A Heart Committed to Prayer - Part 2

Let's continue our look at the blessings of prayer in Chapter 3 of A Woman After God's Own Heart:

Blessing #4: Improved Relationships

You cannot think about yourself and others at the same time. As we settle our personal needs with God in prayer, we can then rise up and focus all our attention outward -- away from self and on to others.

You cannot hate the person you are praying for. God changes our hearts as we pray for our enemies. Matthew 5:44, "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."

You cannot neglect the person you are praying for. As we invest ourselves in prayer for other people, we find ourselves wonderfully involved in their lives.

Blessing #5: Contentment

Day after day, we must place our needs in God's hands, letting Him meet those needs. Psalm 84:11, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly."

Blessing #6: God-Confidence

As the Holy Spirit works in us, God-confidence comes upon us. As we pray and when we make choices that honor God, the Holy Spirit fills us with His power for ministry. The result of His filling is that we are confidently and effectively able to share His love and joy.

Blessing #7: The Ministry of Prayer

Edith Schaeffer stated, "Interceding for other people makes a difference in the history of other people's lives." This means that each of us can actually have a role in the mysterious ways of God.

It is important for each of us to realize that prayer is a ministry, and understanding this fact can end our feelings of uselessness and ineffectiveness.

Yes, But How?

How can we cultivate a heart of prayer and enjoy the blessings that accompany a life of committed and devoted prayer? Here are some quick thoughts.

Start a prayer log to record prayer and answers to prayer.

Set aside some time each day to linger with the Lord in prayer. Remember that something is better than nothing.

Pray always and in all places, enjoying God's presence with you wherever you go.

Pray faithfully for others -- including your enemies.

Take seriously the powerful privilege of the ministry of prayer.

A Heart Committed to Prayer - Part 1

The third chapter of our Bible study lays out for us some of the blessings of prayer. Let's take a look at them now and take note of how God wants to pour out His grace as we expand our reading time to also include prayer.

Blessing #1: A Deeper Relationship with God

Prayer increases faith as we make a prayer list of people and situations that we take to the Lord. This might involve a small notebook where we can write down what we have prayed for, and then note when the prayer is answered.

Prayer provides a place to humble ourselves and unload burdens. 1 Peter 5:6-7, "Therefore humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

Prayer teaches us that God is always near. Psalm 46:1, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

Prayer trains us not to panic. Turning to God for every need during regular daily prayer will ingrain the habit of prayer, leaving us with fewer temptations to worry and fret.

Prayer changes lives, partucularly ours! The peace of God will reign in us as we learn to trust Him with our whole heart.

Blessing #2: Greater Purity

Becoming pure is a process of spiritual growth, and taking seriously the confession of sin during prayer time moves that process along, causing us to purge our life of practices that displease God. By confessing our sins to God, he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Blessing #3: Confidence in Making Decisions

When we take the time to pray about every decision that comes our way, we are developing a routine of seeking God's will in all things. God has a plan for our time and by consulting Him before we say 'yes' or 'no,' we are acknowledging Him as the Lord (boss) of our life. Proverbs 3:6, "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

Instead of the dread or fear that results when we make a quick decision without God's involvement, we can experience a solid confidence - confidence in God - and the excitement of anticipating what He will do.

A woman after God's own heart is a woman who will do His will -- not her own.

Acts 13:22, "And when He had removed him [Saul], He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.'"

On the Subject of Scheduling Personal Devotions

Psalm 121:1-2, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills -- From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth."

By now you may have found that distractions are abundant. We have attempted to pick a place, time, and plan for our devotions with the Lord, yet we can get side-tracked so easily! Elisabeth Elliot has some thoughts on this subject, and they are included here:

Distractions to Prayer

No one who has tried to pray for more than a few seconds at a time would claim that he is never distracted. It is astonishing to note how insistently and immediately irrelevant matters come to mind, noises occur, things to be attended to are remembered, people interrupt, and even physical discomforts or pains bother us which we had not noticed until we tried to pray. These things are, of course, the work of the master saboteur of souls, who knows how to render our spiritual machinery useless, by the loosening of the tiniest screw or the loss of the smallest nut.

Distractions can be useful. They provide constant reminders of our human weakness. We recognize in them how earthbound we are, and then how completely we must depend on the help of the Holy Spirit to pray in and through us. We are shown, by a thousand trivialities, how trivial are our concerns. The very effort to focus, even for a minute, on higher things, is foiled, and we see that prayer--the prerequisite for doing anything for God--cannot be done without Him. We are not, however, left to fend for ourselves.

"The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God" (Romans 8:26-27).

Shall We Stop Trying?

No! It may be that the plan you have for devotions needs to be tweaked a bit. Perhaps you must choose a different time, or maybe you should find another location where distractions are less. It's perfectly okay if you tailor-make it to fit your life-style. Let's not allow discouragement to set in. Take heart! God loves you and is very pleased when you make the effort to be with Him.