For years we have been told to just pray, but I don’t remember even once anyone giving me instructions on what I should say, or even how I should present my request before the Father. No wonder we live in a world today where prayer is an afterthought even for the “devout” Christian. We have regulated prayer to nothing more than a last minute act of desperation to get something, anything to happen in our favor.
Romans 12:12 (TNIV) tells us to: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.” This statement is a very simple when dissecting the meaning of the verse, it gives us physical instructions to prayer.
So how do we be joyful in hope when we pray? What does it take to be patient in affliction while waiting on answers to prayers? And of course what does faithful in prayer mean? The simplicity of Romans 12:12 is almost shocking. The first two questions are simple; we learn God’s promises and pray them. Here is a excerpt from a previous blog on my FireSpeaks Blog which give a perfect example of how to pray God’s promises.
Sometimes the greatest argument toward God in prayer is God's own promise. When Esau was coming toward Jacob at the brook of Jabbak in Genesis 32:11-12 Jacob prayed that God would deliver him from the hands of his brother, on the foundation of the promise that God had made to his grandfather Abraham. Remembering that the promise to Abraham would have to be manifested from his (Jacobs) bloodline, since he had received the blessing of his father Isaac, Jacob held God to God's word saying "It is through me that you would full-fill the promise that you made to my grandfather Your Servant Abraham," deliver me and I will make my grandfather's seed like the multitude of the sand. (Soli Deo Gloria)
When we come before the Father with sound arguments that have their origin in our Father’s Promises, we can be sure our prayers are heard. In Isaiah 41:21 our Father demands that we come before him with arguments; in Numbers 23:19 we read that our Father does not lie. So if He says he will, he will! Now if you knew that you prayer was in line with the desire of the one that created the universe; the one with omnipotent power; omniscience in all knowledge and understanding; and there was a promised made by Him our Heavenly Father, that He would do as He says, would you not have joyful hope of the fulfillment of the promise? Would you not be able to patiently endure the afflictions of this world knowing that your time will come because this has been promised to you by our Father?
Now before we can pray the promises of the Father we must first know the promises, and the only way to do that is to read the bible. Hosea 4:6
The last part of that verse is “faithful in prayer” the Word of the Father in Luke 18:1 tell us to never give up praying, to be diligent in prayer even when circumstances look contrary to our supplication. That we can have victory though Jesus Christ by our obedience, and the understanding that prayer is not a privilege of the saints but a responsibility of the saints. Therefore let us take our responsibility to God seriously with diligence and knowledge of the promises of our Father.
Soli Deo Gloria
