Welcome to the Fifth and final Sunday of My Fall Series –

Redefining Godliness: Debunking Myths and Embracing True Faith

I’ve been spending these fall weeks talking about what it means to be a Godly woman and have identity rooted in Christ. I’ve talked about Proverbs 31, Sexual Purity, Fruits of the Spirit, and Living in Love. Today, I talk about how the Power of Prayer in our everyday life and how the formulas for receiving from God in prayer are misplaced in works theology.

What is prayer?

Prayer is the connecting point where we call on God, offer ourselves to Him, and He meets us. The first time prayer is mentioned is in Genesis 4:26, “At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” However, I would even go so far to say that when Abel and Cain both made offerings to God of their animals, it was in many regards, prayer.

Why would Cain and Abel’s story emphasize prayer? It’s about animals and murder.

Because it involves the first fruits and atonement of a blood sacrifice (killing of the best animal) to meet with God and offer to him. Prayer is an offering of our best to God and asking him to meet us. When we call upon God in prayer, to have atonement for our sins and receive forgiveness, Jesus now stands in our place in the new covenant to do just that. This is important because forgiveness and repentance are part of the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11:2-4, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.”

It’s also an important component of offering a first fruit because God doesn’t want our leftovers. We don’t make a meal and then offer him a portion as an afterthought. That is why prayer is a connecting point. When anything comes up in our lives, we don’t connect to God as an afterthought – we connect to Him first. We lay our burdens, our worries, our requests, all of ourselves at the foot of the cross to receive. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”.

Why pray about everything?

This is an important encouragement or even statement from Paul as it shows that we prayer about everything in our lives. That means big or small – God is in the details of our story. Nothing is too big or too small for God. I have had well-meaning people encourage me to not pray about everything actually and stated I was trying to control the outcome of whatever was going on in my life. While that could be true, it derailed me from prayer for a season in my life.

But ultimately, we aren’t in control so I want to completely debunk those well-meaning friends. When we say ‘Amen’, we give our will up for God’s. We offer our prayers in the hopes God answers and then we leave it up to him.

Our prayers are water to our soul like drinking water is for our physical bodies.

A day without prayer is like going an entire day without drinking water. We cannot survive long in our spiritual life without prayer, we become parched, thirsty, desert like. I have gone through seasons where I prayed less about the details of my life and I felt disconnected more from God. I felt He was farther away because I wasn’t praying in the way I did due to those well-meaning friends. But God wants me to come to Him and rely on Him for everything. That is why God describes himself in Ezekiel 47 as the river of life and everything He touches will revive and live, “Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.”

Living water sustains and the way we are sustained is through constant prayer and petition in all we do. God is our life source – the only way our soul truly lives. David tells us that our soul pants for God as in many of the Psalms it speak of our souls thirsting for God. Psalm 143:6 says, “I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land”.

Is there a formula to prayer?

I want to debunk this because it’s so prominent in New Age theology and in the Faith Movement which are both no theology at all. There is no magic formula to prayer or receiving in prayer. God doesn’t even need our prayers – He wants them. Why? Because God wants a relationship with us. He wants it to be personal.

When there are pastors and false prophets who tout formulas, they are making God like other Gods – unapproachable, predictable, and even so far off that we need to do works to please Him and receive from Him. That is not the God of the Bible.

God wants to meet with us. That is the God of the Bible. The entire book of Exodus teaches us that God wants to make himself known. It’s not that He isn’t known – He is. But that He wants to reveal himself personally to us. He wants us to know His voice, hear His call, and be able to approach him in relationship. There is no set formula in how to get God to do anything. God wants to give because He loves us. God wants us period.

What about when God isn’t answering right away in prayer?

For example, take your boss at work. Let’s pretend he’s a good boss. When you approach your boss to ask him for resources or support, you may ask him with reverence in persuasion to do what you need him to do. If he can meet your needs, he will do all in his power to do so. You don’t have to persuade him heavily because he already knows what your workload is, what challenges you are facing, and what obstacles stand in the way of your success. He knows and has a relationship with you.

With a bad boss, you approach him in fear. He doesn’t care what you need and you make a PowerPoint presentation possibly or worksheet to try to convince him of what you need for your department. He does it begrudgingly or not at all.

The good boss vs the bad boss has one main difference – the good boss you know well and rely on, trust, and have support to meet your needs. The bad boss is far away, cannot relate to, and you need formulas or methods to coerce him to do your will.

This example stems from Luke 18’s parable of the persistent widow and how when we approach God in prayer persistently,

“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

When we approach God in prayer, God is not unjust. And since God is just, he wants to answer and give us justice in our lives according to His will and purpose. We should consistently pray because God wants to answer. The example shows us that if an unjust judge eventually begrudgingly gives us justice, how much more so God?

His timing is what we wait on and He longs to be gracious and answer, giving us the right answer at the right time. Isaiah 30:18 states, “The LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!”

What does the Bible say about prayer and fasting?

Prayer and fasting can walk hand in hand. Fasting doesn’t always mean food either. While we can fast to hear from God, it’s also not required. But if we do fast either from food or from something we love as a sacrifice to hear from God, we must know God still answers according to His own time and purpose.

Sometimes we aren’t sure what God is saying or even if and how He will answer. During those times, we keep praying. We don’t give up. Not only because we are reminded of Luke 18’s parable of persistence in prayer, and Paul praying without ceasing in everything we do, but because we love God. A part of a component of our prayers should be remembrance of God’s wonders in the past and His ability to provide for our future. We should praise Him even before He delivers and even we aren’t sure how He will deliver us.

I love this about the story and I especially love Jehoshaphat’s response to God’s answer even though he had not seen deliverance yet. He stood firm on what God said, “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his[c] holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

What does Jehoshaphat’s prayer and response tell us about our own prayer lives?

That God is more than able and willing to fight our battles for us when we pray. He is there waiting for us to come to Him and ask Him for help. He will respond. I think most of the battles of my life when I trace God’s hand especially the last few years – they are 100% God and nothing of my own design. God give us free will to make choices but most of the battles we fight are best fought in the prayer closet.

When people ask my advice on decisions or situations they encounter, I ask them what God has said in prayer to them first. Because at the end of the day, God wants to give advice, support, compassion, and love to us. He wants to help us make decisions according to His will and follow His voice.

How does prayer help us know God’s will?

That’s how we know God is working and moving in our lives – by the answers to our prayers. If we are praying and seeing Him answer, in many ways we are following His will. I’m not saying God won’t answer by spiritual feelings or actions, but if we truly and deeply want to know if we are following God’s will, we will pray.

If we bathe anything in prayer and God answers according to what He’s said He’ll do for us in our prayer time, then it’s of God. 1 Timothy 4:4-5 supports this, “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”

Consecrated means “make or declare (something, typically a church) sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose”. That is why I have begun to pray over the details of my life, bringing my requests to God more and more. I don’t have to – I could pray vague prayers and ask for God’s will. I just wouldn’t know His will for my life as deeply.

Think of your significant other – the more you talk to them, the more intimately and deeply you know them. It’s the same with God. To know Him deeply is to talk to Him within the connecting point of prayer. The more you pray, the more you’ll know Him better just like any relationship in your life. You recognize God’s handprints on your life when you pray and the more you petition, the more God answers.

God wants to answer your prayers.

Believe me He loves nothing more than for you to pray and Him to continually reveal His answers. Jeremiah 33:3 states, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know”. If we ask anything according to His will, He’ll answer. And the only way to know His will is to pray to Him – His prayer and His will are comingled together – they work together. In 1 John 5:14-15, it tells us, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

God is not just nearby or far away, God fills heaven and earth so when we come to Him we are confident that we have what we ask of him, Jeremiah 23:23-24, ““Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.” Meaning we cannot hide from God and God wants us to come to Him in prayer so He can answer. Nothing is outside of God’s reach to answer, to give to us, or to help us know His will for our lives.

How powerful is prayer?

There are many examples of figures in the bible constantly praying and how prayer is a war that is fought in the spiritual realm. Daniel is one of the men in the Bible who is persecuted for prayer. Not only does God deliver him from the lion’s den when he refuses to stop praying 3 times a day every day to God, but He also shows him the future in Daniel 10 of the behind the scenes of Daniel’s fasting and prayer to get an answer from God.

For me, those two chapters helped me believe that God hears right away even if the answer doesn’t come right away. This has deeply and profoundly impacted my prayer life. In Daniel 10:12, it’s revealed in heaven, “Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”

Prayer is powerful because God is all powerful. The power you access when you pray for God to act, to move, to hear, to respond is literally the power that rose Jesus from the grave. That is why when we think of Godliness, we think of a life of prayer. Even the Spirit intercedes for us in prayer when we don’t know what to pray for, Romans 8:26-27 states, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning’s too deep for words.”

I just want us to take that away from prayer because not only is God that powerful, but even when we aren’t sure what to say or how God might move or even at times what He’s saying, the spirit intercedes for us. Not only that, but when we feel our prayers are weak, we should also be reminded that Jesus intercedes for us in heaven too, “Christ is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” Romans 8:34.

How do we live our lives with prayer in everything? That task feels daunting to us.

First, give yourself grace. Prayer has to start somewhere and the best way to start anything is to not put undue pressure on yourself.

When I personally pray, I imagine that my prayers are building my house in heaven.

It may seem foolish but there is so much in the power of prayer that I believe God does for us not just here on earth but one day in heaven. I imagine my prayers build my house in heaven because Jesus has prepared a room for me (John 14:2-3). I also imagine it because there was a beautiful sermon I read that’s popular and it speaks of the analogy how God wants to come into every room in our life and redo it, rebuilding it on the right foundation. The same is how I imagine my prayers – they are building my life in heaven and while nobody can see it here and it’s invisible, my faith that God answers my prayers is a small brick building a larger building for me in my eternal home.

In Revelation 5:8, there is a bowl of prayers and there are 24 elders falling down before God and burning incense. While we only get glimpses of the new heaven and earth and what heaven might be like, we see peeks that our prayers are always before God in His Throne room. It’s encouragement that God hears our prayers and knows exactly when to answer. While we view typically view judgement at times as negative, our prayers answers are a form of God’s judgement as He is bringing justice by answering which is a positive thing.

While I’ve shown you how I personally envision my prayers, there are small steps you can do to cultivate a daily life of prayer which in turn, snowballs into a continued life of praying without ceasing. Don’t downplay the small steps. Those steps are crucial to cultivating a life of prayer.

Ways to Cultivate Prayer:

1. Set aside five minutes each morning to pray. While praying in the car is good, ensure you are not driving and you are in private. This will help you set your worries and cares before God without interruption.
2. Start a prayer or conversation journal. Prayers don’t have to be formal or articulate. They just have to be consistent. The best way I do this is by having a journal where I ask God questions and see how He answers in my private time. Once my private time starting being seen by me in my life, I started to recognize how God spoke to me and answered my prayers.
3. Find a prayer partner. Find someone who holds you accountable to praying once a day for five minutes. Start to encourage larger intervals or increase the times a day you pray for 5 minutes.
4. Find someone to pray for. Intercession is a huge part of our prayer life. We should always be interceding and praying for people to not just find God, but be healed. The prayers of a righteous person are powerful.

I want to encourage you today that no matter what your prayer life looks like as you read this, that God is not done with you. He isn’t done until He completes His work in you (Philippians 1:6). You can start right now by praying a short 5 minute prayer. You can start doing other things on the list I gave. But ultimately, God wants to be a part of your daily life and prayer is the connection point where He wants to speak to you. He is your source of water in your daily life. He wants to revive the things that you feel might be dead. Maybe you’ve been praying for a long time and you haven’t seen God answer. Pray until you see God’s answer. Don’t give up hope that God will answer in some way for your life.

Wherever you are in your prayer life, I pray that God strengthens your hands. I pray that God draws you close to Him and whatever worry is on your heart and mind, that God alleviates it. I pray for you to cultivate a life of prayer knowing God wants to answer. God longs for you to come to Him with every need you have. He will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory. He wants to supply them to you. He is a God of abundance, of grace, and of mercy. I pray that you lay your burdens before Him and that his river of life revives you. I pray that Jesus intercedes on your behalf and that you come to know God’s will for your life.

Homework This Week: Take time for 5 minutes every morning to open your day up to God’s will for your life. Pray over what your day entails and ask God to guide your steps.