What are your thoughts on praying without ceasing? How do you continue to boldly approach the Lord in prayer, with confidence, when you have not seen your prayers answered?
This is an aspect of prayer I'm pondering right now, as an afterthought from a conversation I had with a dear friend yesterday.
And further: Does praying without ceasing refer to continually bringing your same petitions before the Lord until you see them answered? Or does it have to do with moment-by-moment conversations with the Lord about everything? Or both?
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
I'm thinking a lot about prayer. My perspective and participation in prayer has been something that has continually evolved. Here's something of its history thus far:
As a child, I prayed by rote...standard blessings at mealtime, standard prayers before bed, the Lord's Prayer. It seemed to me that prayers were something of tradition, something that was good to do, and something which ministers scripted out so they wouldn't stumble or forget anything.
As a teen, well, I really didn't pray at all. I was far from the Lord. Except on occasion when I would petition Him to help me not get in trouble for something. I didn't even realize then that He wasn't hearing my prayers at that point.
As a new Believer in my young adult years *ahem....this is of course, NOT to say that my young adult years have passed*...I ran the gamut. I had moved into a circle where prayers WEREN'T scripted, and where I was realizing how much I didn't even know what to pray about or how to do it. I was uncomfortable in prayer circles, and feared man's judgement of my praying ability more than I feared the Lord Himself. Mostly I remained silent and trusted that the Lord knew my heart. But, I was listening, hoping to learn how to really pray.
I came to an understanding a few years back that there weren't necessarily right and wrong words to pray. I realized that, though I may not sound as eloquent as someone else, that my pretty words didn't matter the way that a heart of humility ad expectancy did. So I would venture out more and more in prayer. I was happy to discover in the Word that people were admonished NOT to babble on and on. Vain repetitions and eloquence for the sake of eloquence alone would not ensure their prayers would be heard.
I have much to learn. I surfaced a few years back out of a time where I wallowed in unbelief that prayer mattered, or did anything at all. I mistakenly dabbled with the thought that, if God is sovereign, then how could my prayers affect anything? But I have discovered that the Lord actively responds to active prayer. I have discovered that He has given man the charge- the responsibility-to pray, and that ferverent prayers from hearts truly after His heart will move Heaven and earth.
But I am discovering that it is necessary to seek His will. And to seek His will I need to know His heart. And to know His heart, I need to know His Word. As I'm in the Word, hiding it away in my heart, my thoughts become like His thoughts, my prayers come more in line with His heart. And then my prayers will be more effective.
I've also discovered the admonition to come BOLDLY before the Lord in prayer. Hmmmm.....boldly. What does that mean? Scripture is clear that my heart first needs to be clear (i.e. contrite, humble, free of bitterness and resentment, and with a desperation to know God's heart). And then, I can have confidence that the Lord will hear my prayers. As I actively engage in praying Scripture and praying God's heart, God will respond. Of that I can be confident.
I have found that as I grow in this (and, trust me, I know I have so much more growing to do!) that the Lord is gracious to respond to me by laying things on my heart and mind to pray about. As I respond in prayer, and God answers those prayers, my faith is built, and my confidence and boldness in prayer increases.
This is a big topic. This is a big blog post.
More in another post, I'm sure.
Thanks for your feedback! :)
3 comments:
I think that I view praying without ceasing as a running dialogue that goes on in my mind with the Lord. (and NO...this does not proove my insanity...you'll need more than that! :) )
Sometimes I feel the need to pray for things multiple times, other times I feel challenged to leave it in God's hands and let him make whatever decision he wants.
For example, with Nate's permanent Residency application, I have been praying that this would go through the system without a hitch since day one. Not the exact same prayer, and not ornately or for show, but out of a hear of concern, I have brought this concern to my father as often as I felt necessary to get it off my heart and leave it where it belongs...in GOD's hands.
I think there is an aspect of 'praying without ceasing' that refers NOT to repeating a prayer over and over again, rather it refers to allowing the concerns of your heart to REMAIN in God's hands.
I appreciate the thought-provoking post, and have been pondering one aspect of prayer myself lately. When we ask God for something...anything, how far should we go on our part in making that happen? I know He gives us a brain and tools and we're not always just expected to sit on our thumbs and wait for an answer...but for me wisdom comes in knowing the difference. The difference between knowing when to be pro-active and knowing when to just sit and wait. Does that make sense?? And more specifically, when we ask God for something, and try everything in our power to make that happen is that not trusting Him to make it happen all on his own...SANS our help? *gasp* I know different situations call for different actions and answers and like I said earlier God does give us a brain and tools to use...but these are the thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head :)
Elizabeth,
I really like this post. It seems that no matter how far I want to run from it or don't want to accept it for the responsibility it holds, praying in faith and intercessory prayer seems to be one of my spiritual gifts. Because of this, I have thought alot about it, and had a lot of experiences over my lifetime that relates to alot of what you said about prayer, praying in faith, praying in the will of God, praying with boldness, praying with patience.
I believe that praying without ceasing is both of what you described. It is fervency, praying with a trust that God works in mysterious ways sometimes and always in His own time. It is also praying constantly, over little things, over big things. Making conversation with God part of your day, knowing that He "walks and talks with you" and you can with Him.
Regarding the question of how do we keep praying for something that God seems to not be answering- how do we pray for weeks, months, years and maintain a fervent trust in God's timing??
For me, this has been through two things- peace and honesty. When my soul starts to doubt and become burdened with the issue, I surrender it again to the Lord and ask for peace that He will accomplish His will in the situation- in His time. I ask for His gentle assurance that He does know best. Often when i pray for this peace, He is faithful to send it. I also am honest before the Lord. There have been times I have been on my face, pounding my fists on the floor because I was so angry with God for not answering my prayer. knowing it would look childish to others, God knew it was out of a desperate and hurting heart. I find that when I am honest with God about how I am feeling, it makes it easier to keep trusting adn believing and praying...kind of like venting just helps ya know? And God always brings me assurance, peace, and a reminder to continue praying once again.
There have been times that the Lord has awakened me in the night to pray for someone, and I have prayed hard until I felt released. This could also be a form of praying without ceasing. When God places a burden on your heart, you pray until he lifts it.
There are three aspects of praying that I think the Lord desperately wants from us in our prayers (you already mentioned them):
-a pure heart. As I think He is gracious toward us many times, He desires our prayers to come from a pure and surrendered heart. Often, when my prayrs are self-centered or unrighteous, I find He reveals this to me during my prayer time.
-in His will. He wants us to pray that His will would be done. Often, we pray for something, as if we know best. Sometimes I do believe He gives us plan B because we asked for it, when if we'd just been patient He would have given us plan A (a much better choice!)
-ready to listen. He wants us to pray with a heart open to hearing what it is He wants to say back to us. Too often, we (myself included!) pray in a rush...like we just have to get it out, get it off our chests, and then we're done for the day. But if we slow down, take time to truly enter into communion with Him, He wants to speak to us. Often, this is where the assurance and trust comes from...that we need to keep going- to keep praying- to not give up even when it feels as though He is not hearing us.
I like what you said about seeking His will...knowing His heart...and knowing His Word.
Good stuff!
I think prayer is an incredible privilege. The part of it I struggle with is, "why does the Lord ask us to pray?" He can do things without our prayers, but yet somehow when His people pray, He moves! Why does it work this way? I think it is because it brings more glory to Him. We notice what He does more than if He just did it. It also strengthens our faith. I think my faith has been strengthened the greatest by seeing prayers answered in my life.
My earliest and greatest memory was when I was 6 and my dad gave me the 'task' of praying over our dead truck, stranded on the side of the road. I said a small prayer and the Lord started the truck immediately. That told me as a child, 'My God is great! He can do ANYTHING!'.
So it is a privilege to pray, because God does not need us to, but He allows us to.
It's awesome.
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