Surrender All areas of your life to God so that you may draw closer to Him and be conformed to the image of Christ Roman 12:1
Our Father’s response to our prayer.
I don’t know about you but sometimes I wonder if God really wants to listen to my prayers or sometimes even, do I really have the right to talk with my Creator and ‘the one who flung stars into space’?There are many books written on prayer but sometimes a short chapter can enlighten the mind in a way a whole book doesn’t. In Tim Chester’s book Enjoying God I found such a chapter entitled In Every Prayer we can enjoy the Fathers welcome. Let me share a few lines from that chapter which looks at Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Matthew 5-7.
God’s kindness.
‘One kindness of the Father is that he welcomes us into His presence through prayer. He delights to hear His children talk to Him. He rejoices to do us good in response to our prayers.’ Here is an excerpt from the chapter that encouraged me to pray and expanded my understanding of prayer as Tim reflected on the opening lines of the Lord’s Prayer.
Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in the so-called sermon on the mount (Matt5-7) and this teaching is all about seeing God as our Father. Fifteen times in the sermon Jesus speaks of ‘your Father’ and most are clustered around his teaching on prayer. Seeing God as ‘our Father’ radically changes your attitude to religious duty, it turns religion into relationship.
But the most astonishing phrase in Jesus’ teaching is not the phrase your Father but the phrase our Father which begins the Lord’s prayer. The point is not just that Christians are family together with one another although that’s true. The point is that we pray with Jesus and with Jesus we say our Father. The relationship Jesus has with God the Father is now the same relationship that you have with God the Father.
Imagine the scene. The disciples have watched Jesus pray. They’ve sensed the intimacy he has with God. They can see Jesus has a unique, close relationship with God. They are still piecing together what that means. What they don’t quite realise is that Jesus is God: eternally sharing one divine being, eternally loved by the Father. For Jesus the intimacy of heaven is continued here on earth in the intimacy of prayer. And Jesus walks over to one of them, puts his arm round his shoulder and says, ‘This is how you should pray: Our Father ……. In other words: Pray with me. Share my relationship with God. For you are loved as I am loved.
The Holy Spirit & prayer.
As he considers what Jesus says about prayer in Matthew 5-7 Tim also reflects on the role of the Holy Spirt in our prayer particularly in times when we don’t feel like praying. I hope you find encouragement to pray as the Holy Spirit testifies that prayer is a delight to God.
However distant God may feel in the moment or however perfunctory our praying may be, we pray because we have some sense that God hears us. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit connects us to the Father, assuring us that he’s our Father and that he delights to hear our cry.
Here’s the amazing thing: the Spirit’s work in our hearts is so mighty that we hardly ever think about it. We pray without a second thought; we take it for granted. There’s a sense that every time we pray, we ought to hesitate “Can I really do this?” Can I really approach God? Can I really ask him for things? That would make sense. After all, we’re approaching the one before whom angels hide their faces; and yet we don’t hesitate because the Spirit testifies to our hearts that God is a kind and generous Father who delights to hear our prayer. ………… When we bring our request to God, we’re affirming him both willing and able. We glorify both His power and love; we’re treating him as the kind, capable Father that he is. And so, he is honoured by our prayers. …..
We mustn’t think of prayer as a task we need to perform. It’s a way of relating to a person and enjoying our relationship with them. God is a loving Father who delights to hear us, and our prayer is our opportunity to spend time with him.
from Enjoying God by Tim Chester
A role as an intercessor?
Some time ago I prepared a sermon on Numbers 14 and the passage challenged me to consider what role I have as an intercessor for others and particularly for those I see in rebellion against God’s purposes, who will not trust or obey Him? Possibly there is something to be learnt in this narrative chapter about how we should pray for others. God’s response to Moses’s prayer (v20) indicates that an intercessory prayer can initiate a partnership with God to bring about His purposes. As one commentator put it: “… prayer is a God-given way for God, who desires to be as close to people as possible and who always has their best interests at heart, to allow us to interact with Him, to be involved in His works to accomplish God’s purposes in the world.”
In his very challenging book ‘Praying with Paul’, Don Carson captures the same ideas – “The really wonderful truth is that human beings like Moses and you and me can participate in bringing about God’s purposes through God’s appointed means.”
Geoff Hinch
