Coconut
Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
- Messages
- 4,663
Thoughts on Prayer
-by Petra Hefner
“There is enough sin in my best prayer to send the whole world to hell.”
- John Bunyan
Now here’s a sobering thought! We are imperfect until the life hereafter! Until then, our best prayers are tainted and our motives less than pure. That’s why we don’t pray in our righteousness but in the name of Christ!
Sometimes the circumstances we pray for benefit us more than our prayers, but I’ve not always acknowledged that. My prayer life was actually most active while I was most deceived, and most persuasive when I was using God as a means to my own ends.
My eagerness to pray had little to do with glorifying God or admitting my own weaknesses. Instead, I tried hard to abase my imperfections by my excessive prayer and servitude… until God found me out. His truth exposed all the real motives and stripped me of all self-confidence.
Everything changed and is changing still. Shame and anger are slowly giving way to discernment and forgiveness. Doubt and mistrust are finally giving way to peace and assurance, and each new question continually finds new solace in God’s Word.
My prayer life changed as well. It has become private, personal, silent; pleading yet eager to listen, focusing only on God while all else vanishes. At times I set out to pray, only to find the deepest longings bereft of words, leaving me as helpless as an infant crying for that familiar voice and touch.
Prayer is becoming all about God and trusting Him. It has switched from what I might get out of it to what God can make out of it. My understanding still lacks much compared to God’s ultimate wisdom. I may weep my bitterest tears yet, but this I do know, God can be trusted.
As a child I trusted my parents with my life, which kept my earliest days so sweetly carefree. Today I can trust God with my life because He is not a man that He should lie. God will keep His Word, avow His honor and do what is right, all the time! I might not always understand it, but my faith is taking root, not in my own efforts, sufficiency or power to believe, but in God’s sovereignty and mercy.
So when I pray, I want to trust God and His righteous judgments more and my desires (whether selfish or sympathetic) less. God’s glory should be my focus rather than comfort or ease. I cannot turn that around and claim to love God first. I must go to the cross to pray. What do I really want to ask of Jesus while He suffers there for you and me?
I used to ask for things; now I ask for the living Christ, that those in need may find Him and be reconciled with God. I used to pray as though I deserved better; now I plead that I do not get all that I deserve. My appreciation used to be a mere religious courtesy; but now, tears of joy and utmost gratitude wash His feet.
God hears my prayers, not because I have something special to say or give, but because He wants to refine me and work His purpose through me. In Psalms I read that the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills has no need of me at all; and suddenly my prayer lies exposed for what it really is! How can I pray for help when it was my own neglect that caused the trouble. I’ve misused what belongs to God. It was never mine! Why should God heed me now?
“Even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to Me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for He is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and He relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and have pity
and leave behind a blessing—
Joel 2:12-14
God may leave behind a blessing, not because my offense is no longer an offense, but because Christ has already paid for it! God may help, not because I’ve tried extra hard to undo my sins (I can’t), but because my heart is truly rent. Christ promises to forgive and not to break a bruised reed or snuff a smoldering wick. A contrite and broken heart God will not despise. Grace upon grace! Grace beyond my comprehension!
Pray in snug self-confidence and receive perhaps a greater sense of self-satisfaction, maybe even an improved attitude. Pray that all goes well with you and risk loving life more than God. But rend your heart and receive God’s forgiveness. Return to God and receive His grace instead of the calamity that you once deserved!
Thank God that there’s a limit to prayers asked amiss though they be steeped in faith. Thank God for His patience and compassion; there seems no limit to His grace. Looking back I’m more than grateful that God did not always take me at my word or let me have my way. Where would I be?
-by Petra Hefner
“There is enough sin in my best prayer to send the whole world to hell.”
- John Bunyan
Now here’s a sobering thought! We are imperfect until the life hereafter! Until then, our best prayers are tainted and our motives less than pure. That’s why we don’t pray in our righteousness but in the name of Christ!
Sometimes the circumstances we pray for benefit us more than our prayers, but I’ve not always acknowledged that. My prayer life was actually most active while I was most deceived, and most persuasive when I was using God as a means to my own ends.
My eagerness to pray had little to do with glorifying God or admitting my own weaknesses. Instead, I tried hard to abase my imperfections by my excessive prayer and servitude… until God found me out. His truth exposed all the real motives and stripped me of all self-confidence.
Everything changed and is changing still. Shame and anger are slowly giving way to discernment and forgiveness. Doubt and mistrust are finally giving way to peace and assurance, and each new question continually finds new solace in God’s Word.
My prayer life changed as well. It has become private, personal, silent; pleading yet eager to listen, focusing only on God while all else vanishes. At times I set out to pray, only to find the deepest longings bereft of words, leaving me as helpless as an infant crying for that familiar voice and touch.
Prayer is becoming all about God and trusting Him. It has switched from what I might get out of it to what God can make out of it. My understanding still lacks much compared to God’s ultimate wisdom. I may weep my bitterest tears yet, but this I do know, God can be trusted.
As a child I trusted my parents with my life, which kept my earliest days so sweetly carefree. Today I can trust God with my life because He is not a man that He should lie. God will keep His Word, avow His honor and do what is right, all the time! I might not always understand it, but my faith is taking root, not in my own efforts, sufficiency or power to believe, but in God’s sovereignty and mercy.
So when I pray, I want to trust God and His righteous judgments more and my desires (whether selfish or sympathetic) less. God’s glory should be my focus rather than comfort or ease. I cannot turn that around and claim to love God first. I must go to the cross to pray. What do I really want to ask of Jesus while He suffers there for you and me?
I used to ask for things; now I ask for the living Christ, that those in need may find Him and be reconciled with God. I used to pray as though I deserved better; now I plead that I do not get all that I deserve. My appreciation used to be a mere religious courtesy; but now, tears of joy and utmost gratitude wash His feet.
God hears my prayers, not because I have something special to say or give, but because He wants to refine me and work His purpose through me. In Psalms I read that the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills has no need of me at all; and suddenly my prayer lies exposed for what it really is! How can I pray for help when it was my own neglect that caused the trouble. I’ve misused what belongs to God. It was never mine! Why should God heed me now?
“Even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to Me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for He is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and He relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and have pity
and leave behind a blessing—
Joel 2:12-14
God may leave behind a blessing, not because my offense is no longer an offense, but because Christ has already paid for it! God may help, not because I’ve tried extra hard to undo my sins (I can’t), but because my heart is truly rent. Christ promises to forgive and not to break a bruised reed or snuff a smoldering wick. A contrite and broken heart God will not despise. Grace upon grace! Grace beyond my comprehension!
Pray in snug self-confidence and receive perhaps a greater sense of self-satisfaction, maybe even an improved attitude. Pray that all goes well with you and risk loving life more than God. But rend your heart and receive God’s forgiveness. Return to God and receive His grace instead of the calamity that you once deserved!
Thank God that there’s a limit to prayers asked amiss though they be steeped in faith. Thank God for His patience and compassion; there seems no limit to His grace. Looking back I’m more than grateful that God did not always take me at my word or let me have my way. Where would I be?
