One of the men in our Bible study posited this for us to ponder: “When my dad says, ‘Don’t run out into the street,’ do I obey because I fear my dad’s anger and wrath, or because I trust his wisdom and care?” What an effective diagnostic! (Or so it seemed to me). The question was analogous, of course, ultimately focused not on our relationship with our earthly father, but with our heavenly One. It occurred to me that our understanding of who God is affects the spirit in how we approach Him. Then let’s look at the nature of “our Father who art in heaven,” the character of Him who calls us to pray.
God loves His people, and of His own desire He draws us close to Himself. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”1.
God listens to us with intentionality. Marvels David, “I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.”2
God’s desires for us far exceed our own imagination and petitions. He is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”3
God sometimes says, “no” to our prayers, this for our own good and for His higher purposes. Paul testifies: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about [my affliction], that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”4
God may take time to answer us, so that we grow stronger in our faith, itself “more precious than gold”5. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith . . . And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”6
God is faithful to answer us in His wisdom and in His time. “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”7
Loving, caring, lavish, protective, wise, and faithful—this is the nature of our heavenly Father toward us who are His children “through faith in Christ Jesus.”8 God delights in us and eagerly invites us into conversation with Him. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace . . .”9
Father, forgive us for doubting Your character. Grace us to know You as you really are and, in this confidence, to draw near to Your throne of great grace. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Jeremiah 31:3
2 Psalm 116:1-2 NIV
3 Ephesians 3:20
4 2 Corinthians 12:8-9
5 1 Peter 1:7
6 1 Peter 5:8-10
7 Psalm 69:13
8 Galatians 3:26
9 Hebrews 4:16
Tag: Prayer
My brother and I awoke one Sunday morning to commotion in the hallway below. Hurrying down the winding staircase, we saw before us our father lying on a stretcher, suffering a heart attack. Mom told us, “I’m going to the hospital. Go upstairs and pray.” So there we sat in our bedroom, Eric at age nine and me at age seven, praying every way we knew how, that Dad would live. When my mother returned, we ran to her. “How is he?” we asked. “He’s dead,” she replied. Our world changed that day.
It can be difficult to reconcile the promises of God with the tragedies of life. I had been taught to trust that God hears our prayers and answers them, yet when it came to the most important plea in a child’s life, my ask went unfulfilled. Afterward, though I petitioned in hope, there was often an accompanying element of anxiety and doubt, especially when praying for healing. Then one day beamed a glimmer of light—a Biblical event shining clarity into my soul. It was the story of three exiled Hebrews brought before the Babylonian king for not worshiping an image he had made. Threatened with a furnace for noncompliance, they answered him, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”1 There it was—both faith in God’s power and submission to God’s sovereignty. God wields His power within His larger plan; neither negates the other. Didn’t Jesus, facing torture and sacrificial death, express the same in Gethsemane? “My Father,” He pleaded, “if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”2 If Jesus subjected His will to God’s sovereign purpose and plan, can we do likewise? Yes, we can. For He answers our prayers with love, power and wisdom that exceed our own.
Epilogue. For decades it seemed to me that death had consumed my father’s life that July morning in 1965, and with it, our family happiness. Yet once more it was Scripture showing me the opposite, for as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, we long to “clothed . . . with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”3 Death need not consume our life, for in Christ life swallows up our death. We live in this glorious hope.
Father, thank You that you hear us when we pray; we know that You always do.4 We choose this day to trust in Your power and submit to Your sovereignty. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.
1 Daniel 3:16-17 NIV [emphasis added]
2 Matthew 26:390 NASB [emphasis added]
3 2 Corinthians 5:4 NIV [emphasis added]
4 John 11:41-42
Paul Nordman—Author 