She Reads Truth: Prayer in the BibleChikamu

Prayers of Petition in Scripture

You have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Psalm 56:8, ESV

I’ll be honest. There is something about petitioning the Creator of the universe for my specific needs and desires that feels strange, formal and, well, kind of awkward. Perhaps this can be traced back to the “formulas” for prayer I learned as a girl, but more likely it is just a product of my ever-stubborn pride. Whatever the root, this tension is not God’s intent.

The God of the Gospel, the One who knows you fully and loves you still? Intimacy, not formality, is what He desires of us. And this intimacy extends even to our asking.

If there was ever a picture of intimate prayer, it is found in the gut-wrenching psalms of David. In Psalm 56, we find David seized by the Philistines, in danger for his very life. His prayer alternates between cries for help and affirmation of his ultimate trust in God. But then he asks, “For their crime will they escape?” (v. 7, ESV) The breathless desperation is almost audible. I hear honesty, familiarity. Not formality or formula.

In Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane we are shown the balance of a heart’s deepest longing, with surrender to the complete sovereignty of God. It is the ultimate collision of remarkable boldness and astounding trust, trust in the One who holds it all in His loving, omnipotent hands. He is the One in whose name we pray, whose perfect sacrifice grants us access to the very throne of God.

Then comes the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, and again our minds go reeling. Is this how prayer works, the squeaky wheel gets the grease? Are God’s answers to prayer subject to His emotional whim? And yet, we know better. We know Christ speaks of us as beloved children whose Father delights in giving them all they need. (Matthew 7:11) We know the God who hears our prayers is the same who cares for the birds of the air. “Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26, NIV) So when we read of the widow who asks relentlessly and unapologetically for mercy - when we dare to imagine asking like children ourselves - we begin to understand that this bold asking is our privilege.

The pleas of an honest heart following hard after God are music to His ears.

Sisters, let us bring a chorus of trust and adoration and bold asking to His throne today. Join the SheReadsTruth Community: http://bit.ly/SRTPrayerDay9