“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks 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 will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:7-11
Several years ago, a friend brought balloons to a study that we were co-leading. As an object lesson, she had each of us write our prayer request on a balloon then we took them outside and released them together. It was an excellent way to visualize how to present our needs to God then let go and trust Him to do what is necessary. As a result, I’ve started to look at my prayer life differently. More recently, I was praying about a fairly substantial concern. As I began to pray, I was convicted of the need to pray with confidence. I don’t know that I’ve ever done that quite this way before. Rather than telling God what I needed, I started thanking Him in advance for His provision in response to my request. As a result, I was filled with hope and praise. It’s not that I wasn’t confident of God’s provision beforehand, but praying in this way took away the desire to “micromanage” God…that kind of prayer that is more like drafting a legal document rather than a making a request of my Lord. Since then, my mind keeps returning to the topic of prayer and the attitude we should take when praying.
One of the hindrances to prayer is what to say. After all and as I’ve said, God already knows what we need. However, He has instructed us to come to Him and pour out our needs and desires. Sometimes the problem is keeping it fresh. We have needs concerns that we take regularly to the Lord like praying for family, friends, our church and our nation. It’s easy to fall into a rut. Then there are those situations where we aren’t exactly sure how to pray. Whether the issues is so large that we have trouble comprehending it or we just can’t figure out what the best outcome could be, we are at a loss as to what we should request. For many of us with chronic illness, the brain fog makes it difficult to properly gather our thoughts. Finally, there are the troubles that so overwhelm us that we trip over our words trying to plead with God for help. Thankfully, no matter where we find ourselves, God as always is ready to help. Romans 8:26-27 tells us: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
For the prayer of hope, trust is imperative. It is trust that God is near and listening to our prayers. It is trust in God’s character that He will do what He has promised. It is trust in His ability to fulfill our needs. It is trust in His wisdom to know what is best. It is trust that He loves us so much that He will provide exactly what we need. Jeremiah 17:7-8 aptly describes what it means to trust God: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.” God knows what we need and what is best, but He asks us to come to Him in prayer to complete the communication cycle which yields intimacy in the relationship. However, if there is no trust, there is no intimacy and there really is little or no relationship.
Our attitude in prayer also impacts our ability to be hopeful. James 4:3 reminds us that when we pray with selfish motives, our requests will be denied. Conversely, passages such as 1 John 5:14, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Philippians 4:6, and Colossians 4:2 tell us that when we submit our will to God’s, humble ourselves and turn from sin, and are both watchful and thankful, He will provide what we ask. A key indicator of our attitude is whether our faith drives our prayers or the answers to our prayers define the nature of our faith. While it is true that God’s positive responses to our prayers draw us closer to Him, how we respond to the noes and waits says much about our faith. I’ve often heard “a loving God would not…” That kind of statement denies God’s sovereignty, wisdom and love while elevating personal will above God’s. However, the mindset of faith resembles that of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego whose faith was not diminished if God chose not to save them from the fiery furnace or Christ who submitted His will to the Father’s the night before His crucifixion.
When we remember Christ’s promise in Matthew 7:9-10 that God will never substitute an evil thing for a good thing and Paul’s affirmation in Romans 8:29 that for those who love God, all things work together for our good, we will be able to pray with hope and thankfulness…thankfulness not only for what has been provided in the past, but also for the way in which God will respond to our current requests.
May you confidently approach God with your requests knowing that He hears you as you submit your will to His will and your knowledge to His wisdom; and may you be rewarded with thankfulness, hope and peace.
Will