Ask, Receive and Give ThanksSample

Day 6 - Dare to be specific in our prayers

REFERENCE VERSES: 

Luke 18:35-43

35 As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 

36 When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening.

37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

38 He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

39 Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

40 Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him,

41 “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied.

42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”

43 Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

REFLECTIONS:

Read Luke 18:35-43 and take a moment to answer the following questions: 

➤ Why does Jesus ask the blind man what he wants Him to do?

➤ When I pray, am I specific? If yes, what is the result? If no, what is preventing me from being so? 

CONTENT: 

Prayer is a unique privilege; it’s our way of being in relationship with God. When we pray, it is above everything else, the opportunity to spend time with God, to spend a heart-to-heart moment with a Him. And it is because prayer is a relational event with a person, our God, that we can be specific in our prayers. It begins with knowing whom we are speaking to. When Jesus teaches us to pray it isn’t vague. He tells us to address ourselves to a unique person—our Father— who is in a specific place—the heavens (cf. Matthew 6:9). Praying in a vague manner is just a useless religious practice, because it shows that we don’t know Him in an intimate or personal way, and that our prayer has nothing relational. Our God having revealed Himself to us, we can be specific in our way of addressing Him by calling Him our Father.

It is the same thing in all areas of our prayer life. When we celebrate God for who He is, we are called to clearly declare His authority, His titles, and His names, because there is a power within them. In the same way, when we enter into repentance it is not just simply asking for forgiveness for all of our sins in general, but being specific. We need to repent of whatever the Holy Spirit reveals to us—not to remind us of our faults or be overwhelmed by our thoughts, but to name those things which we are renouncing and that we are deciding to separate ourselves from definitively. It’s the same when we ask God for things: let’s dare to be precise and specific. Often we don’t receive because we are not specific enough, We pray in a vague manner, hoping that God will give us what we need, without actually telling Him what we want. It is clear that the Lord knows what is in our hearts, but He loves to hear it come from our mouths.

This is what Jesus did, for example, with the blind man (cf. Luke 18:35-43). It seemed obvious that the most important thing was that he could gain his sight, but Jesus nonetheless asked him what he wanted. The fact of being specific allows us first of all to know how to put our faith in to action. Faith is the assurance of things that we hope for, the demonstration of those that we can’t see (cf. Hebrews 11:1). Being specific when we ask God for something is knowing how to see what God is going to give us so that we can agree with Him and verbalise it in our prayers. This allows us to remain fixed on what God has promised us and is going to give us, but it also helps us to not change prayer subjects on a regular basis. Not being specific leads us to pray like a weather vane in relation to what we are feeling and seeing. God doesn’t answer doubt, but He always answers faith, and praying specifically is an act of faith.

Sometimes one of the things that leads us to pray in a vague manner is the fear of disappointment: We don’t want to take the risk of not seeing the things that we have asked for being accomplished. However, this also means that we will never know if God has answered our prayers. We cannot measure it. From that point, we deny ourselves of being encouraged by seeing the power of God demonstrated, and we cannot give the glory that is due to God. Finally, our faith cannot be affirmed. Our faith is developed like a muscle: According to the measure that we exercise it, we will see God act and we will acquire a faith for bigger things. Not praying specifically ensures that we stagnate into a diminished, mediocre Christian life. A disciple prays in a specific manner, according to the measure of the revelation they have received of who God is. 

Praying specifically necessitates that we know how to invest our time to seek the presence of God, to learn to listen to His voice and recognise His will so that we can simply be in agreement with Him. Praying specifically isn’t asking God for anything and everything, it is deciding to make heaven our reference—“Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven” (cf. Matthew 6:10)—and it is praying so that whatever is revealed to us in the heavens becomes a reality on Earth, in our daily life and in the world in which we live. I would like to invite you to revisit your prayer life and to make sure that you are praying in a specific way.

MY DECISION:

➤ What I have understood for my own personal life: 

➤ What I am deciding to do in my life based upon what I have just learnt: 

➤ What you decide to do today will determine who and what you will be tomorrow!

Adapted from "un disciple en marche" copyright 2018 by Luc Favre, published by Vie Victorieuse.