Prayer is Intimate talk
“There is no other activity in life as important as that of prayer. Every other activity depends upon prayer for its best efficiency”. – M E Andross
That is a great quote! But I dare not say that I am perfect or even close to it in the practice of prayer.
The book of Revelation depicts a time when prayers will be collected into bowls. Rev 5:8 & 8:3-5. Prayers here are given the imagery of incense in a censor which is a pleasing aroma to God. It is pleasing to God and He loves faithful prayers of every saint.
In chapter 8, we also see that every prayer pronounced before God for justice becomes fire, for the full fruition of Gods plan and purposes. It is fascinating to see the power of prayer in accordance with God’s will. However it is not a tool to try and arm twist God into answering our selfish desires and petitions. Rather it is the means to bring about Gods will working through the lips of every believer, with the intercession of the Holy Spirit.
So is there a type of praying which is fleshly? Yes, there is a kind of prayer that was followed by the Pharisees in the time of Lord Jesus. He summed it as long drawn out repetitious prayers which were intended to please everyone. Self promotion was in the heart of such prayers. Now, what about closet prayers, can they be the same? Of course it can when done with an intention of pleasing a religious heart with the sense of achievement and duty.
But the Bible describes a genuine prayer as a prayer where the Holy Spirit, Himself intercedes for us through groans. Many people have taken these groans too far and have tried to produce a fleshly substitute for this groan. But God’s word shows us that despite our utter weaknesses, the Holy Spirit who dwells within us helps us in these feeble penitent prayers. In my opinion prayer is a form of intimacy through God to God.
Intimacy that we refer here is relational. Being intimate with a person involves knowing, trusting him/her with all that we have. It involves absolute trust. To explain this further we cannot go past a relationship between a husband and wife, where the two in matrimony become one. A good marriage involves keeping no secrets and being forthright, loving, honest, and faithful. It is a worldly representation of a spiritual union as the Lord Jesus describes in John 15. He says that He is the Vine and we are the branches. We are in Him and He is in us. Jn 15:7 says “If you live/abide in me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.” The privileges of this relationship are exceptional, but as we have already seen this privilege come with a safety catch of asking according to His will.
We who were once enemies of God (Rom 5:10) and totally corrupt with wickedness in our heart (Jer17:9), can we ever be restored to a God who is infinitely holy. The answer to this was the Lord Jesus Himself who became flesh (Jn 1:14) and lived a blameless life with no sin. He for our sakes became sin on the cross, that in and through Him we might become the righteousness of God and come into a right relationship with Him (2 Cor 5:21). He arose from the dead and came to invite us to a New Covenant/relationship with Him. Lord Jesus death and resurrection is the very essence of this restoration of intimacy that mankind had lost after the initial sin.
This intimacy can only grow with constant and frequent fellowship with God. 1Jn1:3 talks about our fellowship being with the Father and the Son. So may the Lord help all of us to renew/restore our intimacy with Him.
Amen.