Before you pray, ask yourself: is there faith? Most of us, when we start to pray, are not even sure God will answer, let alone that He is listening. Most of the time, we feel that we need to update Him on events and circumstances, our state of affairs because He does not seem to know. We even limit our prayer to “bless so-and-so” because we are not sure of Who it is we are speaking to, or how to move Him to action on our behalf.
Personally, I feel that for many of us, it is not an issue of working on our prayer life, as much as it is working on our faith life!
The more we work on strengthening our faith and trust IN God, the easier it is to move into prayer.
When we are totally convinced of His power, sovereignty and control, when we are safe the constancy of His love, His faithfulness, His goodness, THEN it is easier to move into believing prayer. It is when our hearts rest in His love and in His sovereign power, that believing prayer is easier.
Until our hearts come to that rest IN God, our faith is lacking. As a consequence, our prayer life ineffective.
How would our prayer life change if we develop the habit of first re-orientating ourselves to God and who He is. If we first become totally convinced in our hearts of His Love, His Sovereignty and His Power before we start to pray. If our prayer life had to start with a focus on His character and we rehearse to ourselves who God is and what He can do.
Is this not what resting is about? Being still…to know that He is God.
Being still, to connect the deepest of our hearts, to the deepest of His heart. Establishing His Kingship not only in our hearts and minds, but in our circumstances and the world around us. Is this not…
Our Father, Who Art in Heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name,
Thy Kingdom come, thy Will be Done
On Earth as it is in Heaven.
What would happen if we spent time rehearsing His Lordship in prayer, rather than rehearsing to Him the problem. Then, when He is established as King in our hearts, then we ask…
It is one thing to be full of pride, to think I can do life on my own, I can do this better. To have a heart that does not pray, for pride. But the other side of the coin is just as dangerous: to be so full of despair, that we believe that not even God can do anything about it. Both attitudes need a rehearsal in God’s sovereignty.
Resting in God is finding rest in His sovereignty and love, before we pray. As David says in Psalm 62:1-2,
“Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”
He concludes in verse 11-12:
One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone according to what they have done.”
Rest is taking the time to re-orientate ourselves to God, training ourselves in His sovereignty. When we have taken the time to find our rest in Him, we easily worship (tell how great He is) and it is easier to move into believing prayer.
Help me Lord to work on my heart and mind, to establish that You are LORD there and also in my world and circumstances. Help me to know in my heart that You are sovereign, in control, all powerful, loving and good and to be so convinced of this that my heart finds rest in that. May it be that this conviction is established in my heart whenever I come into the throne room to pray. May I like David declare that all power belongs to you and with You, LORD is unfailing love.
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