How to Pray, Part II

Praying Intimately

We have considered how effective prayers follow a formula that begins with adoration, prays for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done, asks for our needs to be met, requests protection from temptation and evil, and seeks forgiveness from sins. This was the model that Jesus taught his disciples to follow, and it’s meant for us, as well. But this formula for prayer, known as the Pater Noster, or  “The Lord’s Prayer,” (Matt. 6:9-13) is a model, not a memory verse to repeat over and over in place of having a conversation with the Creator of the Universe.

You might be shocked at the word, “conversation,” but it was a deliberate word choice. When we pray, we do have a conversation with our Father. A conversation is a meaningful exchange of thoughts and ideas between two or more individuals. It implies openness and intimacy.

Let’s consider, then, how to make our prayers more open and intimate. Is it truly possible to have an intimate conversation with God? Scripture tells us that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. “For as high as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” the Bible says. (Isa 55:9)

Intimacy means a close relationship between two individuals who have an affinity for each other. It implies a deep, abiding friendship, trust, and companionship. Is that kind of rapport possible between humans, who wither like the grass, and the Almighty, Infinite, Omnipotent God? Indeed it is, praise God!

Intimacy Begins with Trust

Let’s face it. No relationship exists without trust. As soon as trust breaks down, the relationship breaks down. We see trust destroyed all around us—when political leaders place corporate donations above community, when business leaders seek profit above performance, when education systems seek public support over scholarship, and so on. Trust can be broken in a variety of ways—infidelity, lies, evasion, physical distance, and more. The bottom line is that trust depends on putting a loved ones’ needs above your own. The same applies in our relationships with God. We must draw close to Him, and honor Him first. And wonder of wonders, when we do, despite whatever it is that has kept us away from Him, He will draw near to us!!

James 4:8 advises, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Rev 3:16 also warns about being double-minded: “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” Double-minded means wavering, unsteady, flitting back and forth between two sides. A double-minded believer is not committed.  James is telling us that when we are not committed to our relationship with Him, when we put our own needs first, when we disobey Him, we break trust with Him. It’s just as if we are committing adultery! Cheating on God is definitely a trust destroyer and is one of the fastest ways to break a relationship. How many marriages have crumbled once trust flew out the window? Our relationship with our beloved God is no different.

Just as a husband or wife who is not committed to a marriage is a partner who is in danger of infidelity, so is a “believer” who is not committed to God. In fact, a committed believer is someone who is so firm in the faith that he or she is sharing the heart and mind of Christ. If you are in danger of being double-minded, wavering in your faith, James advises to “purify your heart,” and “cleanse your hands, you sinners.” This is an attitude of repentance, and an attitude that God will not reject, unlike those who won’t admit their weaknesses and wrong-doing.

Intimacy Requires Respect

When Frank Sinatra wrote the song, “All or Nothing at All,” in 1939, I don’t think he had God on His mind, but the lyrics perfectly describe the kind of respect God is seeking from us. Sinatra wrote,

“All or nothing at all
Half a love, never appealed to me
If your heart, never could yield to me
Then I’d rather have nothing at all.”

This is the type of relationship we should have with God—an all or nothing relationship. This type of relationship requires respect and commitment, but it also requires high esteem for the Great I Am, and admiration and respect for the relationship such that we recognize that we are but dust and God is Almighty and is more than worthy of our praise. Why He would want to have a relationship with us staggers the mind, but He does, and this fact alone requires our respect and reverence. We must be willing to put our needs, our interests, our wants aside and put God’s desires in their place. A miraculous thing happens when we do—He gives us the desires of our hearts! David wrote in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart,” and also in Psalm 21:2, “Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.”

However, the Bible also warns about receiving desires without appreciation of these blessings and a reciprocal response in return. Deut 9:6 says, “Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.” And Prov 29:1 warns, “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.”

Intimacy is Strengthened with Honesty

Just as lies and evasion can break down a relationship with other people, lies and evasion can break down our relationship with God. Have you been keeping something hidden from God, even though you know He knows because He is omniscient? This is dishonesty and it is a barrier to intimacy. Bare it all before God. When you bare your heart to God, you are allowing Him to access every part, even the hidden corners, of your heart. This is the opposite behavior of the Israelites, who hardened their hearts toward Him.  Only when you have confessed everything to Him can He enter into the deepest hurts and heal them, and only then can true intimacy develop between you. Once you have bared your heart, and opened it to God, the Holy Spirit can enter and begin to work on rebuilding and refashioning your heart of stone after the heart of Christ. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh,” God promised in Ezekiel 36:26. Having a heart like Jesus is a sure path to intimacy with God, but it requires you to take the first step—to move toward God, or make a sincere effort toward building an abiding relationship with Him.

Intimacy Requires Effort

Consider how much work you put into a human-to-human relationship. You call each other, compliment each other, spend time with each other, even when you don’t want to. You’d give up your plans to be with someone you care about, right? Let’s face it, maintaining a relationship takes work. How many of us WORK at a relationship with God? It takes time that is prioritized for Him, not last minute, falling asleep, I’ll- do-better-next-time moments. Think about when you were first dating someone. How long did it take you to get ready for a date? It takes effort to prepare yourself for a meeting with God, too. Don’t get me wrong. There are those spur-of-the-moment times when you’re sitting in traffic or when you get THAT phone call and you must pray–immediately. But generally speaking, your times with God should be planned and you should prepare for them. Think of the Israelites who had to prepare for three days before God came down to Mt. Sinai to address Moses. They had to wash their clothes, bathe their bodies, refrain from sexual relations, and prepare to meet with God. These preparations were to show the Israelites that God was holy and required them to be holy, or set apart. Changing their normal activities were to demonstrate that they were to shift their focus from the everyday, or mundane, activities to the spiritual things of God. Their preparations were a foretaste of the future sanctification that would be awarded all believers.

Take a moment and consider all of those whose lives matter to you and how you change your routines for them, sometimes daily. If one of them called, wouldn’t you drop everything and respond? How much more our Father, who loves us beyond our imagination, will drop everything when we call, if we make Him a priority in our lives—if we maintain our relationship with Him, but we must put forth the effort to prepare to meet with Him and our efforts will be rewarded.

Intimacy Elicits a Response

One of the most wonderful truths is revealed when you become intimate with God: your openness, brokenness, intimacy elicits a response! Your prayers are no longer one-sided, venturing into the great beyond with no answer. Wonder of wonders, the Great I Am hears and answers the humble, broken, and open prayers just as Jesus promised in the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” Jesus taught. (Matt 5:8) What he meant by this was that those who had been transformed to have a heart like his, would be able to enjoy communion with God. They, like Jesus, would enjoy fellowship unbroken by sin because their sin was covered and their hearts were made clean, washed in the blood of the lamb. And their prayers, like the prayers Jesus prayed, would always be heard and answered, because God sees them as He sees their sacrificial lamb, and because once they are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, he would make intercession for them even if they didn’t know what they should pray.

Isn’t this a glorious thought?

To continue reading Part III, click here: https://wordpress.com/post/frompeggyspen.com/139