Heart-felt Prayer
We’ve spoken a lot about prayer lately and I thank God that He is showing us the importance of coming to Him with the desires of our hearts. Desires that, if put there by the Lord, will be answered - He promises us so! The understanding that He burdens us to pray for the things that He wants to move on is a revelation to me!
And how that understanding fuels my faith to pray into what sometimes seem impossible situations!! Yes, I know we all say nothing is impossible for God, but can we ALWAYS believe it? Well, hearing that someone has been burdened to pray for such a situation helps my faith soar.
We’ve all seen answers to our prayers during our walk with the Lord and as we learn to pray more diligently and more fervently for the things He would have us pray for, even greater blessings will be showered down from heaven. And I don’t (necessarily) mean blessings for us individually, but blessings greater than solutions to our immediate circumstances - like the blessing of realising that we are getting closer to our Father’s heart!
Spurgeon wrote: “forget thyself and thy little concerns, and seek the welfare and prosperity of Zion. When thou bendest thy knee in prayer to God, limit not thy petition to the narrow circle of thine own life, tried though it be, but send out thy longing prayers for the church’s prosperity, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” and thine own soul shall be refreshed.”
We’ve started singing a new song in church in which we sing “Break my heart for what breaks Yours” (Hillsong’s Hosanna), and every time we sing it it reminds me that when we recognise an unusually strong or unexpected burden come upon us it will be a sign that we are growing more like our Lord Jesus.
So what has prompted this little out-pouring? A brother in my daughter’s fellowship recently brought to our attention David Wilkerson’s ‘A Call to Anguish’, which the blurb describes as a “soul-stirring sermon on the necessity of anguish - to bear God’s heart, passion, and burden within our lives”. You can find it on youtube, it lasts just over 7 minutes and I challenge you to listen to it!
Whilst thinking about Wilkerson’s observation that church seems to be getting ‘turned upside down’ (my words for the ever increasing influence of the world on the church), I remembered Matthew 6:33 - But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Maybe we are guilty of seeking the blessing before His righteousness? Pray much for those burdens!!
These are very appropriate thoughts. I would like to elaborate on that further.
Phil, why don’t you put the same text onto the forum, under the “General” heading and we can continue on it?
Comment by Matthy — Sat, 18. July 2009 @ 10:27
Done!
Comment by Philip Pain — Sat, 18. July 2009 @ 10:51
nice post..i i can really feel it
Comment by Be Thou My Vision — Fri, 24. July 2009 @ 8:27