"The Fruit of Prayer" Part 5

- 5 -

The Price

We may not always consciously think about it as we pray, and it is not necessary that we do.  However, the price of prayer, as it were, must be established so deeply within our hearts that it pervades the atmosphere of our communion with God.

    "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:19-22).

    To the degree the Lord Jesus Christ was smitten and rejected by His Father on the cross of Calvary, those who trust Him are received and "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).  The price of prayer, therefore, is the broken heart and body suffered by our Savior as He died for our sins.  Every prayer we will ever offer throughout time or eternity, including those wordless sighs which often speak volumes more than eloquence, ascend to Heaven borne on the wings of Calvary's sacrifice.  We may come "boldly" because and only because we are enrobed with the spotless righteousness of the Lord Jesus.

    "And lest the shadow of a spot should on my soul be found, 

He took the robe my Savior wrought, and cast it all around!"

(From the hymn, "Awake My Heart, Arise My Tongue" - Isaac Watts).

    That pristine robe was savagely torn off the Lord Jesus by both God and man as He died on the cross.  Replacing it was our sin, both collectively, and in its essence: "Christ died for our sins... He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).  God's beloved Son became the object of His wrath so that we might become the subjects of His eternal devotion.  Thereby our prayers are His delight, and thereby we may always pray so long as we humbly and faithfully come to God by way of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus (Proverbs 15:8).  Remembering the price, the price of prayer, will go far in leading us to pray, and in forming within us the attitude of heart whereby communicating with God becomes our delight as well as His.

"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

(Ephesians 2:18)

"The Fruit of Prayer" Part 4

4 -

A Gift and a Privilege

Because we are commanded to pray by Scripture, and because we know the importance of prayer, born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ sometimes view communication with God primarily as a responsibility.

    Certainly prayer is a responsibility.  However, under grace, God's provision always precedes His commandment.  He must provide and enable before we can trust and obey.  "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness" (II Peter 1:3).  God gives Christ to us when we believe, first to forgive us and establish relationship with us.  Then He promises that Christ will also be the means by which we subsequently live the life to which He calls us.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).  The Gift first, and then in its light, presence and power, the commands, including prayer, present themselves as opportunities to avail ourselves of our Lord's dynamic presence in our lives.

    This Biblical perspective causes prayer to be viewed first as a gift and privilege rather than a responsibility (without denying the latter aspect, of course).  We pray from Christ and through Christ, as it were, rather than to Christ.  A different attitude, born of grace, results as communication with God becomes the joyfully grateful experience that surely our Heavenly Father means it to be.  Indeed, He sacrificed so very much to birth a relationship with us.  Certainly He means it to be a blessed wonder to be anticipated and enjoyed rather than a heavy burden that always seems too heavy to bear.

     Solomon declared that "the prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).  It should be our delight also.  Recognizing and affirming the gift and privilege of prayer graces our hearts with the genuine desire to commune with God, and to fulfill the responsibilities of prayer from a position of strength.  Anything less besmirches this most amazing bestowal of love, and hinders our experience of walking with the One who loves our hearts and our voices.

"God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father."

(Galatians 4:6)

"The Fruit of Prayer" Part 3

 Part 3

The Praying Christ

In that we are commanded to "walk, even as He walked," born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ must devote ourselves to pray, even as He prayed (I John 2:6).

    Few spiritual callings seem more daunting.  Prayer in and of itself greatly challenges us.  Indeed, many believers would list prayer at the top of the list of matters wherein we require growth, change, and far greater faithfulness.  To pray as Christ prayed raises the bar seemingly beyond all hope of fulfillment. 

    Considering the communion of the Father and Son during our Lord's earthly lifetime graces our hearts and minds with sublime meditation.  The Gospels include a number of such episodes, including and especially the 17th chapter of John wherein the Lord Jesus prayed an intercessory prayer for the church just before He went to the cross.  Reading the chapter leads us down many paths of consideration, but the one that alway strikes me the most is the strong sense of reality that pervades our Savior's prayerful words.  Here was a man and a prayer so genuine and of such substance that I always come away from John 17 with the awed sense that whatever prayer is, that's it.

    Other prayers of the Savior recorded in Scripture provide the same awareness of reality.  Surely God has no interest in our praying merely for prayer's sake, and neither should we.  Once again, we face the challenge of real prayer, such as the Lord Jesus prayed, as opposed to the rote variety that mouths many words, but bears little authenticity.  How then do we approach a summit seemingly so high and beyond our capacity?

    Our answer lies in the praying Christ of today, as opposed to the praying Christ chronicled in the Gospels.  "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).  Ever and always, that which our Heavenly Father commands by His written Word, the Bible, He fulfills by His living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:13;19).  Few spiritual callings more require the living Christ to empower us by His indwelling Spirit.  And few more call us to acknowledge and affirm His words, "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  Thus, if we are to pray in reality, we will have to "trust the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5).

     A life lived in genuine prayer is a life lived in genuine faith that our Savior will lead and enable us. He will as we trust Him and submit our hearts to His glory, will, and eternal purpose.  Yes, the knees we bow upon as we pray (whether literally or figuratively) declare that we recognize the weakness of our own feet to tread so holy a path as the one which leads to communion with God.  The praying Christ must walk in us and we must walk by Him if prayer is to be the experience of blessed reality we all know it must be.  May our Heavenly Father remind us often, and may we respond to the truth that authentic prayer is always fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit revealing within us the praying heart of the Lord Jesus.

"We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

(Philippians 3:3)