Category — Prayer

God is near at hand when you do approach Him in prayer. Oh, comforting truth! A God at hand to hear the softest breath of prayer – to listen to every confession of sin – to every cry of need–to every utterance of sorrow – to every wail of woe – to every appeal for counsel, strength, and support. Arise, O my soul! and give yourself to prayer; for God is near at hand to hear and answer you.

—Octavius Winslow

Via: Of First Importance

When the arrow of a saint’s prayer is put into the bow of Christ’s intercession it pierces the throne of grace.

—Thomas Watson
A Body of Divinity

Via: Of First Importance

Prayer is essential for the Christian, as much for what it says about us as for what it can do through God.  The simple act of getting on our knees (or faces or feet or whatever) for 5 or 50 minutes every day is the surest sign of our humility and dependence on Father in heaven.  There may be many reasons for our prayerlessness—time management, busyness, lack of concentration—but most fundamentally, we ask not because we think we need not or we think God can give not.   Deep down we feel secure when we have money in the bank, a healthy report from the doctor, and powerful people on our side.  We do not trust in God alone.  Prayerlessness is an expression of our meager confidence in God’s ability to provide and of our strong confidence in our ability to take care of ourselves without God’s help.

Too often when we struggle with prayer we focus on the wrong things.  We focus on praying better instead of focusing on knowing better the one to whom we pray.  We focus on our need for discipline rather than our need for God.  Almost all of us want to pray more frequently, and yet our lives seem too disordered.  But in God’s mind our messy, chaotic lives are an impetus to prayer instead of an obstacle to prayer.

You don’t need to work and work at discipline nearly as much as you need faith.  You don’t need an ordered life to enable prayer, you need a messy life to drive you to prayer.  You don’t need to have everything in order before you can pray.  You need to know you’re disordered so you will pray.  You don’t need your life to be fixed up.  You need a broken heart.  You need to think to yourself: “Tomorrow is another day that I need God.  I need to know him. I need forgiveness. I need help. I need protection. I need deliverance. I need patience. I need courage. Therefore, I need prayer.”

If you know you are needy and believe that God helps the needy, you will pray.  Conversely, if we seldom pray, the problem goes much deeper than a lack of organization and follow through.  The heart that never talks to God is the heart that trusts in itself and not in the power of God.  Prayerlessness is unbelief.

Prayerfulness, on the other hand is an evidence of humility and faith, which is why God loves it when we pray.

—Kevin DeYoung

Via: Kevin DeYoung

There are really only two rules that you have to keep in mind when you’re in prayer, two things that should drive and govern and control your prayer life with the Almighty. You should remember who is being addressed and who is doing the speaking. That is, the first thing you are to remember in prayer is who it is you’re talking to, because nothing will condition your prayer life more deeply than remembering that you’re in conversation with God, the sovereign Creator and ruler of the universe. Second, you are to remember who you are. You are not God. You are a creature. So prayer is not a conversation between peers; it is not a fireside chat among equals. This is the creature speaking to his sovereign Creator.

—R.C. Sproul
The Prayer of the Lord

Via: Ligonier Ministries Blog

The most important prayer is that the most important person in the universe do the most important act in the universe.

That’s why Jesus put this request at the beginning of the Lord’s prayer: “Hallowed be your name.”

God is the most important person in the universe. More important than all others put together.

All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (Isaiah 40:17).

The whole-souled act of hallowing God’s name is the most important act in the universe.

To “hallow” means to “sanctify” which in God’s case means to set apart in your mind and heart as supremely great and beautiful and valuable.

“Hallowed be your name” means, “See to it that your name is hallowed. Use your infinite power and wisdom and love to stir up billions of hearts and minds to admire you and prize you above all things."

We ask him to fulfill this promise:

I will sanctify [hallow] my great name, which was profaned among the nations…. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord…when I shall be sanctified [hallowed] in you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36:23)

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” (Isaiah 48:11)

Ask the Lord to help you make the most important prayer your most common prayer. And the one you desire most to see answered.

—John Piper

Via: Desiring God Blog

“Devote yourselves to prayer…” (Colossians 4:2a)

I suspect that a chief reason for our apathy in prayer is not our lack of need but in our perceived lack of need.  Many of our prayer lives reflect shallowness and irregularity because we somehow have bought the lie that we are sovereign and not in need of help, glorious and not required to worship, and too busy and so not in need of the discipline of bending our hearts in submission to God through prayer.

Prayer is a humbling thing.  And failure to pray reveals as much about our prideful self-consumption as our misconceptions about self-sovereignty, divine power, and the glory of Christ.

We need a simple jagged command like this here to puncture our imaginations, flood our hearts with sacred truth and bring us into the reality of God-centered dependence.

Via: Erik Raymond

Another great post from The Blazing Center:

Thou Eternal God,
Thine is surpassing greatness, unspeakable goodness; super-abundant grace
I can as soon count the sands of ocean’s lip
as number thy favours towards me;
I know but a part, but that part exceeds all praise

—Divine Mercies
Valley of Vision

When was the last time you pressed the “pause” button of life and took stock of God’s mercies toward you? It’s so easy for us to become fixated on the one thing that’s “wrong” in our lives that we miss the staggering heaps of divine blessing strewn about us.

Try to make a list of God’s blessings toward you. Don’t forget to include:

• Your salvation. If this was the only thing on my list I would have reason to spend my entire life singing.

• Your health. Walking, breathing unaided, playing sports – all grace. Why can I do these things and others can’t?

• Your family. I get to spend every day with my best friend, my wife Jen. I have a daughter that’s cuter than a bucket of puppies.

• Your house. Every day I enjoy hot showers, warm covers, and three square meals.

• Your job. I’m not rich by American standards, but I make more money in a day than most of the world makes in a year.

• Your church. I can worship without fear of government assassination. I own at least five Bibles. My church meets in a building, not under a tree in the African plains.

The list could keep going for pages. I didn’t even mention friends, times my life has been saved, my pastor, my parents, my computer, my spiritual resources, the correction of the Holy Spirit, and ten-thousand other things. God has been kind, hasn’t he? I don’t want to stumble past mountains by staring at a grain of sand.

So what’s on your list?

Via: The Blazing Center

Father,

This is your world, and you do with it as you please. You’re the King of Presidents and the true director of all nations. A man can’t become president, or pastor, or prime minister, or plumber, without your consent. There isn’t a country or king or child or bird or insect that sustains itself. You work all things according to your plans, and no human plan can stand apart from you.

We bless you for allowing Barack Obama to be elected as President of the United States. We know that he wasn’t ultimately elected by Democrats or Republicans, but by You. So we trust you. You knew exactly what you were doing.

Lord, our greatest desire is not that the economy would be righted, or that health care would be solved, or that the war in Iraq would be resolved. We want to see You glorified in whatever way you choose. Glorify Yourself through Barack Obama. We pray that four years from now more people would know and love you because Barack Obama was in office.

We pray that you would draw Barack Obama to yourself. Open his eyes to see the glories of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Press Your hand upon him. Allow him to feel the fragility of this country.

Your word tells us that you control his heart like a waterway. Please cause him to enact godly laws, laws that will promote the spread of your gospel. Breathe into him a love for human life, a heart that moves with compassion for the needy, and a deep sense of Your justice.

Above all else, use Barack Obama as a channel for Your kingdom.

In Jesus name, amen.

Via: The Blazing Center

O Lord,
Length of days does not profit me
except the days are passed in Thy presence,
in Thy service, to Thy glory.
Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides,
sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour,
that I may not be one moment apart from Thee,
but may rely on Thy Spirit
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire
to show forth Thy praise;
testify Thy love,
advance Thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with Thee, O Father as my harbour,
Thee, O Son, at my helm,
Thee O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.
Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ear open to Thy calls,
my heart full of love,
my soul free.

Give me They grace to sanctify me,
Thy comforts to cheer,
Thy wisdom to teach,
Thy right hand to guide,
Thy counsel to instruct,
Thy law to judge,
Thy presence to stabilize.
May Thy fear by my awe,
Thy triumphs my joy.

—Valley of Vision