Transforming Your Prayer Life (Part 3)
Why do we pray? We won’t receive unless we ask. But prayer must be more than a means of acquisition. “God is more than the clerk of heaven’s storehouse.” We must align ourselves with the purpose and power of God, and when we do, we are changed! He moves! He alters our actions and attitudes! He empowers us to do things we could not otherwise do! Prayer is absolutely indispensable! It must be the heartbeat of the church. J. Sidlow Baxter once said, “No blessing of the Christian life becomes continually possessed unless we are men and women regular, daily, unhurried secret lingering in prayer.” My prayer mentor, Doug Small says, “God has subordinated supply to prayer. It is the process by which the believer appropriates heaven’s resources out of the estate of Christ. (Prayer The Heart of it All, 31).
Have you discovered the power of Scripture praying? Read your Bible as a Prayer Book. It is the Christian’s prayer book. Read it as if you were having a conversation with God. It is a love letter as well as an instruction manual for life. “Good prayer is over an open Bible, with daily transformation in mind” (Small). Martin Luther advised that believers “turn a biblical text into “a school text, a song book, a penitential book, and a prayer book.” P. Douglas Small opines, “Nothing will advance your prayer life more quickly than praying Scripture. Read it and then pray it. Meditate on it – run the passage over and over in your mind and heart. Consider its implications. Review it, And stop along the way. Consider its parts, listen for the voice of God in the Word of God. Let Scripture speak to you, then muse, question, gasp, consider, align – and take the implication of the passage deep within yourself. Read it. Reflect on it – meditate. And then pray it back to God. Use the language of the passage to create prayer language for yourself. Step into the passage, And pray as if you were in it – use its concepts, its mood, its promises, its call to action and change.” [P. Douglas Small, The Prayer Closet: Creating a Personal Prayer Room (Kindle Locations 815-819). Alive Publications. Kindle Edition.] Dietrich Bonhoffer said, “The Psalter is the prayer book of Jesus Christ in the truest sense of the word. He prayed the Psalter and now it has become his prayer for all time…we understand how the Psalter can be prayer to God and yet God’s own Word, precisely because here we encounter the praying Christ…because those who pray the psalms are joining in with the prayer of Jesus Christ, their prayer reaches the ears of God. Christ has become their intercessor…” Good prayer is over an open Bible with daily transformation in mind.
How do you approach prayer? Is it transactional or transformational? Prayer should be transformational not transactional. Prayer includes discipline, but it is not merely a discipline. It involves setting aside a regular time and place, as we have discussed, but it is not merely an item on our schedule. It includes asking for things we need, but it is not merely a shopping list of requests and rejoicings. God is not our “Cosmic Vending Machine!” Prayer involves speaking to God and God speaking to us, but it is not merely an exchange of memoranda. In a lifestyle of dependence, when we pray, we surrender and are led by the Spirit, directed and renewed. In humble dependence, our confidence in God grows. We hear His voice. We obey. We are being transformed.
Prayer is a place of repentance. No matter how long you have walked with the Lord! Repentance is the cure for sin. Bunyan said, “Prayer will make a man cease from sin or sin entice a man to cease from prayer… Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.” Repentance is the healthy reaction of an upright heart. “We are never closer to God than in repentance.
William Carey noted, “Prayer—secret, fervent, believing prayer lies at the root of all personal godliness” (84-85). Crooked hearts dodge repentance and remain deluded; those that are tender break before God. Richard Foster adds, “When we pray, God slowly and graciously reveals to us our evasive actions and sets us free from them” (85). Confession and integrity among believers releases a stream of healing grace. James 5:16 – Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
A posture of the heart to be maintained throughout our journey with Christ. God’s grace not only empowers repentance, but also transforms. Repentance first results in conversion, when by faith we acknowledge our sorrow for sin, confess it and resolve not to sin again! But repentance involves more than confession, and it is more than a one-time event. It includes a resolve not to sin and this must become a lifelong habit, which God graciously engenders through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Brian W. Powell contends, “For holiness to become a lifestyle repentance must become a regular practice.”
Let me give you an example. As I studied Daniel, the Spirit reminded me how I resist against prayers of confession—confessing things I don’t think I’m guilty of! Daniel shows us a better way to pray. Daniel exemplifies how important confession is for any who are truly seeking a supernatural intervention of God! His prayer begins with confession (9:4) before asking for a single thing (Dan. 9:17ff.). Daniel includes himself in the confession at least 20 times in the first 15 verses before asking God for a single thing. “WE have sinned and done the wrong thing” (Dan. 9:15). What might happen if we quit praying against them, those, and theirs, and started praying US, OUR, WE PRAYERS? Daniel shows us a better way to pray. Never avoid confession of sin nor resist it for it leads to self-righteousness and the spirit of the Pharisee who lifted himself in pride (Matt.18:11).
Personalize your prayers. I know Daniel prayed for Jerusalem, but a living, active Word (Heb. 4:12), has allowed me at times, just when I needed it the most, to write my name in the place of Daniel and other Bible greats! So it is not a stretch for me to insert our country in place of what is there. “My Lord, please! In line with your many righteous acts, please turn your raging anger from (America) because of OUR sins and the wrongdoing of OUR parents… our city and your people have become a disgrace to all OUR neighbors. But now, OUR God, listen to your servant’s prayer and pleas for help. Shine your face on your ruined (churches), for your own sake, my Lord.” “WE” confession is not off limits to a humble heart. Daniel’s words drip with sorrow and remorse!
Prayer is a means of filtering toxic thoughts and perverse moods. A kind of soul filter… a place to “empty our cargo,” said Luther, “to speak with earnestness, to open the heart and pour out what lies at the bottom.” A place to pour out our deepest feelings. As we do, a kind of “therapy takes place.” A cleansing comes. Our doubts are confronted. We face our fears. We pray through such things and God gives us grace (81-82). “Prayer itself,” Fosdick reminds us, “is a great conqueror of perverse moods.” Pray however you are feeling. Spurgeon wrote, “We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a praying mood because it would be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition.”
Prayer is a means of purification. Nothing promotes personal holiness as much as prayer and the study of the Word. It promotes holiness. And the great Scottish pastor and writer Robert Murray McCheyne, said out that “the greatest need of his congregation was the holiness of their pastor.” Prayer will keep us from minimizing sin, and from redefining sin as simply a mistake. Sin is more than merely stubbing our toe! It is deadly and toxic to relationships. It is a poison to the soul. “Christians should never act as if the free blood of Jesus can casually be splashed about to cover just any sin. Such blood isn’t cheap, even if grace is free. Prayer deals with the toxins that collect in the soul. It purifies. It even corrects wrong thinking. It realigns character. It nudges us toward Christlikeness.
Prayer is a place of surrender. And Jesus is our example. At Gethsemane, He prayed thrice. He moved to total surrender. He prayed himself into complete alignment with the Father’s will. He silenced any resistance in his flesh. “Prayer summons the strength of heaven for the task (Luke 22:45). An angel came to strengthen him. This is prayer. There seems to be something significant about praying three times. Jesus does it. Paul too about his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:8). Watchman Nee observed, “The principle of praying thrice is to pray thoroughly, a praying through until we are clear on God’s will, until we obtain His answer.”
Prayer is oxygen to the soul. Prayer is an energy that, like oxygen, feeds our whole being even when we are not aware of it. Prayer is a positive, life-enhancing energy that affects us physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Prayer ministers to us. It enables us to tap into divine energy that turns our truest intentions into action. It brings spiritual nutrients to our entire being. So, allow prayer to minister to you.
