17th entry - Prayers that Really Move the Heart of God

An article that I read recently on prayers set me wondering about my own prayer life. Written by Nancy Guthrie, the article titled "Prayers that move the heart of God" was about how we should pray to God by having the "right" focus - seeking God more than the things we ask for, focussing on deeper things that really mattered, keeping our prayers authentic and humble, and being submissive to His will rather than insisting on our own way.

I had attended a course conducted by my former church about how to say effective prayers. The course was called "Praying to make a difference" and the "instructors" used the Lord Jesus Christ's "model" prayer as a framework for how we should be praying - acknowledging God's role in our lives, thanking Him for what He has done for us, seeking His forgiveness through confession and repentence, and finally going to Him for our needs.

Whether our prayers are answered or not, the important thing to remind ourselves is that God really listens. I feel that no matter how we pray - what we say or dont say, whether we focus on ourselves or on others, whether we ask for superficial things or go deeper, whether we have the "right" attitude or not - God will listen. Whether He decides to answer our prayer is a different matter, however. The decision always lies with Him, and we only need to trust He knows best.

Ever wondered why people need to pray? For most people, prayers are requests for their needs to be met - they pray because they hope their needs, goals and/or aspirations, which are beyond their ability to meet, achieve or attain, will be met supernaturally or spiritually. For others, prayers are a way of communicating with God - those starting out will usually follow a "script" as guided by the more experienced and prayerful folks, while others, especially the more spiritual, may engage in "two-way conversation".

Sometimes I doubt that those people who claim to "hear" God speaking to them really hear God's voice, but I know anything is possible - just because something never happens to me doesnt mean it wont happen to someone else. But we often say that God knows everything - this means He knows what we need and do not need. He knows when we are in danger and when we need divine intervention. In this light, isnt prayer a redundant exercise? What's the point of telling Him something when He already knows what we are thinking even before we say it?

Jesus Himself prayed on the night before He knew He would be betrayed. I even visited the spot where Jesus supposedly knelt down and prayed that the cup would be taken from Him, but stressing that this be God's will and not His own. I could imagine the desperation and fear and anxiety and state of depression that He was going through - like a criminal on death row just before he would be executed. Why did He pray even though He knew nothing was going to change?

My own view is that we need to pray in order to remind ourselves to be humble before God and to remind ourselves of who God is in our lives. The fact that we go to Him to ask for our needs to be met shows that we need Him and only He can meet our needs, goals and aspirations - simply because He is God and we are not! There are things we can do (or think we can) using our own resources, but for all others we have to rely on God.

Praying forces us to reflect on our behaviour. At one stage, I was not praying regularly. Everything in life seemed to be going well, and I did not find myself in need. Slowly, I found myself becoming increasingly distant from God, and sinning. Then something bad happened to me and served as a reality-check. I returned to humble myself before God, sought His forgiveness for my sins, and asked for help. By His grace, I survived and became stronger.

The cycle would repeat itself. Even when I prayed regularly, I found that I could still slip easily into complacency and forget that I was praying to God the Almighty One. Reverence would sometimes be replaced by insolence - I allowed myself to be distracted, sometimes even by lusty thoughts, and get totally sidetracked. I realised that I could even slip up on something as easy as muttering an "Amen" at the end of my prayer. God allows such slips as part of Free Will, but sinning has its consequences and we need to be mindful of them.

Now, I try every morning when I wake up to pray for God's will to be done in my life today, thanking Him for all that He has done for me and asking for forgiveness of sins committed deliberately or unintentionally. I feel that prayer is the most basic and important thing to start my day with - and to prevent myself from slipping I make it a habit that I try to cultivate and maintain.

I dont hear God speaking to me directly, but I know He speaks to me through things that happen to me in life. More importantly, I believe God wants to hear our prayers, because He loves us. We only need to ask ourselves - if we love someone, dont we desire for the person to talk to us openly and humbly and as often and as regularly as possible? Dont we desire for the person to devote some of his time and attention to us at least once a day? Its the same with God.

It is well-known that most people pray only when they have urgent needs e.g. when its a matter of life and death. The Chinese even have a proverb to describe last ditch efforts as "grabbing the Buddha's feet at the last minute instead of offering incense daily". Apparently, there is even a temple in central China where devotees (especially young students before exams) would grab the feet of a statue of Buddha as a form of worship.

If our attitude is that we only go to God when we need help, rest assured that our prayers would be heard and, depending on whether they were consistent with His will, they just might be answered, too. For those who love God and desire a closer relationship with Him, who want to know His will in our lives and then align our behaviour and actions with it, then everyday prayer is a must. We learn better about ourselves and about God when we humble ourselves in prayer.

He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. (Psalm 25:9)

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:12)