40 Days of Prayer - Thursday, May 23 - Devotion 4

Our Desire In Prayer

2 Chronicles 7:12-15
¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³ When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, ¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.

Question
When you pray is it your desire to conform God to your will or for you to be conformed to His will? Oh how often I have desired wrong!  I have to admit this is a scary thought. And, if we are honest with ourselves, we may say we want God's will, but with limitations.  Are we willing to so humble ourselves before God that all our dependence rests in Him?  If so, we should pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. 

Consider
God wants us to pray because prayer expresses our trust in God. Faith and trust our synonymous throughout scripture.    Scripture says in Romans 14:23, "Whatever does not come from faith is sin"  and Hebrews 11:6 says, "without faith it is impossible to please God."  The most obvious demonstration of our faith before God is through prayer. Prayer shows our humble dependence upon God! Prayer says, "God, you know best so I will seek you." Prayer says, "God, your ways are not my ways so I will learn of your ways." Prayer says, "God, I am depending upon you and trusting in you for all things in life."  Prayer says, "God, you alone are able to do what is impossible with man."

Apply  
 I would like to give you 4 things to consider as you go through this day:
1. Realize you are called by His name. Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "you are not your own but you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
2. Humble yourself before God. Remember God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6)  and we definitely need grace.
3. Seek His face. We usually seek God when we have time or when it is convenient. Scripture says in Matthew 6:33, "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will be added." Do you trust Him with this promise?
4. Turn from anything today that is not of faith. Think about everything you do, is it by faith? So often the things we do in life become such a habit that we forget God gives us the very breath we have in order for us to bring glory to Him in all we do.

In Christ, Bryan