Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:6-7
Dear heavenly Father, as I read these sweet promises from Paul today, I’m convicted about my prayer life. There are have been seasons of my life in Christ when I’ve been more certain about what prayer isn’t than what prayer is. So I come before you today humbly owning my need for the Spirit to teach me and free me for a life, and not just moments of prayer. Give me a renewed love for spending much time with you in vital, expectant prayer.
Father, I praise you for the promise of peace through prayer, central to this Scripture and all the whole Bible. Irrespective of how you might choose to answer my prayers, you promise a transcendent peace to those who bring their petitions, thanksgiving, and requests to you. The promise of your peace, guarding our hearts and minds, is incredibly comforting. That’s where the critical battles of life are waged on a daily basis—right there in the vulnerable, malleable arena of our thinking, feeling, and choosing.
Father, please help me be more settled about the relationship between your sovereignty and our praying. I know you to be the God who works all things together after the counsel of your will (Hallelujah!), so how does my praying fit into the outworking of your perfect and irrepressible plan for all things? How does persistent praying and surrender to your will work hand in hand? How do the cries of our hearts and your decrees from eternity work together to reveal your glory?
Father, and help me understand more of the mechanics, or ways of prayer. The teaching I had on prayer as a young believer led me to believe that the likelihood of an affirmative answer to prayer was directly related to how many people were praying and how passionate we became while “claiming promises”. That leads me to repent of even assuming that the only, or best, answer to prayer is “Yes”.
But that’s how pagans pray—stirring a begrudging god to action by trusting our commotion more than your providence. You commend it, even command corporate prayer; what really happens when we gather together to cry out to our great and gracious God in Jesus’ name?
Forgive me and help me, Father; for I know I’ve have overcorrected in the direction of being a generalist in prayer. I don’t tend to ask for very much specifically in prayer, and therefore I don’t tend to expect very much specifically from prayer.
Teach me to be more bold in my asking and more unwavering in my trusting that you really, really use the prayers of your people. My great, even greatest joy is in knowing that Jesus ever lives to pray for us and that the Spirit is ever interceding within our hearts—what a most glorious and comforting arrangement, Father. So very Amen I pray in Jesus’ great and gracious name.
