How Then Shall We Pray?

Job 40:1-5 says, “Then the Lord said to Job, 2 ‘Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.’ 3 Then Job answered the Lord and said, 4 ‘Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; even twice and I will add nothing more.’ ”

Yesterday it came to me that we often pray, if we pray at all, with overwhelming confidence. We get this idea from Hebrews 4:16 when it says, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” I am not here to condemn or to judge whatsoever, but just to share some thoughts.

Once my pastor did a study on the glory of God, in which he compared God’s almighty strength and intellect with the things of which we can grasp, meaning simple material things. He showed us the different planets and plants and mountains and galaxies: all of which were created by God Himself. He showed the great wonders of creation and then said that God was supreme over these things and very careful about how He made things. The study was supremely helpful for everyone, because we got a glimpse on just how majestic and wonderful God is.

A few months later, I realized that the same Pastor who gave this message was praying over the microphone in a tone that seemed familiar. This is to say that it seemed as if prayer was becoming a routine, in the sense that some of the passion was lost. I myself am not as much of a man of prayer as I would like, but listening to this prayer, it sounded as if this Pastor had already said this prayer, or he was reading off a piece of paper.

In contrast, I met someone recently who prayed with such passion with his voice. You could hear the relationship between him and God just within the tone of his plea. I listened to his prayer and immediately thought to myself, That is type of relationship I want with Christ.

Sure, we are to come to Christ with confidence, but there is so much room for simply falling on our faces because of Who He is! Do we understand that we are talking to the Creator of the Universe? Of course we don't. How could we? Our minds are so small and narrow compared to God and His intellect. There is no way for us to fully grasp God in all of His Splendor, but isn't that even more incentive for us to completely break down into ashes and sackcloth when we talk to Him. Not even that He is God, but even more so that He has loved us, who were first His enemy. Should we not respond with Job's reply and say, "4 Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You?" 

To make things a little more clear, the difference between these two men was how much it seemed like they valued their time communicating with God. I’m not saying that one man is better than the other, or even rating them on spiritual maturity, but simply saying that I, and we, need to value the time when we pray. If you’re not praying regularly, then you probably need to start, not out of legalistic ideals, but out of desperation, for something more. C.S. Lewis is often quoted by the phrase, “Eating candy at a gourmet feast.” In this statement, it makes no sense for this man to be wasting away his appetite on something smaller and less grand then his simple surroundings.

Are you missing out? You don’t have to. Pray. Dive into the Word. Live – Forsake All