Choosing God's way

Have you ever been at the end of your tether, wondering why God isn't answering your crying need?

Catherine Marshall was in that state in 1943, bed-bound for six months with a serious lung infection that doctors were unable to solve.  She had been praying persistently for a long time with no change.

In her book Adventures in Prayer, she tells how she turned to God and said: "I'm tired of asking . . . I'm beaten, finished.  God, You decide what You want for me."

And she goes on: "It was if I had touched a button that opened windows in heaven; as if some heavenly dynamo of power began flowing, flowing.  Within a few hours I had experienced the presence of the Living Christ in a way that wiped away all doubt and revolutionized my life. From that moment, my recovery began."

She calls this the "Prayer of Relinquishment" because she gave up her own will for God's.  Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, she said, in effect: "Not my will, but yours, be done."

Catherine Marshall warns us not to expect that we will get what we want simply by saying that we will do what God wants.  We have to be ready to obey, whatever the cost.  But the benefits of God's peace and joy are worth the sacrifice.

As she says: "The Prayer of Relinquishment is the child dropping his rebellion against being a child, placing his hand in the big, protective hand of the Father, and trusting Him to lead us even in the dark."

Prayer and love

Prayer is often an act of love.

Jesus said that, above all, we are to love God and we are to love our neighbours as ourselves (Luke 10: 27).

When we are praising God, we are expressing our love and adoration.  When we pray for others, we are demonstrating our love for them.

When Daniel and Nehemiah wept and prayed for Jerusalem and the people of Israel, their hearts were full of love (Nehemiah 1 and Daniel 9).  Indeed, they confessed their own responsibility for the dire state of the exiled Jews while pleading for God's people.

Jesus spoke out of love and mercy while dying on the cross, asking the Father to forgive those who were crucifying him (Luke 23:34).

In his letters, Paul often says how he yearns for his fellow believers and prays for them constantly.  It was his way to show how much he loved them.

Of course, not all prayer is an expression of love.  Sometimes, we must put on our spiritual armour to battle Satan.  Or, we must come to God with contrite hearts when we sin.

The hardest kind of prayer is praying for those who have hurt us.   But that is what Jesus did on the cross.  And it is the kind of prayer that God loves to hear.

In effect, we are making a sacrifice of love when we pray for our enemies.  It is the ultimate in loving prayer.

Stories of answered prayer

I love stories of answered prayer.

Often, I don't know for sure how God has answered my prayers.  I may have missed his answer because I haven't been alert or I have looked for the wrong things.  Or, I may have put down an answer to coincidence or just the normal course of life.

But occasionally the answer is so clear that even I can see it.

There are a lot of stories of answered prayer in the Bible.  I mentioned one in an earlier post - the story of John the Baptist's miraculous birth to his aged mother and father who had been praying for a child for many years.  Or, I could talk of Jesus calling Lazarus from his tomb.  Or, the angel coming to Daniel who was pleading with God for understanding about the plight of Jerusalem and God's people.

Recently, I read the book Heaven is for Real, by Todd Burpo, a Nebraska pastor.  Burpo's son Colton nearly died in hospital while his father went to a small room nearby to be alone, closed the door and vented his fears, anger and frustration in crying out to God.

A year or so later, Colton told his father that he saw him praying in a room at the hospital while he was with Jesus in heaven and that Jesus sent the little boy back in answer to his prayer.  There was no mistaking this because Colton was unconscious in the hospital and never saw his father go to that room.

I thought of this and other stories as I listened to the following video by Pete Greig, author of Red Moon Rising, a book about a wave of prayer rooms he and others have set up around the world.  These are rooms where people pray around the clock.  Here is Pete Greig's video:

The weapon of praise

Praising God is a powerful weapon against Satan.

David writes in Psalm 8:2: "From the lips of children and infants, you (God) have ordained praise, because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger."

The "foe and the avenger" is Satan.  Satan tries to make you ineffective by dropping thoughts in your mind that God doesn't love you or that you are worthless. He brings spiritual, emotional and physical suffering upon you.  He tries to harm the church by promoting conflict.  He is fighting to stop the Kingdom of God from advancing.

But, think of it: Praise from the lips of children will stop Satan dead in his tracks.  That is quite a picture.  Children have an uncomplicated, trusting faith in God which often puts me to shame.  They praise God because they believe he is able to do anything.  They believe he loves them.

There are stories in the Bible and in our own day of miracles happening when people praise God.

As Wesley Duewel, author of Mighty Prevailing Prayer, says: "Praise takes the initiative out of Satan's hands.  It is a tremendous means of resisting Satan and causing him to flee."

Praising God is good for you

I have found there is no better medicine for what ails you than praising God.

My problem is I tend to forget that this medicine is always there for me.  I spend too much time worrying or upset.  But when I take this medicine, it isn't long before my mental, emotional, and spiritual health improves.

David said as much in Psalm 34:2: "My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice."  The afflicted - those who are suffering in some way - will rejoice as people praise God.

There are good reasons for this.  It's obvious that as I praise God, I'm not thinking about myself.  I'm thinking of my God who created me, redeemed me, loves me just as I am.  I'm thinking of the God of the miraculous.  I'm thinking of God who is working out his plan in my life.  I'm thinking of God who has all time and eternity in his hands.

As I praise God, I begin to let go of my problems.  I realize that nothing is too big for him.  I understand that, in the end, everything will work out for my good.

Several writers have said that praising God is the highest form of prayer.

Paul E. Billheimer, author of Destined for the Throne, said: "Praise is the highest form of prayer because it combines petition with faith.  Praise is the sparkplug of faith."

When I praise God, I begin to understand that anything is possible for God.

Keep at it

Steve Stewart, our pastor, said in a recent sermon that he decided a short time ago to pray persistently for three things that were on his heart.

Within days, he had an answer for one of those prayers.  He intended to continue praying for the other two.

His comments reminded me of how important it is to "keep at it" when I pray.  I should not stop just because the answer doesn't come immediately.

It's easy to get discouraged when God doesn't instantly answer the way we wish.  But, as God says in Isaiah 55:9: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  He has good reasons why he answers when he does.

A good example is Zechariah the priest in Luke 1.  Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth had clearly been praying for a child for many years, but both were now old.  So Zechariah was astounded when the angel said he had come in answer to that prayer and that his wife would have a child.  He had evidently stopped believing God would say "Yes" to their prayers.

But God had great plans for Zechariah and Elizabeth's son, John the Baptist.  He was born to herald the coming of Jesus.

When I think of persistence, I think of George Muller, a man who built a string of orphanages in Britain in the 1800s and fed thousands of orphans without making a single public appeal.  He prayed.

In his book George Muller: Man of Faith and Miracles, author Basil Miller says that Muller started praying in his 20s for the conversion of five young friends of his.  In the following decades, each became a believer - the last at Muller's graveside.

Working with God

When we pray, we are joining with God in carrying out his plan for the world and the universe.

That’s what John Piper was saying in the short video I referred to in my last blog post. His view is supported by scripture.

For example, Jesus outlines the tremendous power of prayer in Matthew 18:18-20.  Whatever we bind or loose on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven.

For that to happen, we must pray in “Jesus’ name” – that is, in the character of Jesus or as Jesus would.  In other words, we must pray as God wants us to pray in our circumstances.

When we pray in this way, God works his will on earth.

The apostle Paul tells us 2 Corinthians 6:1 that we are “God’s fellow workers” and one of the ways we work with God is through prayer.

Amazing, isn’t it?  God wants us to join him in his great work through our prayers.