In a recent post—”Act. Trust. Rest.”—I shared this confession: “For far too long—and too much still— my conversations with God have involved more angst than seemingly they should.” Certainly, I am not alone in this regard, for believers often struggle with prayer in one way or another. So, today, let’s expose a few prayer perceptions and see what the Bible speaks to each.
Sometimes we pray as though God were fickle, waiting to hear just the right words in just the right sequence while we suffer in our need. But listen to the plain petition of Bartimaeus, shouting above the crowd: “Son of David, have mercy on me!”1 When Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” the blind man replied simply, “I want to see.”2 There was no “right formula” here, just an honest and trusting exchange. What a great model of prayer for us.
Sometimes we anxiously intercede for others, as though trying to convince God to care about them as much as we do, or to step up and match our level of compassion for them in their crisis. But God loves people far more than we do; Paul writes, “the love of Christ . . . is too great to understand fully.”3 Not only does God love suffering people more than we do, the love we have for them actually “comes from God.”4 We pray better when we pray in this understanding.
I had coffee recently with a young man who had been taught that, as an act of faith, we as God’s children must demand our desires from Him. Over the decades I’d heard others profess this theology, but such a prayer attitude actually exposes a shortage of trust in God’s wisdom and His fatherly love toward His children. So, I asked my friend, “When you are married and have a family of your own, what will you do when your four-year-old comes to you and demands you buy him the bicycle that is rightfully his as your son?” My friend laughed in concession; he got it.
Do you tend to suggest to God what He might want to do in certain situations and how He may want to go about it? Once when Samaritans didn’t welcome Jesus into their village, His disciples James and John asked Him, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”5 Putting it mildly, this wasn’t what Jesus had in mind. Likewise, over time, I have found that God’s surprises outshine my suggestions.
Pray honestly. Pray joyfully. Just pray.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.”6 Guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus.7 Amen.
1 Mark 10:48 NIV
2 Mark 10:51 NIV
3 Ephesians 3:19 NLT
4 1 John 4:7 NLT
5 Luke 9:55 NIV
6 Psalm 139:4 ESV
7 Philippians 4:7
Categories
Paul Nordman—Author 