Last Sunday night we studied through the story of Hannah, Elkanah, Penninah and Samuel in the book of I Samuel. It is a story fraught with many different aspects of what Christians can and do struggle with in their lives. Fear, anger, disappointment, insults, trials, pain, confusion and on and on and on the list goes. Hannah goes through some extremely difficult and painful situations which last for years. She desires a son but cannot bear children. She suffers the pain of her husband marrying another woman, that woman taunts her and causes her much grief. Her husband does not try to empathize with her pain and says something which causes her more pain. Hannah turns to the Lord and cries out to Him in prayer. Now, I am not trying to say that Hannah was sinless in this process, but she did exhibit a prayer full of worship and dependence upon her Lord. This is what the following passage I introduce reminded me of. Prayer that is not a laundry list of demands.
From Oswald Chambers book, My Utmost for His Highest, this entry is about the type of prayer we too often engage in. I know prayer is a weak area in my spiritual life, and this entry spurred me to continue actively working on it.
“And He…wondered that there was no intercessor.” (Isaiah 59:16)
The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.
Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshipping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God–”I don’t see how You are going to do it.” This is a sure sign that we are not worshipping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.
“But there is no one interceding properly”–then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and remember it is a work, a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare. Preaching the gospel has a snare; intercessory prayer has none.
In class, Pastor Jay has been encouraging us to retrain our prayer habits towards one which is focused on God and worshipping Him. Not that requests are wrong, but prayer is about us becoming more like Christ, developing the mind of Christ within ourselves and forming our desires/will to that of Christ’s. We may want something or want a certain situation to go a certain way, but prayer should be focused on desiring/requesting God’s will be our first and foremost desire and that His will be accomplished and God be glorified by the results. Prayer also is significant in the process of our desires being granted which is something God mentions several times in the Bible. But what about when we desire something, we ask, we may ask for it–several times even, and it never comes about. So, what does this say about God? Is He a liar, can He be trusted? No and Yes! He knows what is best for me and what will bring Him the most glory. These two principles go hand-in-hand, even if it does’t feel best to me at times. When I pray about things I desire, if I pray to worship Him, to transform my mind to be like His, I will desire what He desires. When this occurs, I will see my life through His eyes and be content with His answers and will. What could be more honoring to Him than to be content in His provision or “lack thereof” and worshipful in my daily communication with Him?
Marissa
