, that there are those who are following them on the same journey.  As long as we are breathing we are leading the way.

    Heaven is a time to gain, while Hell is a time of loss.  If you throw in Heaven on this earth, you will also gain Earth.  But if you throw in Earth without Heaven you will find yourself the loser, and you would have lost the most anyone can lose for eternity.  There is a season, and when that season is over we either have gained or we have lost.  Many people are ill-prepared for the realities of retirement and the realities of eternity.

  • The Third Day

    For God To Be Seen

    “And be ready on the third day; for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai” (Exodus 19:11).

     

    Why the third day? Why not the first day, the second day, or even the fifth day? Everything God does He does in His whole Person. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are in total agreement. God is three in One. All is done together to show completeness and holiness. Without oneness there is fragmentation.

     

    Everything we do we ought to do as a whole person. We are to worship God with our “whole spirit and soul and body” (I Thessalonians 5:23). What God does in us He does through us. Why? Our worship of Him effects our wholeness in the world. When we are whole-the body of Christ-then God moves.

     

    We (all born again Christians) belong to God. He has redeemed us from our old way of life (individuality of choices). We have left that life behind and we belong to God. Because we belong to God, we must be separated from sin. We are set apart from the world and set apart unto the Lord together. Why? For oneness in Him. For His glory to be revealed in us.

     

    “Whether, therefore, you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” Paul admonishes the Church at Corinth (I Corinthians 10:31). We are not our own for we belong to Him and therefore to each other. When we realize we belong to Him then we will begin to understand we belong to each other in the household of faith. “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s well-being” (I Cor. 10:24).

     

    When does God reveal Himself in strength, holiness, and power? When God’s people ready themselves to become what we are already in the body of Christ: One body of believers. “Consecrate Yourselves” is for the whole church to know we are one body with many members in Him. Revival in great power happens when we see the power of the third day.

  • Tuition

    “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

    There are kids whose parents are spending big time money to send their children to college. I just saw on television about a man who has worked at night as a janitor at Boston college for the past eighteen years. Because of his employment at Boston College he has been able to send each of his kids to Boston College tuition free. But his children had to earn acceptance and keep the GPA up.

    The Lord Jesus paid a big tuition for each of us to get eternal life. One man said, “I want to be spent for God to the very last cent before He carries me home.” God paid a big price for you and me. Are we truly living?

    The Lord God is watching. We best study how we live and trust the rest of the folks we love to God Almighty. Too many kids go to school doped up, drunk on this world, unprepared, and waste their mama’s money. Oh may we not do so with God. Time is too precious. And His blood is too golden.

    There is a mean devil and he hates God and he hates you. He will use us and disillusion us and trick us into thinking that this world is all there is. God sent His only Son into the world to buy us back for a purpose.

  • Affair Matters

     

    “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?  Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).

         When I was a kid, I used to go the fair. It was a big deal in those days. We would have a great time eating cotton candy, riding the little Ferris Wheel, playing games in the arcade, and walking on the sawdust. When you went to a fair, you left all the responsibilities of normal life behind, at least for a little while. Life was lots of fun at the fair.

         Maybe that is the reason why some call an adultery an affair. It’s leaving behind your responsibilities. Real men do not leave their places of responsibility. Real men do not have affairs with other women. Nor do real men have an affair with the world around them. They know it is the cause of being at hostility against God.

         What is an affair? It is an escape from reality, or a search for meaning outside of marriage, either to your mate or even to Christ. God said do not become an adulterer or adulteress with the world. Do not join up with the things of this world. Do not have an affair with the world and leave your responsibilities behind.