Monday 22 May 2017

Knowing what to pray

What do you do when you want to pray what God wants?  You ask him.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?  But it often isn't.  We either pray what we want.  Or, we blunder along, forgetting the power of praying according to God's will.

But for John Eldredge, asking God what he should pray about has become second-nature.  And he sees results.

In his book Moving Mountains, Eldredge says he and others were praying for a chronically-ill friend when he realized nothing was going to happen.

"I paused, and quietly in my heart I asked Jesus, What is going on here, Lord? What are we doing wrong?  How do we change the way we are praying? Jesus replied, Ask him how he feels about his body."

So Eldredge asked his friend that question and he answered: "I hate my body."

That was the key to opening the door to healing his friend's body.  As Eldredge writes: "You can't bring blessing into a body while the owner of that body is cursing it."

The next step was working with this man to "break those agreements with self-hatred".  Having done that, the group of friends prayed again for healing and soon the man was feeling well.

Eldredge says that asking Jesus what to pray in any situation is "the step that has brought greater results than all others combined" in his experience.

"If prayer is in fact a partnership, I want to be in alignment with God," he writes.

Of course, this is consistent with scripture.  The apostle John writes in his letter 1 John 5:14-15:

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."

Still, it is hard to shake myself of the habit of praying for what I want in a situation.  I have to be ready to accept that God knows best - even if the answer is bitter tasting at the time.

Eldredge offers the illustration of someone asking for prayer that his mother and father be reconciled.  That may be what God wants right then - or it may be that the Lord wants something else done first.  Perhaps there are character issues to be dealt with before reconciliation.

We need to remember that Jesus wants to talk with us as he says in Revelation 3:20.  He is knocking on the door of our hearts, waiting to be invited in.

Eldredge always begins his prayer time, asking for God's guidance.  He suggests we begin with simple, specific questions like "Should we invite our neighbours for dinner this weekend" rather than big life-changing ones like "Whom should I marry?" or "Should I quit my job tomorrow?"

Then, he urges us to find a quiet place where we can relax in God's presence without distractions.  He will ask a small question and then repeat it so his mind stays focused.  He does not demand "Yes" or "No" answers, but opens his mind to the still, small voice of God.

When he can, Eldredge begins his prayer time by consciously consecrating himself to God - spirit, emotions, heart, mind, will and body - and asks the Holy Spirit to fill him.  Then, he seeks God's guidance for his prayers and looks for breakthrough - a sign that God is answering the prayer.

This makes a lot of sense to me.  I can think of two friends I have been praying about for several years without outward results.  Have I been praying stubbornly the wrong way?  Does God have something else in mind for them?

I will ask God and start listening to what he says.


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