Prayer and the Sovereignty of God

I realized recently that I have a tendency to take the sovereignty of God so much for granted that I fail to pray specifically, strategically and persistently.  God’s sovereignty should instead inspire me to set before Him the burdens of my heart, because He is able to answer my prayers.  His ability to act should not be an excuse for my complacency–instead it should cause me to entreat Him to act.

Paul certainly valued prayer, and spent much time in it night and day.  He wrote in Colossians 4:2, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”  I love to read Paul’s recorded prayers, and I hope to someday pray like he did.  Sometimes I wish I could have listened in on his private prayers.

I believe that prayer is the most important work of a Christian, coming even before evangelism.  Paul asked for prayer so that he would be able to evangelize.  All the other ministry we do is pointless if we are not devoting ourselves to prayer, asking God to do the work.

God IS sovereign, and He IS able to open doors for the gospel, for abortion to be ended, for Jesus to return, for kings and rulers to make wise decisions, for orphans and widows to be taken care of, for the oppressed and downtrodden to be defended and comforted.  We should not just expect God to do these things, we should ask Him to do them.  Our hearts should burn with the desires of God Himself.  If we allow Him to fill us with His heart and mind we will be so overwhelmed we’ll have no where to turn but to God Himself  and must cry out to Him.

I want so much to be a person devoted to prayer.  But I am distracted from within and from without.  I love God and I long to sit with Him and listen to His heart and share mine with Him.  He is my Father who loves me, so how could I not want to be with Him?  But I am pulled away.  I know that it is the most important work I can do; that as I pray the Lord empowers the other things I do.  But I try to do those things in my own strength anyway.

The reason there are so many distractions is because prayer is so vital.  Our enemy does not want us to pray and our flesh avoids it at all cost, so his work is easy.  He might not be able to tempt us with the gross sins, but he sure can tempt us to do worthless things (relatively speaking) instead of praying.  It happens to me all the time.  That is why Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:7, “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.”

So this is my prayer: that I will be self-controlled and serious-minded enough to devote myself to prayer, knowing that the end of all things is near, and that God counts my prayers as important in His  Sovereign work.  And I ask that God will fill my heart with His passions and burdens; that I will love what He loves and hate what He hates; that He will use me as part of the answer to my prayers–prayer leads to power for ministry.

Below is a link to an article by John Piper on the prayers of the saints and end times.  It is a bit long, but worth reading.

The Importance of the Prayers of the Saints

Thoughts from Tammy :)

Good Morning! A beautiful morning to wake to and I feel rested.  I havn’t been feeling well the past few days and the rest was nice! Seems that one of things that goes along with enjoying your grandchildren, is sharing their colds or whatever they come down with.

                       As I sat down this morning with my hot cup of coffee and began to prepare for my Bible study, I stopped to pray first and asked the Lord to speak to my heart through His word and the study on Prayer that I am going through. As I started my lesson, we were asked to look up scriptures and write down what the Psalmists wrote that showed what they  knew about God that drew their hearts to adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and worship.  As I began reading the verses and writing down what I saw, my mind at the same time was thinking thoughts everywhere…..  grocery shopping that needed to be done, clothes to wash, calls to make , concerns I had, etc. Praise God for the Spirit that lives within me that began speaking to my heart. Not out loud but deep inside my heart. “Tammy, be still and listen.” I did and then my heart was drawn to pray again and I asked God to forgive me and to please remove all my thoughts and concerns and place them at His feet and just listen to what His word had to say to me. After all , I had just asked Him before I started ,to speak to me through His word. I started over again, reading the scriptures that were given to us to read and began meditating on them, my mind, my thoughts, everything inside me began to change in direction. It all went straight to God in prayer,  in praise and worship of His holiness, faithfulness, His forgiveness, salvation, strength, His creation, ……….. the list goes on. When I finished in prayer and went to get up, all the thoughts that were so concerning me before, were so little.Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness,come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God,it is He that hath made us and not we ourselves;we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generation.”

 As the Psalmist has said in the beginning of several Psalms, ” Oh sing to the Lord a new song!

I hope you all have a very blessed day! Love,Tammy

New Study

Some ladies and I are going to be doing another study by Kristie Gant called Prayer.  Focus Publishing recently started publishing this study and they offer a 50% discount if you order 6 or more studies.  If you’d like to do this study alone or with us (via the Bible Study Blog) you can call 1-800-913-6287 or
www.focuspublishing.com to view and order.  You have to call the phone number to get the discount.  My hope is that the Lord will raise up small groups in churches around the country to do this study and grow in prayerfulness.  You don’t have to do it with our group, but you are welcome to join us.

Kristie is a godly woman and her studies are the best I have ever seen.  They are inductive, but manageable as far as time requirements, and give plenty of room for prayer and meditation on God’s word–the result is life change because the word of God and the Spirit of God are given opportunity to work in our hearts together (the bread of the Word and the water of the Spirit-gotta have both).

Prayer: Coming to the Throne with Purpose, Passion and Praise
Kristie Gant

An inductive Bible study written specifically for believers who desire to pray more passionate, purposeful, and God-honoring prayers. This 11-week course is ideal for personal and group study and uses the Lord’s Prayer as a foundation to address such topics as:

• The Role of the Holy spirit in Prayer
• Fasting
• Confession
• Praying for the Glory of God.

 
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So my “challenge” to you is to gather 6 or more people from your church or local churches and do this study together.  You can set a meeting time or you can do what we busy wives and mom’s do–a blog and e-mail format that allows us to encourage each other, work at our own pace, and keep each other accountable.  If you happen to attend the same church you’ll also have opportunity to talk about what the Lord teaches you when you meet on Sunday mornings.

Sharing Space

For those who have finished the study, feel free to share about Lesson Nine here.

Audio Resources

Sovereign Grace Ministries just held their ‘08 worship conference, the theme of which was the Psalms.  Below is a link to audio files of the general sessions.  I’ve not listened yet, but have heard most of the speakers before and they are always very good.

 

SG Worship Conference Messages

The Next Message

This is the message from Job Michael Card mentions in the previous message.

Worshiping the God Who Takes Everything Away

Audio Message

I just finished listening to this message by Michael Card on laments in Scripture.  It fits so perfectly with our Psalm study.  I hope you will be encouraged by it as you listen and pray over its contents.

 

The Lost Language of Lament by Michael Card

Moving

Right now I am focusing on moving. . .so keep studying, and I’ll post something when I can.

A woman who fears the Lord. . .

It used to be that the men would go and study in the synagogues and come home and teach their wives and children–a woman didn’t get to read the Scriptures for herself during the week.  Then on Sundays (for the Christians) she would listen during the meeting and could ask her husband questions at home.  A woman could pray, and was expected to, but she couldn’t have what we now call a quiet time which includes Bible study.  She certainly would not lead a Bible study like this.  She would meditate on the Scriptures she had hidden in her heart during meetings and family worship times.

I am thankful that we as women have access to God’s word, but in some ways I think we are at a disadvantage when it comes to respecting and honoring our husbands.  I want my husband to lead me and teach me, but because I have been immersed in God’s word since I was a small girl he sometimes feels that he has nothing he can teach me, and I am tempted to try to teach him instead. . .because many of us work at home taking care of our families, we often have more time to study than our husbands do and that can make us feel spiritually superior to them. 

I am not saying that we should stop reading and studying our Bibles–I am so thankful I can read it, and have it available for teaching my children during the day when my husband is at work.  Proverbs makes it pretty clear that wives play a role alongside their husbands in the teaching of their children.  But it is so important for us to remember that a spiritual woman is not one who spends her day reading the Bible and praying to the neglect of her husband and children, and who then lords her spirituality over her husband.  I confess to being tempted by this throughout my marriage, and it is sin.  God is not pleased with my arrogance.  A spiritual woman obeys the word as she loves her husband and children, is self-controlled, pure, a worker in her home, kind, submissive to her own husband, is modest, has a gentle and quiet spirit, respects her husband, raises her children with faith, love and holiness, is faithful to do good works, is diligent instead of lazy, speaks only well of her husband and is trustworthy,  can guard her tongue, is hospitable and helps those in affliction. . .

Psalm 86:11 asks the Lord, “Teach me Your way, O Lord, that I may walk in Your truth; UNITE my heart to FEAR Your name.” My prayer for us is that our time of Bible study and meditation on truth will renew our minds so that we can serve our families the way God intends for us to. In this way we will defeat Satan’s intentions for our family, and this is spiritual indeed!  Proverbs says the virtuous woman is one who fears the Lord and her description in chapter 31 is of a hard working, loving wife who honors her husband in all her words and actions, doing him good all the days of her life, caring for the needs of her family and the poor, teaching with wisdom and kindness–she supports her husband, with no thought for herself or her own glory, so he can succeed in the role God has given him as an elder in the land.

Father, unite my heart to fear You so that I will obey Your command to respect, honor and submit to my husband.  Make me the helper he needs so he can devote himself to the calling you’ve placed on his life.  Thank you that it is spiritual to serve in my home and in my church family and that when I do this I give no opportunity to Satan for slander.  Please keep me from being deceived by Satan’s lies.  Help me to believe Your word and obey and love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

Questions for lesson seven

Sorry for the delay–we’re in the process of moving and I was sick for a couple of weeks–but enough is enough! 

How is your study going?

More importantly, how is God using these Psalms to change your life, your praying, your perspective?

From Psalm 84: Why is it important to know that God will never withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly?

From Psalm 85: How have we also been brought out of captivity, been forgiven our sins and had God’s anger turned from us?

We don’t live in a peaceful world today.  How does God speak peace to us today?

From Psalm 86: What are some areas of your thinking/life that you do not fear God in?  Can you pray with David that God would unite your heart to fear His name, to teach you His truth so you can walk in His ways?

From Psalm 87: What was your response to this picture of all nations, tribes and tongues being part of God’s kingdom?