PERFECTING OUR PRAYER LIFE

I appreciate opportunities to pray with sincere people.  This is where our hearts are truly revealed in the presence of others.  This may be the closest we can come to how it was in the Garden when Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed.  At least, this is the way it should be.  We should, through the power of and faith in the finished work of Calvary, be able to stand naked and unashamed in God’s presence.

Such opportunities also help me to measure the progress of growth among believers.  It seems that, while we may tend to project something more than we truly are in many circumstances, we must be truly ourselves when addressing our Maker – that is, if we are both sincere and free of religion and religious habits. 

I find it distracting when people adopt a different language for prayer.  Some have “learned” to pray in old King James.  While others habitually repeat certain words or phrases, like “Hallelujah!  Praise you, Jesus!”  You know what I mean.  Still others repeat “Lord” sometimes two or three or four times in the same sentence. We should speak with our Father in the same reality that we speak with one another! 

Our Father in heaven . . .

Perhaps our relationship with God will mature as we address Him as Father, rather than Lord.  Our profession eventually becomes our possession when our profession is based in faith upon the revealed will of God!  It has been revealed that God is our Father.  We have been instructed to pray to our Father.  We can - in faith - set in motion the developing of a Father-son relationship by properly addressing God as our Father, when praying. 

To address God as Lord is not inaccurate.  For, Jesus IS Lord!  It would be appropriate for slaves to so address Him.  However, you are no longer a slave but a son.  To continue praying to Him as Lord perpetuates the slave-Master nature of your relationship with Him. 

Long before they received the Spirit of adoption as sons, Jesus taught His disciples: And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Therefore do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven . . . (Matthew 6:7-9).

The reality of their relationship being changed from slaves to sons was still in the future.  But, as they prayed in faith, they postured themselves for God to do the work in them that would propel them into sonship.

How we address God in prayer is not all that is involved in growing out of slavery into sonship.  Paul tells us that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father (Galatians 4:1-2).  Guardians and stewards are those who are appointed by God to disciple and lead us toward maturity so that we may gain the status of sons through adoption.   

Jesus confirms this process when He speaks to His disciples.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I call you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).   

Jesus prayed with purpose . . . 

Jesus was Guardian and Steward of these twelve disciples who became the apostles of the Lamb.  He grew up under the guardianship and stewardship of Joseph and Mary.  At age 30, His adoption into the status and privileges of full sonship was confirmed by His (and our) Father, You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.  (Luke 3:22). 

Jesus was in constant contact with His Father (praying without ceasing) as He gathered, guarded and guided His disciples.  His character had been carefully molded in a solid, faithful two-parent family environment.  Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:8-9). 

He said, Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does (John 5:19-20a) 

Jesus’ success in this life was the direct result of perfected prayer which is prayer with purpose.  He lived under open heavens and always walked in oneness with His (and our) Father.  He only did what He saw His Father (and ours) doing; and only spoke what His Father (and ours) was speaking.  He was the human channel, the incarnation of God on earth, the firstborn among many brothers, many sons whom God is bringing to glory (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:10).

He, through purposeful, perfected prayer, heard what His Father (and ours) wanted Him to speak to the twelve.  Their coming to maturity was the result of the spoken and demonstrated word of God through His witness and example. 

Jesus prayed with focus . . .

Jesus was so secure in the love of His Father (and ours) that He could focus His prayer life upon finding and doing God’s will.  He prayed all night before appointing the twelve.  It should be obvious that He received the mind of His Father (and ours) regarding both the strategy and the subjects for discipleship through prayer.

Three years later, on the eve of His arrest, His prayer which is recorded in John 17 is still focused upon the same strategy and subjects.  His focused prayer life, His moment by moment walk in the Spirit (with His Father and ours) produced a straight path that was without swerving.   

Jesus prayed with confidence . . . 

Because He had no will, motive or agenda apart from God, He was able to ask anything of His Father (and ours) without doubting that He would receive what He asked.  His confidence was expressed in His words:

Father, the hour has come, Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work which You have given me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.  - John 17:1-5

Jesus surely knew who He was.  He was secure in His Father’s love.  He understood His purpose and mission.  He was connected to His Source for all of His resources.  He knew what He was to do, how He was to go about doing it, and recognized when His mission was completed - ALL through the marvelous facility of prayer. 

Scripture testifies to that same purpose, focus and confidence in the prayer lives of the apostles of the Lamb and the early believers.  They knew that their prayers reached heaven because the earth shook and things radically changed as a result. 

For we believers to perfect our prayer life, we must

• pray to our Father, believing that we are destined for sonship.

• know that our Father loves us.

• seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

• seek and find our identity and purpose in Christ.

• focus upon that purpose in confidence.

• pray without ceasing, with the spirit, and also with understanding.

• pray according to the revealed will of God.

• live lives of obedience to His revealed will.

• trust our Father (and His) for our provision.

• ask in faith (which comes by hearing from God), with no doubting.

• count it all joy when we fall into various trials.

• believe that all things work together for our good.

• enter His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts, into His courts with praise.