Do you pray? I think many, many of us do, especially in times of great need. The Psalms are prayers or songs filled with petitions and praise to God. Sometimes the author begs God to act. Sometimes he thanks God for what He has already done.
The Psalms are a good place to start in learning to pray from the deepest part of us. And Jesus had much to say about prayer both in the way He prayed and when He instructed His disciples how they ought to pray. And He said a lot more throughout His life than what we call The Lord’s Prayer.
As I’ve read both the Psalms and Jesus’ words over the years – and the words of his disciples – I wonder how often we ask God for the right things. Not that we shouldn’t pray about everything, because we should. (Philippians 4:6-7)
But when we ask, have you ever noticed that we tend to ask for physical needs far more often than spiritual ones?
David often prayed for physical protection from his enemies, who were literally trying to kill him. And when Jesus walked the earth, the Son of David, was approached by hundreds, probably thousands of people who asked for physical healing. And Jesus answered their requests. He opened blind eyes, cleansed the lepers, cast out demons, rebuked fevers, raised the dead.
Oh, there were some. There were those who asked for increased faith (with regard to physical healing), and the disciples wanted to understand the kingdom and one asked Jesus to show them the Father. But they didn’t really get it. Most of them were too focused on overthrowing the physical Roman oppression or having their bodies healed. They wanted a physical kingdom, right now, not a spiritual one that might ask them to change their hearts.
And I’ve noticed how often we ask for prayer when a loved one is sick or we need our own physical healing. We pray for guidance of the hands of the doctors during surgery and wisdom when conditions seem to have no answer. When we are threatened with loss of our physical life, we gather together and pray, don’t we? And that’s good.
But how many times have we prayed for God to heal a hurting soul? How many times have we asked the Lord of the harvest to send workers into His mission field because people are dying without knowing Him?
I’m raising my hand, guilty here, because the truth is, I don’t often see the needs beyond the people I know. I forget about my brothers and sisters in concentration camps in North Korea. Did you know that’s even happening? You won’t hear about it on the nightly news.
Or the persecuted Christians in other places in the world. Do you know how many meet in secret or pray in hiding because they know they are targets simply because of what they believe? I know they exist, but how often do I pray that they will remain faithful and not lose heart?
How often do we pray for each other to remain true to our faith in Christ, to grow in His grace and knowledge? Paul prayed that for the churches. Jesus was concerned about the spiritual health of the churches when he spoke to John who wrote Revelation. How important is it to us that the people we know and love or live near or work with hear the truth of Jesus? To know Jesus in a transforming, experiential way? To walk in truth?
When we ask, Jesus taught us to ask in faith believing. He also told us to pray specifically, but most of His words, even in the Lord’s Prayer focus on the coming kingdom, forgiveness, not being led into temptation, and being kept from the power of the evil one. Daily bread was the only physical thing He mentioned.
Perhaps there is a lesson in this? And I’m not suggesting that Jesus is not concerned with the physical needs we face every day. He told us to care for the poor, the sick, to meet the needs of those who are hungry and thirsty. So absolutely we should pray as we work to help those in need.
But maybe, just maybe God wants our most fervent prayers to focus on going into all the world and making disciples of all nations. Maybe He wants us to care more for the soul than the body because it is the soul and spirit of a person that thinks and reasons and decides what they believe or don’t believe that effects their eternal destiny.
And God cares a lot about that destiny. He wouldn’t have gone to all of the trouble of sending His Son to earth for the express purpose of making sure our eternal futures could be with Him if it didn’t matter. If He didn’t love us THAT much. God wants us to pray about what He loves. He wants us to pray personally in repentance and faith and then to pray for grace and transformation so that we can be more like Him.
When we have His Spirit dwelling within our spirit, we learn to love as He loves us, and our prayers take on a new meaning. They become focused on others more than ourselves. They are prayers of the spirit as well as the body.
Prayers that care more for the future existence than even the present because we know that what is earthly is temporary. What is of the spirit is eternal.
So when we ask…may we ask in faith, fervently believing and trusting that God will transform our lives to be like His and to give us boldness to speak of Jesus to all who will listen. But don’t just speak…pray for the spiritual needs of those around us, even as we meet the physical ones as best as we can.
~Selah
#livegrace #speaktruth #whenweask #whenyoupray
