An Intimate Look into My Very Personal
Prayer Life
Greater Tyler Prayer Ministry
October 28, 2004 10:00 a.m.
Anne Murchison
Many years ago, I was invited to appear on a Christian television
station in Dallas. You would not be familiar with this network or this
person. I will give this person the generic name Jean. Anyway, when I arrived
at the station, Jean asked me to go up to a loft where Jean prayed before
every program. We prayed for quite some time and then went back to the
studio to do the show. Many years later, my prayer partner of long standing
and I were discussing the recent death of Jean. In the conversation my
friend mentioned something quite surprising to me. "Did you know that Jean
always took his guests up to the prayer loft there in the studio to pray
before the program, and if Jean did not approve of the way the guest prayed,
they were never invited back?" Need I say I was never asked back?
Mark Buchanan wrote in his book, Your God is Too Safe, "Few things
in the Godward life puzzle and aggravate us more than prayer." It is my
prayer for you who struggle with praying that the yoke of slavery to the
have to's, must's, should's and praying by the clock will be lifted
from your weary shoulders. Enter in to simply enjoying God!
I often ask myself, "Lord, am I praying enough? Am I praying right
enough? Am I praying often enough or long enough? Am I praying well enough?
Loud enough? If I'm not, let me know, Lord. And if not, then tell me how.
You lead. I'll follow." I have not heard an audible voice, but deep within
me I heard Him say, "I am leading. You are following."
Charles Spurgeon has written in his book Prayer and Spiritual
Warfare that "Long before an infant can speak, he can ask; he does not
need to use words in order to ask for what he wants. No one among us is
incapacitated from asking. Prayers need not be fancy. When we pray, the
simpler our prayers are, the better. The plainest, humblest language that
expresses our meaning is the best."
If I were to ask you to close your eyes and raise your hands if you
are not satisfied with your prayer life, which I am NOT going to do, I
would venture to say that most of us would raise our hands, if not all
of us. Well, this is no "how-to" talk on prayer. Rather it IS a prayer
that when we leave here today, we will be well prepared to enter into grander
realms of prayer—enlarged in our understanding of the multi-faceted expressions
of prayer and actually excited about prayer. I pray that the shackles of
legalism will fall away from our hearts and minds and we will soar like
eagles—rising higher and higher upon the winds and wings of God into His
very arms—not just in our prayer lives but in our relationship with Him,
for most assuredly prayer IS relationship with Him.
He is Emanuel. God with us. It is not Him "up there" and we "down
here." The "with us" God is in our hearts and minds. He is with us in every
prayer we pray, every wound we bear and every dream we cherish in our hearts.
If we can fully get our arms around this, not just in theory but in reality,
our prayer lives will change. There would, I believe, be an ever-deepening
hunger for more of Him as we find Him to be that most worthy and able One
upon whom we can lay the many burdens of this world, knowing full well
that He cares about every one of them more than we do.
Mark Buchanan wrote in his book, Your God is Too Safe, "Unceasing
prayer is a cultivated attentiveness to the God who is always and everywhere
with us. Speaking all of our words, thinking all of our thoughts, taking
all our actions, in the mindfulness that God hears, knows, sees. Praying
without ceasing, then, is not so much something we do. It is a way we are,
the way we inhabit our skin, move in the world. It is simply being awake
to the reality that, though we can't see it all we know by faith it is
there . . . It is a constant awareness. It is a continual, though usually
silent, dialogue. It is a fixed habit of mind, a conscious and deliberate
gesturing toward and response to God that after long practice becomes unconscious
and instinctive."
First and foremost, my relationship with God in prayer is a reciprocal
one through which God speaks to my heart more than I do to His—that conversation
often emerging from a running semi-conscious conversation with Him into
my consciousness and finally into a casual or intense conversation with
Him. At other times my prayers are organized— sometimes spoken aloud. I
frequently find myself unable to contain the wonder of living in partnership
with the God of the Universe—unequal though it may be. And very often I
find myself clinging desperately to Him. My conversations with Him frequently
turn to questions, ponderings and puzzlings about His Word and about things
going on in my life and in this all too chaotic world. Too often my musings
actually seem like little—and occasionally big complaints in my silent
conversations with Him. I only become aware that the Lord has taken all
of these grumblings and natterings as serious prayer when He answers me
through a phone call from someone, or a letter in the mail, often even
interrupting me with His answers as I am doing what I think is just—thinking!
Or worse yet. Fretting. Just fretting. I am sometimes deliberate and focused
in my prayers, lifting up the people on my prayer list, mostly setting
myself in agreement with their prayers, asking the Lord's blessing upon
them with the caveat, "but not our will but thine, Lord". Often the Lord
brings specifics to mind. God knows our needs and the answers before we
ask.
And there are always those urgent petitions and prayers that arise
from phone calls, conversations with friends and e-mails from church as
well as all around the world. I have struck up just such a friendship through
prayer with a woman named Bridie in Dublin, Ireland. She saw me on James
Robison's television show and e-mailed me for prayer.
Sometimes I pray with great faith and at other times I pray in despair,
but prayer is going on with me and in me all of the time. After all, the
Lord is included in all of my thoughts, feelings, desires and frustrations,
whether I want Him to be or not. He is, in fact, a wonderfully benevolent
busy-body, meddling even among my most solitary thoughts—always with His
highest purposes in mind for me.
When I pray for the missionaries we support at our church, I include
all missionaries worldwide in what I call sweeping prayers. I first set
myself in agreement with their prayers and pray that He will as He promises
according to Ephesians 3:20 in the Amplified, ". . . do superabundantly,
far over and above anything they dare ask or think—infinitely beyond their
highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams." I am reminded throughout
the day to offer up sweeping prayers for support, comfort and help for
our military and their families as well as the Iraqi, Afghan and muslim
people. When I pray for broken marriages I offer up sweeping prayers on
behalf of all marriages in the world that are in trouble. When I pray for
the sick or those in financial need, or for rebellious teens, I do the
same. Wouldn't you agree that sweeping prayer for the unknown multitudes
is better than no prayer for them at all? We serve a much bigger God than
we know.
I love what Martin Smith has written about prayer. "What if God does
not demand prayer as much as give prayer? What if God wants prayer in order
to fulfill us? To include us in His plans? What if prayer is the means
of God nourishing, restoring, healing and transforming us? Suppose prayer
is primarily allowing ourselves to be loved, addressed and claimed by God.
What if praying means opening ourselves to the gift of God's own self and
presence? What if our part in prayer is primarily letting God be giver?
Suppose prayer is not a duty but the opportunity to experience His healing,
transforming love?"
Joseph Parker preached in the late 1800's. I love most what he had
to say on prayer. "Prayer is the lifting of an eye, the falling of a tear,
the outdarting of an arm as if snatching a blessing from on high. You do
not need long sentences, intricate expressions, elaborate and innumerable
phrases. A [mere] glance heavenward may be a battle won. You may pray now
or in the crowded street or in the busiest scene—you can always have a
word with God—you can always wing a whisper to the skies. Pray without
ceasing. Live in the spirit of prayer. Let your life be one grand desire
Godward and heavenward. Then use as many words or as few as you please.
Your heart itself is a prayer, and your look a holy expectation." Your
heart itself is a prayer! Wow! What comforting words. I didn't learn to
pray by reading the words of these two men. Their words confirmed my own
personal experience in prayer.
Mark Buchanan has written that "unceasing prayer is a cultivated
attentiveness to the God who is always and everywhere with us. Speaking
all of our words, thinking all of our thoughts, taking all our actions,
in the mindfulness that God hears, knows and sees. Praying without ceasing,
then, is not so much something we do. It is a way we are, the way we inhabit
our skin, move in the world. It is simply being awake to the reality that,
though we can't see it all we know by faith it is there . . . It is a constant
awareness. It is a continual, though usually silent, dialogue. It is a
fixed habit of mind, a conscious and deliberate gesturing toward and response
to God that after long practice becomes unconscious and instinctive."
Prayer is a living thing that can become a dead thing before we realize
it if we lock ourselves and others into thinking as Jean did that there
is only one certain way of praying and our way is it. There are no two
prayer lives exactly alike, because there are no two people exactly alike.
We can so easily fall into performance, competition, condemndation, lifeless
repetition and pure boredom in prayer. God discerns the thoughts and intents
of the heart. All things are laid open and bare to Him.
I was blessed to make a new and very special friend a few years ago.
At first she was quite astonished as I often interrupted our conversations
with prayer about things we were discussing. And with my eyes-wide-open
I do just that all day long. She laughs now at my "outbursts" of
prayer. She always thought she had to bow her head, close her eyes, fold
her hands and I suppose look holy. Delightfully, she has picked up the
habit. There are also lots of times I simply thank Him that He is praying
when the best prayer I have to offer is "Help!" I don't wait to pray. I
pray in the moment. There are many ways to pray and many forms of prayer,
and eyes-wide-open prayer in the middle of a sentence is just one of them.
After studying the Hebrew and Greek words for prayer, I was liberated
from a humdrum prayer life. Those Hebrew and Greek words taught me that
we all pray more than we realize. I don't want to put you to sleep here,
but just listen to a few of the biblical meanings for the word "prayer."
They will encourage you: desire, question, follow after, grieve, travail,
complain, bow, beg, demand, wish, think, commune, meditate, ponder, reflect,
contemplate, talk, devote, search, seek, implore, exhort, beseech, draw
near, worship, visit, pursue. Yes, all of these words are found in the
Hebrew and Greek meanings for the word prayer and many more besides.
Richard Foster, a great man of prayer and author of many books on
prayer agrees. He has written that "Countless people pray far more than
they know. Often they have such a "stained-glass" image of prayer that
they fail to recognize what they are experiencing is prayer and so condemn
themselves for not praying." The thief on the cross comes to my mind as
he shouted out these words, "Jesus, remember me in Paradise." That's all
he said. It didn't seem like a prayer at all, and yet Jesus responded to
his heart, not His words, saying "Today you will be with me in Paradise."
François de Sales (1567-1622) wrote, "He prays well who is
so absorbed with God that he does not know he is praying." As I ponder
all those Hebrew and Greek words, I understand how I am praying outside
of my own consciousness most of the time. Asking, questioning, grieving,
complaining, meditating, pondering, reflecting, contemplating and talking
can be both conscious and unconscious forms of prayer when—and here is
the key—when our hearts are set on eternity and those things with
which He is absorbed.
Colossians 3:1-3 (NIV) admonishes us, "Since, then, you have been
raised with Christ, set your hearts on [be absorbed with] things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on [Be
absorbed with] things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your
life is now hidden with Christ in God." 2 Chronicles 16:9-10 also promises
those absorbed with Him that ". . . the eyes of the Lord move to and fro
throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is
completely [absorbed with] His."
Not too long ago, I experienced just such an intervention from God
when I visited one of my oldest and dearest friends, Joanne Ventura, in
Ennis. She and I have prayed together for well over twenty-five years.
We were discussing some very urgent needs she and her husband had. We were
in the middle of a project and promised each other we would sit down and
pray over them after we finished. Before we completed our project and could
sit down to pray, my friend's husband burst excitedly through the door
to tell us that one of those urgent needs had been resolved after months
with no answer. Our conversation was heard by God as prayer!
Legalism is the greatest enemy of relationship with God and legalism
is the greatest enemy of and hindrance to prayer. It causes me to become
discouraged or bored and to live under a cloud of condemnation. It keeps
me focused on how well or how poorly I am doing instead of living in the
spirit of prayer. If the devil can keep us locked up in legalism, he has
not only robbed us of a rewarding prayer life. He has successfully robbed
us of a growing intimacy with God. This example with my friend and her
husband was a clear illustration for me that my friend just telling me
about her need for prayer was heard by God as prayer and He answered. Immediately.
I'll never forget the time I was sitting at my computer working on
something I was writing. I was overwhelmed with frustration and griping
at mySELF. "Why am I doing this?" I whined. Who cares? This is hopeless!!!!"
I was not even thinking about praying. Or about God for that matter! And
the phone rang. It was my dear friend Vivian in Dallas. And what was the
reason for her call? "Anne," she said, "I just called to tell you how blessed
I've been by your writings on grace. I've been sharing them with my Sunday
School class and we would love for you to come and share it with us yourself."
The interesting thing about this call is that Vivian had to have started
dialing before I even expressed my frustrations—or should I say my "prayer"
to God? Isaiah 65:24 says, "before you call I will answer—while you are
still speaking or thinking it, I hear your prayer." The benevolent busy-body
struck once again.
Here's what Paul says about prayer in the book of Romans. "Meanwhile,
the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside
us helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't
matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our
wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know
ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God.
That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for
God is worked into something good" (vv 8:28-29 The Message Italics mine).
This may come as a shock to some of you, but Jesus never said that
He does not hear the prayers of sinners, which I was at that moment. Pharisees
said it. Legalists. Consider this. I was griping and fretting, and the
phone rang. Hello? "God calling." Well, actually it was God calling through
Vivian, but I began to realize as a result of her call that the Lord heard
my gripes and complaints as prayer. In Psalms 64 and 142 David spoke of
pouring out his complaints to the Lord.
We who have embraced Jesus Christ as Lord are in an inescapable,
non-stop love relationship with Him that we cannot turn on and off at will.
Neither can we ever turn down the volume so low that He doesn't hear us.
He hears every groan of our hearts—every thought and feeling, even when
it is not couched in solemn tones and prayed in Jesus' Name. The Bible
does not say anywhere that we have to twist God's arm. It merely instructs
us
to ask Him. To seek Him. And to trust Him for the answer. We desperately
need to understand that we are never alone. There is no place we can go
to say or think something that God doesn't hear and even already know about
us before we say or think it. Try as we may, we cannot hide anything from
Him. And He deeply loves us and is committed to us in spite of all we say
and think and don't think! If we cannot get our arms around this vital
truth, we cannot be in an authentic and nurturing relationship with Jesus
Christ.
The Bible would not instruct us to pray without ceasing if it was
impossible. Paul managed to travel, minister, write long epistles, endure
ongoing persecutions and still pray without ceasing. I have pondered this
for years, but the longer I walk with the Lord, the more I realize I too
am praying as Paul did without ceasing, because I am in a living relationship
and an ongoing conversation with Him. And the most wonderful thing about
this is that He never gets bored or grows weary listening to me. In fact
He is hanging on to our every word.
Early in my Christian walk I remember praying the way I thought God
wanted me to pray. I prayed bravely and nobly (or so I thought) and tried
to hide my anger, pain, disappointment and bitterness—which was foolishness.
But it is so common to all of us. We want to please the Lord by demonstrating
our good intentions rather than openly pouring out our hearts to Him. In
doing this we miss the comfort, forgiveness and healing of God. I have
never known God's love more intensely and more certainly than when I was
expressing great anger—with Him—when I was actually ordering Him out of
my life. By the way. He simply refused to go—over and over again. Instead
He continued to lovingly comfort me and draw me to Himself. I hope you
will always remember this. God is not looking for perfect people, because
He already knows we aren't. Otherwise He would not have had to die on Calvary.
No. God is looking for honest people.
David vented every hurt, angry, vengeful thought and feeling in the
very presence of God. And David was the only person in the Bible that God
called a man after His own heart. As we know, he also knew how to get things
right with God. We should never fear nor be ashamed to bring the darkest
parts of ourselves to Him. It is only in the light of His grace that we
can know Him as He truly Is and receive His healing touch.
Some days, the only prayer I can gasp is "Help!" Francis Fenelon
(1651-1715) understood such times. "Pray yourself in me," he plead to God.
Often the best prayers are those in which I cry out, "Lord, I don't know
how to pray. Please pray for me. Please pray with me. Please pray through
me." Thankfully, He hears and loves all of my feeble prayers as He looks
upon my always desperately needy heart. In praying for my family, after
all of my prayers have been said for them, I add this last thing. "And
Lord, I pray after I am long gone from this world, that my prayers for
my family will continue to ring in your ear for all the present generations
of my family as well as all the generations that follow after me until
the end of time." This is, above all others, my most important prayer.
The trouble with our faith is that it is not too big but too small. Don't
be afraid to pray BIG prayers! Don't be afraid to pray sweeping prayers!
He's a BIG God.
My prayers are always offered with complete trust in God's answers—
whatever they may be. Surrender to God's will demands not that we have
nothing, but that there is nothing we cannot nor will not give up to Him.
Jesus prayed the ultimate prayer of surrender in Gethsemane and gave up
everything for you and for me when he said, "Not my will, but thine be
done" (Luke 22:42). and it cost Him his life. Should I be any less generous.
If we want God's highest purposes for our lives, even the surrender of
every prayer we pray is essential. Psalm 106:15 tells us that Israel craved
things not of His will. He finally gave them their request. And He sent
leanness to their souls.
He is the potter and we are the clay. We cannot demand the outcome
to our prayers, even though we may want to and even try. It simply doesn't
work. If this is not the case, what is faith and trust all about anyway?
Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things NOT seen." Faith is only necessary for those unanswered
prayers. Though often prayed with weeping and tears, the ultimate prayer
of surrender for me is "Whatever it takes, Lord, whatever it takes to make
me and those I hold dearest and love most what you want us to be."
I very carefully and hopefully surrender all promises and prayers
to God for His highest purposes for me and those I love more than my own
life. I would be foolish to pray for anything less. This does not hinder
God answering my prayers. It is instead a proving of my heart and my trust
in His perfect will for my life and those I hold dearest and closest to
my heart. I never want to discover down the road somewhere that I settled
for anything less.
For instance, in praying for the elections coming up, I first acknowledge
Daniel 2:21. God raises up rulers and He removes rulers. I trust that we
will have the elected officials God chooses for us. And I also pray Luke
12:2 every day: that everything that is hidden will be exposed—that everything
done in secret will be brought to the light on both sides of the battle.
Even the great and many promises of God, though reminding Him of
them often, need to be surrendered back to Him. We see the ultimate example
of this when Abraham placed Isaac upon the altar in obedience to God. Isaac
was the precious promise that God had miraculously given him years earlier.
Though God gave Isaac back to Abraham, most of us have learned that we
cannot hold Him captive to fulfill His promises according to our timing
or expectations. Every promise of God will certainly be fulfilled, but
not necessarily in the way we expect or when we expect. For instance, Israel
totally misread the promises of God regarding the Messiah. They completely
overlooked the promises of Isaiah 53—the promise of a suffering servant—the
answer to their deepest prayers and longings. And the Pharisees aided and
abetted the crucifixion of the very One for whom they were waiting.
We cannot pick and choose the promises we prefer and ignore those
that make us feel uncomfortable or don't fit our particular theology.
If you know me at all, you know how very important tears are to me.
If you have ever heard me speak on any subject, especially this one today
on prayer, you have heard me at least mention tears. Tears are a very important
part of my prayer life—underscore the word VERY. They are important to
me because they are important to God. Remember Joseph Parker's words? "Prayer
is the falling of a tear." Psalm 56:8 says that God puts our tears in a
bottle and writes each one in a book. This tells me there is something
vitally important to God about our tears. There is nothing else the Bible
speaks about God putting in a book but our names. Could they be one and
the same, for our tears are the truest expression, the most honest and
the least guarded part of ourselves—our hearts?
There are far too many of us who have not understood this much overlooked
part of prayer and repentance. As I read through the Scriptures, it is
absolutely stunning how much they have to say about weeping, wailing, tears,
mourning and grieving—particularly in prayer. However, I am constantly
amazed at the shame we have in our culture about our tears. I guess we
somehow think God will think we don't trust Him or that we are unthankful.
Or as women we may just not want to mess up our makeup. I'm not sure about
what we think. But mark my words. If there is one thing the devil loves
to steal from us above all things it is our tears. He understands full
well their importance to us and to God. Tears precede repentance. Tears
produce repentance. Hear what 2 Corinthians 7:10 says. Godly sorrow (tears
included) produces repentance. Repentance is not a decision of the will,
it is a heart broken over sin. The woman who washed the feet of Jesus with
her tears never uttered one single word that we know of, yet He said to
her, "Your sins are forgiven you."
David was a real man. He slew the giant Goliath when all Israel had
failed to do so. David was also a real man of God. He understood the necessity
of taking his disappointment, pain, anger and tears to the Lord in prayer
and repentance. He wrote in Psalm 6:6-7, "I am worn out from groaning;
all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes." David
understood honesty with God. I think that is what God loved so much about
him. The Psalms are filled with his tearful prayers as a reminder to all
of us that the sacrifices of God are a broken heart and a contrite spirit
(Psalm 51:17).
There are so many taboos in our culture about crying—especially our
veddy, veddy proper church culture. Most of us were told when we cried
as children, "I'm going to give you something to cry about if you don't
stop that". This condemning message leaves us with a whole lot to cry about.
I cannot say this enough. We cannot find healing and comfort for
the fear, anger, stress and pain of our souls without taking them to the
Lord in tears and prayer. Neither can we find true repentance—which simply
means "to turn to God"—without godly sorrow and tears. It is godly sorrow
that produces repentance. Tears precede repentance. If you take nothing
else home with you today, take this. Repentance is not a decision of the
will, it is a fruit of godly sorrow and tears. And remember Joseph Parker's
lovely words. "Prayer is the falling of a tear."
Many of my prayers are wordless. I know I am praying because there
is that invisible yet tangible connection to God—my heart is glued to His
heart with a silent groaning too deep for words down deep in my gut. Often
I have no idea what I'm praying about. At other times my heart is focused
on small needs and great needs—often global in scope—often on the needs
of women and children I don't know by face or name—all too often the innocent
victims of evil throughout the world. And my heart then turns in prayer
for those who may be perpetrating crimes upon women and children. Tears
are very much a part of both my wordless prayers and my wordy prayers.
I have read many books on prayer, studied prayer and attended seminars
on prayer. I have prayed tens of thousands of hours privately, and met
weekly with beloved friends over years and years to pray. I have attended
church prayer meetings, prayed at church railings, at community prayer
meetings and while watching or listening to tragedies on the nightly news.
I have prayed with thousands of people in large groups and hundreds of
individual friends and strangers in intimate settings and casual conversations;
face-to- face, over the telephone, in restaurants, in malls, in parking
lots, in prisons, in foreign countries, on planes and through letters and
e-mails. I have prayed walking, standing, sitting, rocking babies, kneeling
and lying on my face. I have prayed through the Bible, journaled prayer,
spoken prayer, conversed in prayer, sung prayer, shouted prayer, whispered
prayer, groaned prayer and wept prayer. In all of this prayer over so many
years I have learned one thing. One single, simple thing . . . and this
is that the power of prayer is not in the words I pray, the place I pray,
the way I pray, how loud I pray, how long I pray, or how nobly I pray,
but in the One to Whom I pray.
John Piper has said it best for me. In his book, Desiring God, he
writes in the introduction that the chief end of man is to glorify God
NOT IN KNOWING Him but BY ENJOYING Him forever. This is the essence of
my prayer life. Enjoying Him. It is my prayer that you will kick back,
put your feet up and do just that. Enjoy Him. As Corrie Ten Boom wrote
in her book of the same title, "Nestle. Don't Wrestle."
I will close by saying that prayer is not just relationship with
God. It is also relationship with people. Some of the most rewarding times
I have ever spent in prayer were in praying with others on a regular basis.
And some of the most important relationships in my life grew over weeks,
months and years of praying together. We have laughed together and cried
together. We have celebrated and prayed for children, grandchildren and
now great-grandchildren. We have prayed for our personal needs and our
community's needs. In the wonderful words of Mark Buchanan, "Beware litle
old ladies praying. Secretly they're revolutionaries who make Bolsheviks
look like kindergartners. They comprise a veritable bomb-making factory."
I urge you to gather together to pray often, for where two or more are
gathered in His matchless Name, He will be in our midst.
Now let us pray. Jesus, reveal yourself to every heart and change
us so that our first aim is to glorify you by enjoying you. We are so prone
to a works mentality instead of enjoying you and letting everything flow
out of this one grand pleasure. We lift up a sweeping prayer for all communities
throughout our nation and the World. Unify our hearts regardless of where
we attend church. Help us to understand that we are ONE BODY—YOUR BODY.
Remind us that after Pentecost, the disciples took the good news to Jerusalem—THEIR
OWN COMMUNITY—first and then to the rest of the world. Open our eyes and
ears to see and hear the cries of those in need and move us to respond
both spiritually and practically. Finally, thank you that we are not alone
in our prayer lives. You and Your Holy Spirit are always initiating our
prayers, inspiring our prayers, empowering our prayers and blessing our
prayers, for we cannot pray as we ought. Give us a sensitive and responsive
heart to Your promptings and invitations to join you in prayer. Thank you,
thank you, thank you for revealing your astonishing humility as you allow
us to be joint heirs and co-participants with you in your mighty work here
on this earth. Enlighten us with your truth about prayer. Remove the fleshly
burden of prayer and give us Your burden for prayer. Bring us to tears
and repentance and draw us into your throne room. Convict us and forgive
us for our legalism and pride regarding prayer. And convict us and forgive
us for our fear and doubt regarding prayer. Cause us to soar upon the wings
of prayer. Fill us with faith for Your perfect will, trust in your answers
and hope for the fulfillment of your purposes in our lives and in those
for whom we pray. And finally, create a never-ending hunger for you in
our hearts. In Your Name, Jesus, and with hearts full of hope we pray.
Amen.
Hebrew and Greek Word Studies on Prayer
In addition to our more traditional understanding of prayer, all
of the words in these word studies relate to prayer. In God's grace prayers
do not have to be couched in any particular tone or form to be heard by
God as prayer.
We find all dimensions of prayer to and fellowship with the Lord
in these word studies— from simple thoughts and desires to intense warfare
to deep and abiding worship. Look for the common threads of desiring, wishing,
thinking, mourning, and worship in these word studies on prayer. When our
thoughts are directed Godward, God hears them as prayer, even if we are
not consciously praying. This is not in any way meant to discourage us
from regular concen- trated, intentional times of prayer. It is only to
encourage us that we are praying more than we know.
The connection between seeking, asking, desiring, wishing, thinking
and prayer: to seek; to desire earnestly; to ask; to gush over; to
treat or frequent (visit); to follow; to pursue; to search; to question;
to require (need); to entreat; beseech; to sing a hymn; to bow; request;
demand; beg; lay to charge; consult; desire; wish; long; communion; meditation;
thought; ponder; converse (with oneself); muse; reflect; contemplate; speak;
talk; devotion; to lift to heaven; petition; bind; be in bonds; knit; tie;
wind; interview; to light upon; to bring to pass; investigate; wish expressed
as a petition to God; vow; will; approach [God]; draw near [to God] for
favor; boast, glory, rejoice in PRAYER; to call near, implore, exhort,
console, call for, comfort; come near; visit; agree to; draw near; go near;
to stand; abide; appoint; continue; covenant; establish; to tread; to frequent.
The following words were found in the same word for warfare and
prayer: INTERCEDE; listen to prayer; to impinge (invade, strike, hit,
come into conflict with, touch, exert influence, relate to, have a relation
to, have to do with, tie in with, pertain to), by accident or violence
or by importunity (insistence, emphasis, coaxing, entreaty, SUPPLICATION,
PRAYER, beseechment, imploration); make intercession, meet (together),
reach, run, impact. to judge (officially or mentally).
To worship is to pray—to pray is to worship. The following words
were found in the same word for worship and prayer: to worship; to
care for; to burn incense in worship; be a sweet fragrance; give honor;
adoration; approach; come near; visit; agree to; PRAY; SUPPLICATE; INTERCEDE;
listen to prayer; to tread or frequent (visit), follow (for pursuit or
search); seek; ask; inquire; care for; question; require; prostrate; stretch;
to use the hand; to hold out the hand; to revere; worship (with extended
hands); to bemoan; confess; make confession; praise; thank; give thanks-
giving; to search out; investigate; crave; demand; worship; enquire; require;
to call near; invite; invoke; implore; exhort; console; beseech; call for;
comfort; desire; intreat; approach; come near; visit; agree to; draw near.
To mourn in the presence of God is to pray. The following words
were found in the same word for mourning and prayer: to be in travail;
be grieved; to make or be in straits; to sigh; murmur; PRAY INAUDIBLY;
with grief; groan; grudge; sigh; to be rubbed or worn; to complain, to
be disconsolate.
Ps. 55:2, "Attend unto me, and hear me; I mourn [SC 7300 - tramp
about, i.e. ramble (free or disconsolate): have the dominion, be lord,
mourn, rule] in my complaint [SC 7878 - to ponder, i.e. (by impl.) converse
(with oneself and hence aloud) or transitively, to utter: commune, complain,
declare, meditate, muse, pray, speak, talk (with)], and make a noise."
I Sam. l:9-l8, " . . . And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou
be drunken?; Put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said,
No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine
nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not
thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial; for out of the abundance of my
complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto . . . "
David said he mourned in his complaint and God heard it as prayer.
All of the psalms are prayers.
The connection between seeking, asking, desiring, wishing, thinking
and prayer: to seek; to desire earnestly; to ask; to gush over; to
treat or frequent (visit); to follow; to pursue; to search; to question;
to require (need); to entreat; BE- SEECH; to sing a hymn; to bow; request;
demand; beg; lay to charge; consult; desire; wish; lend; communion; meditation;
thought; ponder; converse (with oneself); muse; reflect; contemplate; speak;
talk; devotion; to lift to heaven; PETITION; bind; be in bonds; knit; tie;
wind; interview; to light upon; to bring to pass; investigate; wish expressed
as a PETITION to God; vow; will; approach [God]; draw near [to God] for
favor; boast, glory, rejoice in PRAYER; to call near, implore, exhort,
console, call for, comfort; come near; visit; agree to; draw near; go near;
to stand; abide; appoint; continue; covenant; establish; to tread; to frequent.
The following words were found in the same word for warfare and
prayer: INTERCEDE; listen to prayer; to impinge (invade, strike, hit,
come into conflict with, touch, exert influence, relate to, have a relation
to, have to do with, tie in with, pertain to), by accident or violence
or by importunity (insistence, emphasis, coaxing, entreaty, SUPPLICATION,
PRAYER, beseechment, imploration); make INTERCESSION, meet (together),
reach, run, impact. to judge (officially or mentally).
To worship is to pray—to pray is to worship. The following words
were found in the same word for worship and prayer: to worship; to
care for; to burn incense in worship; be a sweet fragrance; give honor;
adoration; approach; come near; visit; agree to; PRAY; SUPPLICATE; INTERCEDE;
listen to prayer; to tread or frequent (visit), follow (for pursuit or
search); seek; ask; inquire; care for; question; require; prostrate; stretch;
to use the hand; to hold out the hand; to revere; worship (with extended
hands); to bemoan; confess; make confession; praise; thank; give thanksgiving;
to search out; investigate; crave; demand; worship; enquire; require; to
call near; invite; invoke; implore; exhort; console; beseech; call for;
comfort; desire; intreat; approach; come near; visit; agree to; draw near;
supplicate.
To mourn in the presence of God is to pray. The following words
were found in the same word for mourning and prayer: to be in travail;
be grieved; to make or be in straits; to sigh; murmur; PRAY INAUDIBLY;
with grief; groan; grudge; sigh; to be rubbed or worn; to complain, to
be disconsolate.
Ps. 55:2, "Attend unto me, and hear me; I mourn [SC 7300 - tramp
about, i.e. ramble (free or disconsolate): have the dominion, be lord,
mourn, rule] in my complaint [SC 7878 - to ponder, i.e. (by impl.) converse
(with oneself and hence aloud) or trans. utter: commune, complain, declare,
meditate, muse, pray, speak, talk (with)], and make a noise."
I Sam. l:9-l8, " . . . And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou
be drunken?; Put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said,
No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine
nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not
thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial; for out of the abundance of my
complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto . . . "
David said he MOURNED IN HIS COMPLAINT and God heard it as PRAYER.
All of the psalms are prayers.
