A Minute In It - Prayer

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the text below and then answer the questions at the bottom of the post.

4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. 5 Then I said,

“O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! 7 We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.

8 “Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. 9 But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’

10 “The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. 11 O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me.”

In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer. Nehemiah 1:4-11 (NLT)

Nehemiah received bad news from his homeland. What was the first thing he did?
After mourning, then what?
As you read this prayer of Nehemiah, what are the components to his prayers?

First he praised God and worshiped who he was.
Then he confessed his sin and the sin of the people.
Next he remembered God’s promises.
Then he asked God for what he wanted and he was pretty specific.

There isn’t a right way to pray but I love that Nehemiah’s prayer focused on God. It was about who God was, what he said he wanted in his people, what he promised he would do and then Nehemiah asked him for something seemingly impossible believing he could do it.

When we come to God, are our prayers more about him or us?

What's Your Prayer Posture?

But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. Jude 1:20-21 (MSG)

In our Bible Study group we are studying prayer. I think as Christians, we forget all the things God says about it. I’ve had people tell me their stuff is not important enough to pray about. I’ve heard people say that God doesn’t answer. We feel that we can’t ask for really, really big things as if God has a limit on what he will do for us - for the people he loves more than life itself. Or maybe we think we don’t deserve it.

I love today’s text because it says that as you pray “keep your arms open and outstretched, ready.” Imagine it. You are standing (or kneeling if you prefer) with your arms open and outstretched as if you are about to receive a ton of answers. You are in a ready stance. Primed to receive the answers promised to you by the God of the Universe! Expecting to receive a reply.

Then imagine it! God, leaning over with his bucket of blessings, his pail of promises, his plethora of plans ready to pour them out in response to your prayers.

Wait. What’s that? You didn’t ask for anything? You didn’t pray? Isn’t it so sad that we have a God that wants desperately to bless us with his love and goodness but we missed out because we believe Satan’s lies? We believe that we weren’t good enough. We believe that God doesn’t listen and that he doesn’t answer. And worse yet, we believe he doesn’t love us.

How much are you missing because you aren’t asking? God wants so much to be in a relationship with you. It is behind everything he has done. Stand up! Stretch out your arms and believe! God is ready and waiting for you to ask.

Do You?

Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. James 4:2 (NLT)

This morning I was reading in Oswald Chambers' devotional called My Utmost For His Highest. He said (I'm paraphrasing) that most of the time we don't ask God for anything. We spend a lot of time telling him and complaining but we don't ask.

I started thinking about this.  I wondered how much I talked, how much I complained, how much I listened. Then my mind started wandering to my grandson. He is a toddler and has been talking more and more.  One of the things I realized is that he isn't afraid to ask for things. Even though how he asks isn't always grammatically correct, he asks anyway.

Do you feed birds? (Do you want to feed the birds?)
Do you outside? (Do you want to go outside?)
Do you play downstairs? (Do you want to play downstairs?)

His wording isn't always correct but we understand what he wants and give him an answer. Sometimes, the answer is no; like when he asks to go outside in the middle of a thunder storm. He doesn't understand yet that this is dangerous. But do you know what? Just because we say "Not right now" that doesn't stop him from asking for other things.

Maybe this is what Scripture means when it says "You must become like little children." (Matthew 18:3). My grandson isn't afraid to ask. Even if he doesn't get the answer he wants, he keeps asking for things. It's because he trusts us and knows that we love him.

When was the last time you asked God for something? When you asked, did you think you had to phrase it just right? When was the last time that you trusted his answer even if he said "Not right now."?