| | This post is in response to Cowboy.
I have lived by those words of Spurgeon so many times since my teens.
There is a beautiful paradox in the concept of prayer. God is
completely sovereign, but somehow as his children we have the ability
to "influence his thinking," so to speak. When we "pray back" his
promises we know we are acting within his will, while at the same time
presenting to him our deepest (and sometimes not so deep, but still
important) needs. I love that word, "importunately." I have something I
pray for the same thing every single night . . . over and over and over
. . . and I can't think of any other way to say it than the exact same
way I've said it several dozen times, but I keep praying knowing that
past grace is about as solid as a promise. Here's what I mean by that.
The wife of a former pastor at GBC found that remembering and thanking
God for his past help with a personal issue was one of the greatest
ways to keep that issue from rising in her heart again. It's the same
with how we pray. We bring those promises back to God and humbly but
boldy tell him we want that promise for ourselves. Then we turn around
and thank him for the times he's kept that promise for us and for
others we know.
God has some definite ideas about what he wants our prayers to be like.
I think using the promises and the past examples of grace in our
prayers is a way to doubly fortify the faith with which we present our
requests. See James 1:5-8 for the importance of faith in prayer.
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| | Posted 1/21/2008 7:45 AM - 45 views - 2 comments
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