prayer

  • Thankful for UNanswered prayer

    In my last post I told you I was going away on retreat. I thank all of you for praying and those of you who asked me about it.

    If you remember, my desire to go away was in large part to seek the Lord’s face for wisdom for specific leading regarding women’s ministry at my church. I will say that I continue to be humbled because I have seen God work without my pushing (a sinful tendency of mine), and He has opened doors to present me with a wonderful opportunity and I’ve been given a lot of freedom, i.e.- pretty much what I think I should to/would like to do!

    God met me wonderfully while I was away. As I recount and reflect on the experience once again, it takes me to a sort of holy hush. I am somewhat hesitant to share my experiences at times, but I believe I am supposed to in this case.

    The last couple weeks prior to my retreat, Psalm 102:17 (as well as other parts of that Psalm) continued to come to mind:

    17  He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, and shall not despise their prayer.

    Last Tuesday night, my first night away on retreat, as I was praying for specific direction for the women’s ministry, these words (inaudibly) came to me: “I have heard your prayer.” You know how you can look through the promises of Scripture and reason it out. In this case, yes, I had been praying according to God’s will, I am seeking wisdom, something He has told us to ask for and He does desire the church to be built up with good teaching so souls might be fed and so on, and therefore He should be hearing me and so on. Well, of course, I knew all that, but this was something beyond all that. This was not of my own positive thinking but from outside me and above me. The Lord regarded my prayer in a living sense. There was the promise on the written page which I knew, but now the promise was written on my heart, the direct work on the heart that God’s Holy Spirit was prophesied in Old Testament (Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36) and then made manifest in the New Testament (Hebrews 8, Romans 8).

    As my time went along as I was away, I was still a bit disconcerted, since though I definitely know I can’t put God on a timetable, I was really hoping I would come away with some clearer sense of direction as to what to do w/ this women’s ministry (yes, I already have a great sense of the values I wish to impart, e.g.- hunger for God & His Word, seeking to know Him experientially, etc., as God’s Spirit works effectually in the women), but the nuts and bolts of that were still unclear. Being brutish and foolish (and perhaps a bit like Gideon), the next night (my last night away), I lay down before Him once again to pray for direction, feeling a bit like the man at midnight, who needs bread for his friends (I so long to be used to feed the souls at our church) and once more the same words (“I have heard your prayer”) came once again without my barely being able to speak a thing. I got up right then and there assured God would give me specific direction – in HIS way and in HIS time. (Yes, I know I must work and prepare and study and continue to pray, but now I should be able to do so w/ full assurance and no anxiety but perfect peace that my Father will not give me a serpent when I ask for fish and so forth.)

    After this all happened I went back and looked at Psalm 102 again.

    Yes, so there was the inner assurance God had heard my prayer and would not despise it! Not only once, but twice! I was going to Him destitute – admitting I could do nothing and I had nothing. The Lord is magnificently glorified and exalted when we admit we are nothing and He must do everything, and when we admit we have nothing and He must give us everything! That is the glory of the Christian life! All of God, all to God’s glory alone!

    There is so much to Psalm 102 that is beautiful, especially verse 16 – since it deals with the Lord building up Zion and appearing in glory. That is what God wants to do in the decaying church of our day, and, as you know, that is the great desire of my heart, that revival might come again to the Church. The Lord wants to breathe life and fire into His people, into His Church, into each one of His own, including each one of us. So along with verse 17, we can’t help but see that when we are consumed with praying for the Lord to build up Zion and to appear in glory, when we are saying we are destitute and we’re not going to rely on our own devices or wisdom, certainly He will regard our prayers and not despise them. We can be assured that as we are in concert with Him and His desire to build up Zion and seeking for Him to come down in glory, and we are working to prepare the way for Him to do so, He will regard our prayers and not despise them! HIS Kingdom come! Build up Zion! Appear in glory!

    Then I looked back at v. 13. He “shall arise and have mercy…” I looked up the Hebrew word for mercy (lo and behold I discovered I had a Strong’s concordance in one of my free iPod touch apps – a wonderful surprise to me! :) ). The word there means to fondle. But not fondle in that bad sense, in the context of molestation, but fondle as in to truly love and to caress. The Father’s love! And then I looked at Isaiah 14 (we’d been studying that chapter in BSF the past week) and it was the exact same word in Isaiah 14:1a!

    Isaiah 14:1: For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land…

    How wondrous is that?! God’s never-failing covenant mercies! He fondles us! I truly felt the Father did come and “fondle” me those couple days by speaking to me in that way, by assuring me that He had heard my prayer. Yes, as I said, I knew how when we ask in prayer according to His will, He has heard and will answer. And yes, I had read the promise that He would regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer….but yet…that extra, His coming alongside me and fondling me in that sense, assuring me, writing His word on my heart in a living sense.

    As I’ve been reflecting on these things, I knew that what had happened was somewhat reminiscent of some accounts of the saints who’d had similar experiences of God’s speaking assurance directly to the soul. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gives some accounts in chapter 5 (The Sense of His Presence) of his book “Joy Unspeakable,” including Howell Harris, Christmas Evans, Charles Finney, as well as the accounts of two Puritans, Edward Elton and Thomas Goodwin. Needless to say, you’ll see why I was (and still am) quite excited when I reread ML-J’s description of Thomas Goodwin’s account (boldface, mine).

    Let me finally tell you again what I regard as one of the most beautiful ways in which this matter has ever been put. It is by Thomas Goodwin, one of those great Puritans again of three hundred years ago, the President of Magdalen College at Oxford during the commonwealth, and a brilliant scholar and preacher. That is the difference between what I call, the customary assurance of the child of God, and this extraordinary assurance. He describes a man and his little child, his son, walking down the road and they are walking hand in hand, and the child knows that he is the child of his father, and he knows that his father loves him, and he rejoices in that, and he is happy in it. There is no uncertainty about it all, but suddenly the father, moved by some impulse, takes hold of that child and picks him up, fondles him in his arms, kisses him, embraces him, showers his love upon him, and then he puts him down again and they go on walking together.

    That is it! The child knew before that his father loved him, and he knew that he was his child. But oh! this loving embrace, this extra outpouring of love, this unusual manifestation of it––that is the kind of thing. The Spirit bearing witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

    This is the outstanding characteristic of the baptism with the Spirit. God gives us grace to examine ourselves in the light of these things…Do you know anything of the glory of God, this immediacy, this certainty, this absolute assurance given by the Spirit that banishes all doubt and uncertainty and you know that God loves you in particular with an everlasting love in Jesus Christ?

    Honestly, though I did remember this account in a general sense, I did not at all remember that the word “fondling” was used – the very same word that God had impressed upon me in light of the experience I’d had.

    As I have sat back and reflected more on all this, I can see what I should have seen beforehand: would I rather have had a clear syllabus of study or a clear affirmation from the Lord has heard my prayer and a greater assurance of His love for me? That’s a no brainer! Yes, I certainly do need the specific direction (and I am trusting He will give it), but how wonderful it is that He revealed His love to me in that way! So this is why I say I am thankful for UNanswered prayer. If God the Father had answered my prayer as I thought best, how much would I have missed out on? How great the Father’s love for us!

    And here’s something else: I have actually come to the point on a few occasions where I’ve said, “If I never get to lead/teach the women at this church, it has been worth it all, to KNOW the Lord more experientially in this special way, to know the Father’s love more deeply. And to learn in a greater sense how blessed it is to be destitute before Him, to know that He truly does regard our prayers and does not despise them.”

    I know these are holy things and I share them only so you might be aware of the “glorious possibilities” (as Lloyd-Jones put it) of the Christian life. No, we do not seek experiences, but we do seek the living God through spending time with Him in His Word and prayer and obedience in what we know, and as we do so, we can trust that He will reveal Himself to us as He deems best for each of our souls. Let us not say these things were only for Bible times or for certain special people. We are all children of God! We have all been chosen and lavished with His love, mercy and grace. So let us press on to know Him more and may we never limit and quench or grieve Him by saying He will not or cannot ever choose to visit us in such wonderful ways (nor should we insist that He must choose to visit us in certain ways and at certain times). The apostle Paul has said that our faces are now unveiled before the Lord and we can behold His glory and are being changed from glory to glory. No, we cannot predict how or when we might see God and His glory, and I admit these things are mysterious and even difficult to talk about, but let us expect that we may behold His glory and then trust Him to reveal Himself to us as He deems best – for our profit and for His glory, all so we might be more and more enraptured and captivated by His love for us.

    Let us also be sober as we remember the account in the gospels which tells us that the Lord Jesus could do no mighty works in Nazareth because of their unbelief (Mark 6:5, Matthew 13:58).

    Lord, as You will, open our eyes to the possibilities of Your glory, and then as You will, show us Your glory so we might be strengthened and built up so we might be used by You to build Your Church!

    I share these experiences with you humbly for I know there is nothing in me to deserve or merit anything at all from the Lord. The apostle Paul spoke of holding nothing back that was profitable (Acts 20:20), and I believe these things will be for your profit.

    I do wish to remind you that yes, though it is true our Christian faith is squarely based on historical facts, from the Scripture itself, that there is an objective body of truth, yet we can experience these truths and experience the Lord Himself in a living and active way. The Lord God is a living God, He is not an idol made of wood, therefore there are times when He may choose to meet His children in such special ways, to fondle us, so to speak. No, we cannot work them up, we cannot predict them, but there are times when He may choose to come down and surprise us because such experiences are for our good, for His glory and for the furtherance of His Gospel and the building up of the Church.

    I have recently have been pleasantly surprised with some wonderful fellowship with an older seasoned saint (quite Reformed, I will add) who has introduced me to the book “More than Notion” by J.H. Alexander.  Below is the author’s note on the title “More than Notion.” I think this wonderfully expresses my concern that too much of our Christianity today has become only notion, and I have become increasingly convinced that true religion must indeed be “More than Notion.”

    True religion ought always to be accompanied by deep feeling. It must be so because of its spiritual character. No one laid more emphasis on the spirituality of religion than its founder. In order to enforce the vital necessity of spiritual experience the Lord Jesus frequently resorted to the use of paradox as when He said, ‘He that findeth his life shall lose it but whosoever loseth his life for my sake shall find it’. It was, therefore, natural that the spiritual-minded believers at Pulverbach should turn to the hymns of Joseph Hart. For this minister had passed through deep waters himself and his hymns, though often quaint, are unique in their use of the paradoxical method. We can do no better to illustrate the point than by printing the lines from which our title was taken.

    “Vain is all our best devotion,
    If on false foundations built;
    True religion’s more than notion,
    Something must be known and felt.’

    ‘Tis to credit contradictions;
    Talk with him one never sees;
    Cry and groan beneath afflictions,
    Yet to dread the thoughts of ease.

    ‘Tis to feel the fight against us,
    Yet the victory hope to gain;
    To believe that Christ has cleansed us,
    Though the leprosy remain.

    ‘To be steadfast in believing,
    Yet to tremble, fear, and quake;
    Every moment be receiving
    Strength, and yet be always weak.

    To be fighting, fleeing, turning;
    Ever sinking, yet to swim;
    To converse with Jesus, mourning
    For ourselves or else for him.’”

    Can you relate to Hart’s words? Have you begun to know the Lord Jesus in such intimate ways?

    As many of you know I have been writing a LOT on assurance and joy on my other blog. I am convinced that my recent foray into joy in Oct. 2009 was begun in large measure because I had prayed a few weeks before that time along the lines of I Thessalonians 1:5:

    For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

    I had begun to see how I needed that power and assurance, and was frustrated, but at the time I couldn’t see that was all wrapped up in my having a greater sense of God’s love and joy. And then as I began to ask for joy, the assurance and power has begun to come as well. (I say “begun to,” for I still know I must press on to know Him more.)

    Our experiences of Christ do lead to greater assurance and power in the Holy Spirit. They are not merely for us to be edified, though we will be edified and we will enjoy God through them. But those experiences do lead to the reality that our testimony is no longer in word only and our knowledge of God begins to become “more than notion,” it becomes a truly living faith, not only propositions believed with the mind (though yes, we must believe with the mind), but we also come to believe with all the heart and soul as well. That is what will make our witness to others effectual and life-giving and powerful – that first-hand experience of HIM, when our religion does begin to become “MORE than notion.” Yes, we certainly do enjoy our God Himself through our experiences of Him. Amen! Indeed! And yet do we not enjoy Him ALL THE MORE as we speak of Him and His dealings with us TO AND WITH OTHERS?

    While away on my retreat and as I reflected on God’s goodness to me, in coming to me and assuring me my prayer had been heard, I wrote:

    It delights me to receive these things but dare I say it delights me more to share them. Is this what the apostle Paul means: “It is more blessed to give than to receive”? We know all we have is not of us – it bursts out at times.

    So, it is bursting out here. My desire is for you to know Him more and more, not merely know of Him, that your religion become “More than notion.” I am convinced that is exactly what happened in the early Church at Pentecost and that is what has happened in during each and every time of genuine revival. God’s people are taken up with God Himself and cannot help but speak of Him. This is what we see in the book of Acts. These believers kept preaching Christ wherever they went, in spite of threats and persecution: For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. They didn’t have to be pushed out, the Spirit compelled them and gave them a holy boldness. They couldn’t be stopped! That is the type of faith, a living faith, a true religion, a religion that is “more than notion,” that will begin to turn the world upside down. May we pray for God’s Spirit to fall fresh on us and then continue to fall again and again. Let us be filled with the Spirit!

    I thank God for each of you and I pray you would seek His face and all He has for you, that you would not fear based on misconceptions, abuses or false teachings in Christianity over the work of the Holy Spirit, all so you might truly know the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the Father’s love for you in Jesus Christ.

    I will add here that I have no specific answer yet regarding the women’s ministry but I continue to trust He will bring it. I am enjoying Him immensely on this adventure and I hope and pray you will as well.

    For the fullness of your joy and for the fullness of His glory in the Church,
    Karen

    Related posts:

    from past saints:

    Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  • Update/prayer requests – October 7, 2010

    In my last real update on July 26, I mentioned that I was feeling

    the need to be taking time more alone with Him, not only to speak to Him but also to hear Him…

    This is one reason I’ve not been posting as much on any of my blogs, including this one.

    My obligation is first and foremost to seeking the Lord and His will for me. I could feel guilty about not posting or feel like I’m a quitter or a failure for not following through with blogging, and I confess that at times I have felt that, but I realize those thoughts are not from the Lord, but are coming from my flesh and the devil and the world. Jesus Christ is the only One whose expectations I need to be concerned about. When you post something, you feel you accomplish something, you have something to point to and can say, “Look at me! I wrote this.” (Of course, if there’s anything good I posted, it wasn’t me, but the Lord at work in me.) Or, when you post, you put yourself out there and feel like you might get noticed and commended. Those are all things that God is wanting me to slay by the power of His Spirit. My desires to be noticed and for attention are ungodly and evil desires. By the grace of God at work in me, I’m going to fight my flesh and try not to post something just to post something, but only to post as the Lord is laying something on my heart. Same thing w/ making comments on others’ blogs. And to clarify: though I will recommend posts from this site, I rarely post comments on others’ blogs from this site, but I do that from my other site on occasion. (Yes, I confess deerlife does make visits  w/ another dear deer and does banter with an unnamed llama from time to time. )

    Now, more about my journey to prayer…

    A few years back, the Lord had been trying to get my attention about my need to pray, and, well, I knew that in my head of course, since we all pretty much know we should be praying from the time we become Christians. And, as most of us have done at one time or another, I’d made resolutions to pray, but it took God repeatedly showing me (hammering me) over and over and over again about my total depravity, my total insufficiency and my total inability to do anything apart from Him. That included a lot of failures, frustrations, humiliation and tears. Until we come to the end of ourselves, we don’t see the necessity of prayer and of our need to seek Him. So long as we can get by pretty well on our own, we won’t get down on our knees in humble dependence and cry out to Him for living water and daily bread and His Holy Spirit. Thank God for His sovereign hand at work in drawing me to Himself through his loving Fatherly discipline.

    So now, after all that time, the Holy Spirit has been softening my hard heart sufficiently so those seeds are finally beginning to sprout a bit, so I might really begin to understand in small measure the utter necessity of prayer and seek out time to spend with God in prayer. This calling to prayer intensified early in 2009 (I wrote about it here, and that was why I started up tent of meeting, my other website devoted to prayer for revival). And it has further intensified and expanded since that time. In short, God has been giving me more of a passion to be praying for and encouraging workers to be sent into the harvest and praying for His Gospel to go to all the nations; I’ve alluded to that in a few posts on naphtali_deer, my other blog (e.g. – see here and here). I’m not exactly sure where all of that is going in my life, but I am finally seeing that the Gospel going to the nations is for our joy, for the joy of the nations and for God’s joy and is part of God’s glorious plan to exalt Himself. About a week ago, I stood outside and looked up into heaven and said something like, “God, why did it take me so long to get this?!” I cry now as I consider this. I mean, I’ve been a Christian for almost 28 years now. Of course, I knew we should be supporting missions, I knew the Biblical teaching that God had a plan to save some from every tribe, every language, every people and every nation (e.g. – Rev. 5), but only when God and the mission of God got a hold of my heart did I really begin to see. (Not that I see all yet today, I know that…) As I’ve mentioned, I am a slow learner, but thanks be to God, He is persevering and longsuffering with hard-hearted and stubborn sinners like me and His mercies and kindnesses will follow us and pursue us and His Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and will lead us in the way we should go. This is one reason I am so passionate about young people not wasting their lives. I wasted much of mine. I was lukewarm for too long. One minute of lukewarmness is too long! Thanks be to God, He has been gracious to me and has been working to restore the years the locusts of my self-absorption and spiritual dullness had eaten up.

    I confess that I continue to fumble and slip and slide as I seek to go up to meet with Him on His holy mountain, but I know there is grace abounding for sinners like me there and He never casts out those who come to Him, He never despises those who are humble and seeking to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. I love to spend time with Him. And I know He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He has also begun to show me that If we are not asking hard things of Him, we are insulting Him and limiting Him. Also, if we are not persevering in prayer, we do not show we consider Him precious enough to spend time with Him and we think we are adequate apart from His resources. These are just a few scattered thoughts here. My heart is full of Him. He is faithful to hear and to save. And He is calling us to watch in prayer with Him so we will not grow faint. To whom else can we go? He has the words of eternal life. He is our life!

    What about deerlife….

    My intent in starting deerlife was for mutual edification and encouragement, but for the past several months, most of my writing has been taking place on my other blog, so If I’m not posting here, I would encourage you to be reading there. And if you have a heart for prayer, I encourage you to visit tent of meeting, though I’ve not been posting there as often either.

    I also invite those of you who feel led to do so, to please message me with prayer requests and the like. Some of you I know better than others, but I believe this is one way God does want me to be supporting you at the current time. I hope I will have the opportunity to blog here more regularly, but I can’t say at the moment. I’m leaving that in the hands of the Lord.

    I also strongly encourage you to be seeking out and praying for fellowship in your own churches and communities. I think that is one of the greatest weaknesses of the Church today; we are lacking the fellowship God intended us to have. That leads into my next point…

    A way you can be praying for me…

    As I mentioned several months ago here, I’d begun to take some steps toward developing friendships and fellowship in our current church home. I would appreciate continued prayer for that. I’m not going to repeat all that, but I’d encourage you to read my thoughts in that post as you have opportunity to do so.

    In light of that, I’d like to share an excerpt from the “Memoir and Remains of R. M. M’Cheyne” by Andrew Bonar. I really like Bonar’s description of how M’Cheyne viewed his friendships and the opportunities he had with people. I found this challenging and I think it really speaks for itself as to how you can be praying for me (and how we can be praying for one another) as I continue to step out in faith to develop and cultivate friendships in our churches (and elsewhere) and how we all ought to making the most of every opportunity we have here.

       His visits to friends were times when he sought to do good to their souls; and never was he satisfied unless he could guide the conversation to bear upon the things of eternity. When he could not do so, he generally remained silent. And yet his demeanour was easy and pleasant to all, exhibiting at once meekness of faith, and delicacy of feeling. There was in his character a high refinement that came out in poetry and true politeness; and there was something in his graces that reminded one of his own remark, when explaining “the spices” of Song iv. 16, when he said, that “some believers were a garden that had fruit trees, and so were useful; but we ought also to have spices and so be attractive.” Wishing to convey his grateful feelings to a fellow labourer in Dundee, he sent him a Hebrew Bible, with these few lines prefixed :—

    Anoint mine eyes,
    O holy Dove!
    That I may prize
    This book of love.

    Unstop mine ear,
    Made deaf by sin,
    That I may hear
    Thy voice within.

    Break my hard heart,
    Jesus, my Lord,
    In the inmost part
    Hide thy sweet word.

    It was on a similar occasion, in 1838, that he wrote the lines, ” Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.” At another time, sitting under a shady tree, and casting his eye on the hospitable dwelling in which he found a pleasant retreat, his grateful feelings flowed out to his kind friend in the lines that follow:—

    “PEACE TO THIS HOUSE.”

    Long may peace within this dwelling
    Have its resting place;
    Angel shields all harm repelling—
    God, their God of grace.

    May the dove-like Spirit guide them
    To the Upright land!
    May the Saviour-shepherd feed them
    From his gentle hand!

       Never was there one more beloved as a friend, and seldom any whose death could cause so many to feel as if no other friend could ever occupy his room. Some, too, can say that so much did they learn from his holy walk, “that it is probable a day never passes wherein they have not some advantage from his friendship.”

       I find written on the leaf of one of his note-books, a short memorandum. ” Rules worth remembering.—When visiting in a family, whether ministerially or otherwise, speak particularly to the strangers about eternal things. Perhaps God has brought you together just to save that soul.” And then he refers to some instances which occurred to himself, in which God seemed to honour a word spoken in this incidental way.

    Thank you…and a final request…

    I thank God for each of you and for your friendship, fellowship and support. I appreciate your continued prayers for clarity and wisdom for me in all things, including my blogging, specifically that I would not rely on myself but on Christ alone and seek the wisdom that comes from above. In Bible Study Fellowship we’ve been studying through the book of Isaiah and for chapter 5 we were challenged to ask ourselves which of the woes applies to us. For numerous reasons, I answered the woe about those who see themselves as wise in their own eyes for I know it’s far too tempting and too easy for me to get puffed up and carried away with my own ideas or thoughts.

    Isaiah 5:21: Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
    and shrewd in their own sight!

    I Corinthians 1:26  For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29  so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30  He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 31  Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

    Romans 11:36  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

    Yours in Christ, pressing on to know Him by His grace alone,
    Karen

    Related:

    a challenge to you (God has some secret ones in all places)
    Naphtali News: the Ministry of the Word & Prayer

    Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  • update/prayer requests – July 26, 2010: “Word of God Speak”

    In my last post, I mentioned I would be attending Ignite, a Christian music festival near Chicago.

    We got back late last night (well, early this morning).

    I wasn’t planning to post anything today, but then decided to give a little update…

    Early this morning David (deepestrecesses@revelife) posted a prayer based on I Samuel 3:1, 7-11. If you’ve not read it and prayed it, I would encourage you to do so.

    After arriving home, I read through David’s prayer. It reinforced something God had already been speaking to me about: the need to be taking time more alone with Him, not only to speak to Him but also to hear Him … which was something God had impressed on me again last night at Ignite through Mercy Me’s song, “Word of God, Speak.”

     

    How can I (we) presume to speak the Word of God to others, if I (we) have not humbled and bowed before God and prayed, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening”?

    How can I (we) presume to prepare the way of the Lord in others, if I (we) have not humbled and bowed before God and prayed, “Prepare Your way in my heart”?

     

    Earlier today, I returned to David’s post and wrote a comment/prayer, which I’ve included below (w/ a little editing) as an update/prayer request/prayer.

    May our Lord continue to show us our constant need of Him so we might steadfastly devote ourselves to listen to Him through prayer and His Word. Praise God we can approach Him with full assurance of faith through the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we never take for granted the access to God our Lord purchased for us at Calvary. Apart from God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ, apart from Christ bearing our sin on His body on the tree, we would be eternally separated from God. May we not grieve or quench the Spirit as He calls us to draw near to Him. Praise God that as we draw near to Him, He has promised to draw near to us! May He sanctify our ears to hear His voice.

    Yours in Christ for His glory and your joy,
    Karen

    Holy Father, draw us into the Holy of Holies, by Your Spirit, not only to speak to You, but also to hear You speak. Your Son Jesus Christ is our Mediator, but not only for us to bring our requests but for You to speak to us. This is something You have been impressing on me and most recently did so once again last night, even before I had seen this [David's] prayer.

    How can we speak for You if we do not take that time to bow before You and turn our hearts and ears toward You to hear Your Words? What words do we have to speak apart from those You give us? Give us willing, humble and teachable hearts to come and put aside our agenda and bow before You and tarry in prayer and receive from You what You wish to give us in Your time. To whom shall we go? You alone have the words of life. How can we be ambassadors of Your life if we do not spend time in Your presence, time drinking in of Your Words, of Your Life.

    Forgive us for the times we are tempted to speak apart from listening to Your first. Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening. For the sake of Your glory, Your Name and Your Church we come to You. Holy God, we come to You through the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask You to hear us for we are called by Your Name and have been created for Your glory. Amen.

    Related: