Lord, I present to you ________, as she/he is poor and needy, but You, Lord, are thinking about _______ right now. You are _______’s helper and ________’s savior. Do not delay, O my God. Hallelujah!
Do you know a name you could plug into those blanks? Of course you do. Do you know anyone spiritually or physically poor and needy? Of course you do. Do you know anyone that needs thought of by the Lord right now? Of course you do. Do you know anyone who needs help, who needs saved, right now? Of course you do.
This was my prayer the other morning for every person on my “Love List.” That’s what I call my prayer list. I’ve come to love every single person I’ve been praying for. To be honest, I didn’t love every single one when they made the list. In fact, quite vehemently the exact opposite in some cases. But through daily prayer I’ve come to love each one, even my enemies, those who (I consider) are wicked (which we all have been at one point), those who have left shrapnel in my life, those who have broken relationships, those who have deep hurt and those who have deeply hurt, those who are crushed and poor in spirit, those who are needy who need saved from something or someone, those who need Jesus and His salvation. One of the most important things about prayer is that it not only makes a difference in the pray-ee’s life, but it will also always make a difference in the pray-er’s life.
Now I’m not smart enough to come up with such a prayer that speaks directly to every human being in the world’s situation like this one does. This prayer is actually a scripture from Psalm 40:17:
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord is thinking about me right now. You are my helper and my savior. Do not delay, O my God.
I found this verse so profound. Of course, when I first read it, I thought Lord, you got my number today. I plugged my own name in the blanks and I found so much peace in Him thinking about me at that (this) very moment. I sat with this verse for a very long time. I read it, re-read it, prayed the Holy Spirit would teach me about it, and illumine me with what it meant and with what I was supposed to do with it. After a bit, the Spirit made it very clear that I was to use that verse to pray for each of my Love List-ers that day. It was just amazing, I wrote this prayer out for every single person on my list, pages and pages. Not only did I bathe each of my folks in prayer, by repeatedly writing it, I memorized the scripture. This process, this prayer was another life event for me.
So often we struggle with prayer. I’ve never quite figured out why that is though. I know it is the way we communicate with God and He with us; speaking to Him, one-on-one. Remember Psalm 27:8?
My heart has heard you say: “Come and talk with me; and my heart responds: “Lord, I am coming.”
One of the very many verses in the Bible where God invites us to come and talk with Him. It’s not a suggestion, or an if you have time, it is a command. And it sounds so simple – come over here and talk to me, stop what you’re doing a sec and let’s talk, hey come over here loved one. Simple request. But, I can tell you that Satan’s angels immediately crowd in on me when I say Lord, I’m coming. Why is that? Because prayer is vital to a relationship with God. It is the vertical beam of the cross. God’s Word is the horizontal beam of the cross. Satan must do anything he can to interrupt those communications, and keep those beams from intersecting. The Bible calls us to devote ourselves to prayer, to be persistent in our prayers. And what I heard on Grace for Purpose Prayers just fit right in:
My friend, we are called to pray persistently because you cannot be a true believer, you cannot be a Bible believer Christian, and neglect prayer. If Jesus Christ, the Son of God, if he prayed consistently and frequently, how can you and I say we follow him but chose not to follow his actions? We need to pray. We need to fight to pray.
Yikes! Saying that out loud (or listening to it as I did) sounded so harsh. But it is true. Truth sounds harsh because we’re not used to hearing it. Truth is actually the lovingest (is that a word?) thing we can do. We cannot have a relationship with someone we do not talk to. Simple as that. And relationship is God’s deepest desire for us as His children. Come…Come…Come…
My prayer life over the last couple of years has changed dramatically. I’ve been asking the Lord to change my life, make me into the person He wants me to be. Move me from self-righteous to righteous. Move me from sinner to saint. Move me from prideful to humble. Move me from me to Him. Move me, Lord…and He has…through prayer and The Word.
Three specific ways in which He has worked in my life include a prayer group, writing my prayers, and praying the scriptures. I may have spoken with you about all of them before, but the change in my heart and mind, and hopefully, my outward spirit, has been so significant to me that I’ll risk repeating. I cannot overemphasize what prayer can do in each of our lives. Each week after prayer group, I’m not the same person I was the week before. Each morning after I write my prayers out (because I am so easily distracted, when I write my prayers to the Lord, the distractions vanish), I’m not the same person I was before I started writing. And when I pray (write them) the scriptures back to Him, I’m not the same person I was. Again, He changes the pray-er as much, or maybe even more, then pray-ee. If you want change in you life, pray.
Praying the scriptures ensures that our prayers are grounded in the truth and in the guidance and will of God. It is simply turning the scripture in prayer back to God. Praying to Him what He wrote. There’s no formula, no method. You simply meditate (roll it around in your brain and let it speak to your heart) on the scripture until you have something to say to God about what you have read in His Word. Some days it comes quickly, other days He may call us to meditate longer.
But, it’s not about length, eloquent words, technique, checkmarks, or accomplishments. It’s about relationship. The long and short of it is that we cannot expect to have relationship with God, to be changed by God, to be filled by God if we are not communicating with God. Being a Christian has certain responsibilities. Just like in any love relationship, it takes two people to commit to the relationship, at least two to build the relationship and two to grow the relationship. How’s it going?
Prayer and praise are the oars by which a man may row his boat into the deep waters of the knowledge of Christ. C.H. Spurgeon