Do you see yourself as an orphan or an heir when you pray?
Susie Larson, author of Your Powerful Prayers: Reaching the Heart of God with a Bold and Humble Faith, says that the answer to that question is critical.
She says Christians who see themselves as orphans do not expect much from their prayers. And they usually get what they expect.
But people who have put their faith in Jesus are new creations, she writes. They are no longer orphans eating crumbs off the floor, but heirs of a bountiful God who is offering them a spiritual feast.
So, we should pray like that.
"Jesus loves and treasures the spiritual orphan," says Larson. "That's why he made a way to adopt us into the family of God. But once we become heirs, he doesn't wants us acting or thinking like orphans any longer. Spiritual orphans beg and plead. Heirs pray and believe."
Larson notes that scripture says "that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in you".
She points out that the apostle Peter declares in 2 Peter 1: "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
And he adds that God has "given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature".
Larson comments that we will more easily access this power the more we get to know God and what he wants for our lives. God empowers us to live an otherworldly life.
This does not mean that we will escape trouble or suffering. We must recognize that God permits trouble in our lives because he is carving us into Christ's image with untold benefits in the life to come. As the apostle James says in James 1, we should even embrace suffering because it leads to endurance and spiritual growth.
She acknowledges that disappointment and sorrow can sour us on God and prayer. Ultimately, though, we need to look beyond us to God who loves us so much that Jesus sacrificed his life for us on the cross. He is working out things for our good and for triumph over Satan, sin and death.
"Going into the storms of life, if we can know that we are his children, his heirs, his prized possessions, we'll stand more sturdily on his truths when the storms hit," Larson writes. "And, we'll learn to live and pray with expectancy amidst these storms, because we'll know in the depths of our souls that God wastes nothing and allows nothing that he can't use, redeem, restore, and repurpose for his name's sake."
She says many of us react to disappointment or despair over our own failings by shying away from bold prayer. Or, we indulge in negative self-talk, or "we find ourselves whispering those begging types of prayers that leave us feeling small, not loved or embraced like we actually are".
Instead, we should remember that we are God's heirs, his children whom he loves so much that we are always welcome to come to him, even when we mess up.
"May you remember today that Jesus' overwhelming victory on the cross gave you a place at the table of grace. You get to be there because Jesus unequivocally defeated sin, death, inferiority, insecurity, imperfection, isolation and rejection, just to name a few."
What a heartening truth!
Susie Larson, author of Your Powerful Prayers: Reaching the Heart of God with a Bold and Humble Faith, says that the answer to that question is critical.
She says Christians who see themselves as orphans do not expect much from their prayers. And they usually get what they expect.
But people who have put their faith in Jesus are new creations, she writes. They are no longer orphans eating crumbs off the floor, but heirs of a bountiful God who is offering them a spiritual feast.
So, we should pray like that.
"Jesus loves and treasures the spiritual orphan," says Larson. "That's why he made a way to adopt us into the family of God. But once we become heirs, he doesn't wants us acting or thinking like orphans any longer. Spiritual orphans beg and plead. Heirs pray and believe."
Larson notes that scripture says "that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in you".
She points out that the apostle Peter declares in 2 Peter 1: "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
And he adds that God has "given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature".
Larson comments that we will more easily access this power the more we get to know God and what he wants for our lives. God empowers us to live an otherworldly life.
This does not mean that we will escape trouble or suffering. We must recognize that God permits trouble in our lives because he is carving us into Christ's image with untold benefits in the life to come. As the apostle James says in James 1, we should even embrace suffering because it leads to endurance and spiritual growth.
She acknowledges that disappointment and sorrow can sour us on God and prayer. Ultimately, though, we need to look beyond us to God who loves us so much that Jesus sacrificed his life for us on the cross. He is working out things for our good and for triumph over Satan, sin and death.
"Going into the storms of life, if we can know that we are his children, his heirs, his prized possessions, we'll stand more sturdily on his truths when the storms hit," Larson writes. "And, we'll learn to live and pray with expectancy amidst these storms, because we'll know in the depths of our souls that God wastes nothing and allows nothing that he can't use, redeem, restore, and repurpose for his name's sake."
She says many of us react to disappointment or despair over our own failings by shying away from bold prayer. Or, we indulge in negative self-talk, or "we find ourselves whispering those begging types of prayers that leave us feeling small, not loved or embraced like we actually are".
Instead, we should remember that we are God's heirs, his children whom he loves so much that we are always welcome to come to him, even when we mess up.
"May you remember today that Jesus' overwhelming victory on the cross gave you a place at the table of grace. You get to be there because Jesus unequivocally defeated sin, death, inferiority, insecurity, imperfection, isolation and rejection, just to name a few."
What a heartening truth!
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