Prayer has been a challenge for me this summer. I really, truly, honestly believe (in my head) that prayer is profitable. God has shown me time and again that he responds to it. Yet, I still have had a lot of trouble in being faithful with it. It really bothers me, but I am going to accept God’s grace and move on.
Here are some thoughts things I’ve learned about prayer in this struggle:
1. Prayer does change things outside of us (see the OT), but more often it changes things inside of us. When we come before our Father, humbly and honestly, and just abide (often silently) in His presence, it allows him opportunity to change our hearts. This, I am coming to believe, is probably one of the most important aspects of prayer. A lot of things God has determined in advance. Prayer doesn’t, maybe, have a profound impact on those things. Prayer does have a profound impact on our hearts as we let it.
2. God is real. He is as real and as present as anyone you know. If we are not aware of God’s realness when we pray to him, our prayers will likely not be offered in faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (NIV)
If we don’t honestly believe God exists, our prayers will not be offered in faith (and they will not please God, incidentally, either).
James talks further about this, specifically, a man who doubts when he prays shouldn’t expect to receive anything from God… read it for more info.
3. One of the biggest hindrances to prayer, in my life, has been a faulty understanding of God’s grace. When I sin or when I am not achieving what I perceive as success as a Christian, it becomes quite difficult for me to want to be with God. The most transforming passage that I have found to help me set my mind on truth is this:
11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool,14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16″This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”17Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”18And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
The main points from this that have helped me in prayer are how before God there is nothing I can do to make up for my sin. Anything I would do would be inadequate, but it doesn’t say that specifically here. What it says here is that everything has already been done. Verse 18 says that where sin has been forgiven, there is no longer any offering for it. There’s nothing left for me to do. Feeling bad or trying to make up for my faults is worthless. Not only that, but it is a rebellious rejection of God’s provision. Learning to simply accept God’s gift is a big step towards effective prayer–it develops love in us that leads to a desire to get to know God.
Our fitting response to this is clearly put beginning in verse 19: we may have confidence to draw near to God with a sincere heart and with a full assurance of faith. This because we have been cleansed by his blood–we’ve been cleansed from guilt and our bodies have been washed.
The more I meditate on this passage the more courage I have to, in fact, enter God’s presence.
That’s all for now. What I have written is in regard to my own experience. I don’t know it all. This is just a little of what I’ve learned.