"Some say, "I would feel better about God hearing my prayer if I were
more worthy and lived a better life." I simply answer: If you don't
want to pray before you feel that you are worthy or qualified, then
you will never pray again. Prayer must not be based on or depend on
your personal worthiness or the quality of the prayer itself but on
the unchanging truth of God's promise . . . We pray because we are
unworthy to pray. Our prayers are heard precisely because we believe
that we are unworthy. We become worthy to pray when we risk
everything on God's faithfulness alone . . . For your worthiness
doesn't help you and neither does your unworthiness hinder you. A
lack of faith is what condemns you, but confidence in God is what
makes you worthy. "
- Martin Luther
4 comments:
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D
I do wonder about this in the context of James 5:16, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much". I often feel like my prayer is consequently ineffective (or at least less so) because of my own unrighteousness.
I have some thoughts on that...based on my own personal struggle with being righteous enough to prevail in prayer.
I am by no means a scholar in scripture but here is something that I believe the Holy Spirit revealed to me during a very dark time in my life when I felt that God was far from me. I would try to pray, and feel that it was useless...I was not good enough to have Him even look my direction.
Psa 116:2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon [him] as long as I live.
(Notice-God makes the first move of inclining His ear)
1Jo 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us (Notice again, God makes the first move- and we love in return)
Now take the above verse and replace the word "love" with "Call"
We CAll Him, because he first CALLED us. (see this pattern?)
When we get an unction to pray or to spend time with God, it's because He's calling us FIRST. Just as we are. With the stink of the pig farm still clinging to us. With the smell of the world seeping from our pores... our only response need be as Samuels "I am here Lord,I am listening" No need for the sackcloth. Fold it up and put it away.
I encourage you to know this..when you are thinking about God, it's because He is thinking about you first.
And to those who feel prayers can sometimes feel empty or powerless here's what I believe is the truth.
When Jesus was on the cross ,His last words were "it is finished". It's done. We are no longer in Old Testament times where His creations would cry and beg and plead for deliverance and God would respond 40 years later with "I have (finally) heard the cries of my people". I believe through the Lamb's sacrifice,the curtain of demonic interferrence was split in half and our prayers now reach God the very first time we incline our hearts to pray. I don't believe that we have to keep knocking, asking or seeking where prayer is concerned. We don't have to beg or cry or scream or throw a tantrum. I believe when we pray or ask something of Him, His response is "it is finished". You can't get any more closure than that.
I think the most horrific ploy of the enemy is to trick us into thinking that we have to pray or to be or to say a certain thing to get God's attention. We already have His attention.
Some say that we should pray until we feel a release in the spirit even if that takes days. I say, if Satan can make us feel that we need to 'feel' anything and by doing so keeps us in one place repeating the same prayer over and over again, he renders us useless in the forward movement of battle.
Yes there is a time for fasting and prayer. But that's for a season not for a lifetime . And you will be URGED to do so by the Spirit; it won't be through your own fleshly desire to do something 'spiritual' for God. Yuck.
Instead, in faith, when you have prayed with or without tears and asked God for His help, and then one hour later, you feel your faith begin to slip, do this : Thank Him that He heard you the first time and that He has answered you with 'it is finished' and then stick out your tongue at the devil for even trying.
It sounds too simplistic and maybe a little callous when dealing with illness or death or catastophe..but I dare you to test God's Word in all these events in your life. Stand on it. It can't make things any worse.
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