Put Your Hands Together Now
Pray
“And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?”
1 Samuel 28:15-16
Prayer should be a part of your life, daily.
We should get up early in the morning to meet with God and to pray to Him. We should pray to God throughout the day and again in the evening before sleep. We should pray with our family and with friends. Prayer is extremely important.
It isn’t the how and why and what of prayer that is important as much as it is - that we pray, fervently, in everything we do. It’s biblical.
I once asked a very close friend of mine about how to pray. He said there isn’t a right or wrong WAY to pray.
As usual, I disagree to a degree. I agreed on the “way to pray” part however.
My friend meant this; it doesn’t matter if you pray out loud or quietly in your mind. It doesn’t matter if you get on your knees or stand or pray while you’re driving. In these instances, there is no right or wrong way to pray. There will be times when you must fall on your face (get on your knees) before God.
Originally I thought my friend meant there was no right or wrong - in everything that has anything to do with prayer. That’s not what he meant.
Going before God in prayer must be done in the right spirit with your heart and with your mind in the right place.
I am guilty of praying for what I want, not what God needs from me. I’ve gone before God in prayer and asked Him to do for me, instead of asking Him to show me. There are small intricacies that take ourselves out of the spotlight in prayer. We should be allowing God to use us. That’s the purpose of our relationship with Him.
In the spirit of things I wasn’t actually submitting to His Will. It was a prayer of expectation and need. “God I need this, I need you to do this for me, God fix this.” Not exactly the right way to go about it.
“God does not answer the prayer of a rebellious heart that is intent on willfully taking its own way.” - Anonymous
Our motives must be right. And we must submit to Gods Will. Our heart and spirit must be in the right place in our prayer. We must put ourselves at His mercy because we already have His grace.
I’ve gone before God with a salty heart and I refused to acknowledge it. My mind and my heart were bitter and I checked the box that I prayed for the day. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
No matter what your attitude or feelings in the moment, prayer must be humbling and of pure thought. We should put aside what is wrong with us and go before God and acknowledge that we aren’t worthy to begin with. There is nothing wrong with asking God for His help or for healing or for Him to bless you in some way. Asking God for you to win the lottery is not a good idea.
Saul learned this lesson when he only went to God when he wanted approval for his own way, not for what God had in His Will for him. And then Saul turned to someone else for an answer instead of to God.
And what happened? God stopped answering Saul’s prayers.
If we push aside God’s Will for us and act on our own behalf - what else should we expect? God will not answer our prayers. He may, in fact, use us to answer someone else’s prayer.
We should go before God and ask God to use us for His glory in His Will. This might not be how we want things to turn out. The healing of someone else might be what we want, but not what was in Gods plan.
You don’t have to pretend not to be upset or in a bad mood or even angry. You can bring this to God in prayer - acknowledge how you feel and ask God to help you. I’ve taken my anger to God, knowing it wasn’t right, but knowing He was the only one that could help me.
There are many emotions that you might experience that come from things happening in your life and God wants you to bring it to Him. Good and bad. Take time today to pray to God and ask Him to use you for His Will and His glory.
Most importantly, prayer is about your relationship with God. You are a child of God and He is the Holy Father. Prayer is that important because He is that important.
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
James 5:16
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
Philippians 4:6
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
Matthew 6:6
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Mark 11:24
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:”
1 John 5:14