THE “WHY” OF PRAYER

Prayer is one of the greatest mysteries and privileges of our Christian lives! Think of it, God, the Almighty, the Creator of the universe, permits us to approach Him and to engage in conversation with Him. He listens to us. He answers us. He allows us to be partners with Him in His kingdom. How can we ever get our heads around this?

We must, therefore, be careful about the way we use this privilege. We must come to God on His terms and in His way.

We love to pray the words of the Psalms because the psalmist’s prayers so often express the emotions of our own hearts. We iften feel like they did and their words express our hearts in those times when we cry out to God for help.

There is great merit in praying the Bible’s words because we are praying God’s words back to Him.
However, we must remember that the prayers of the Old Covenant, although they teach us great principles, have an important piece missing, i.e., the security and assurance of what God has done for us through Jesus.

Righteousness, in the Mosaic covenant, depended on obedience to the Law. The prayers, recorded in many parts of the Old Testament, have an element of uncertainty because pray-ers had no security in their own righteousness. They called on the name of the Lord for mercy and pleaded for His forgiveness based on the knowledge of His covenant love.

‭Psalms 51:1 NLT‬
[1] “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.”

However, in the New Covenant, we have access to the Father because of the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. He has opened the way to God by taking our sin away. We have the assurance that He has made us acceptable to God. By faith in Him, we are made righteous, not guilty, and cleansed of all our unrighteousness.

‭Romans 5:1-2 NLT‬
[1] “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. [2] Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”

We can approach the Father freely and confidently because the blood of Jesus forgives, and takes away all our sin.

‭Hebrews 10:19-22 NLT‬
[19] “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. [20] By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. [21] And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, [22] let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.“

When we pray the prayers of the Old Testament saints, we must attach to them the work of Jesus that removes us from pleading to praise. We do not have to beg God to do anything. We have all His promises which Jesus endorsed by His death, and we can confidently declare our “Amen!” to whatever He said He will do.

Another reason for praying Old Testament prayers with caution is the difference between the focus of the Old and New Testaments. While it is not wrong to pray for physical and material prosperity, the saints in the Old Testament, in the main, were concerned about their circumstances while the New Testament focus is on overcoming the old nature and its influence on our destiny.

We learn God’s way by the many prayers Paul prayed and recorded in his letters.

Paul spent much of his time teaching believers how to overcome sin and how to live by the Spirit. He recognised that continuing in sin negates our new life in Christ and disqualifies us from inheriting God’s kingdom.

‭Galatians 5:19, 21 NLT‬
[19] “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,…
[21] envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

He prays for knowledge and understanding of this new life so that the church grows in maturity as a witness to God’s grace at work in every member.

In the next few weeks we will explore some of Paul’s prayers, listening to his heart, and redirecting our praying into God’s Word, and His will and ways for us.