Different Levels of Prayer – Part Two
The Monday Morning Devo for December 1, 2014.
Last week I talked about the first level of prayer. This praying was asking God to meet our needs. We discussed how Jesus instructs us in the Lords Prayer to “give us this day our daily bread.”
And that Paul tells the Philipians how God promises to supply our needs according to his riches in glory, not our goodness or faithfulness.
And so praying about and for our basic needs is a daily practice. It doesn’t show maturity to leave God out of the most essential aspects of our life. I’d say the more mature you are the more often you involve God in everyday concerns.
But now let’s look at the next level.
To pray about our needs is to pray about the present. So the next level of prayer deals with future.
We have wants, desires and concerns that we want God to add his super to our natural. And so we pray.
I don’t know about you, but when I start praying about the future or my wants, the results and the answers are rarely as I expected. It often seems to fall on deaf ears.
I pray for a day or two, week or two, then eventually drop it and do the best I can with my own mind.
But listen to these three verses about how God responds to things other than our needs. See if you can catch a pattern of how this level of prayer is unique.
Ps. 37:4 – Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
John 15:7 “If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you will ask what you want and it shall be done for you. ”
Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. ”
Everyone of these verses talk about our wants or desires or prayers being answered.
They don’t talk about needs or survival. They don’t deal with the simple inheritance of being a child of God.
They don’t deal with Gods love or sovereignty.
And they also don’t deal with us having faith or having courage or us being perfect, holy or sanctified and set apart.
So what do they deal with?
1. There is a somewhat open doors of blessings and answers and provision on one side.
2. But on the front-end, there are words like “delight” and “abide” and “seek”.
This is a conditional situation. But our responsibility isn’t laborious – it’s not moralistic – it’s not sowing but it’s delighting and loving.
But is it really this simple?
Yes and No.
I believe what God looks for is simple. It’s love. Trust. And delighting or enjoying him.
However, these are actions of the heart, not empty words of affection fueled by a selfserving motives.
God of course knows the difference.
He know what we’re doing and why.
But here’s the good part.
Everything God expects and requires from us, he supplies us with the ability to fulfill his Word.
We are never alone.
We never independently do good.
But with him, With God. we can do all things.
We can ask God to help us love him.
In fact, we have pray for him cultivate in us, an appetite for him above all others. Set my affection on things above and not on things of earth.
Give us the kind of heart that has desires which you love to fulfill.
God would you make having love and affection for you, daily bread for me.
In Jesus Name. Amen.