Cheng Shi
We all know that God is faithful. With God, there is no treachery, no hypocrisy and no lies. God is sincere with each and every one of us. God also hopes that we will pray sincerely and honestly to Him. This is just as Jesus said: “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Matthew 5:37). Therefore, when we pray, we should speak frankly to God. If we are weak, we should say that we are weak. Whatever thoughts, ideas, pain, difficulties, or things that we have done which are not in accordance with God’s intentions, we should completely open up our hearts and tell God about them. There are some words and some matters that we would feel embarrassed to admit to other people. However, we cannot hide these things from God. We must open up our hearts to God and tell God about them honestly. When God sees that our hearts are wide open to Him and that we are not concealing anything from Him and furthermore, we are saying things that come straight from our hearts and that we are speaking very honestly to God, God will guide us to understanding His intentions and understanding all aspects of the truth. This will give us a path to walk.
Additionally, when we pray, we must quiet ourselves before God. We must pray to God with a concentrated heart. We must not be half-hearted or have words without a heart. When we speak with our parents, we are able to respect them. Our attitude toward them is sincere. Is it not because they are our elders and have raised us? God created us, bestowed life upon us, provided us with everything we need to live and He has bestowed the truth upon us. Shouldn’t it then be even more important that we pray to God with a reverent heart? Regardless of what we pray to God about, we must have a devout heart and seek God’s intentions and tell Him with honesty about our own thoughts, difficulties and we should patiently wait for God’s time. Only in this way will we obtain God’s enlightenment and guidance, and understand His intentions. Then our difficulties will be resolved in time.
Second, we should stand in the place of a created being and have no demands for God; we must pray with a heart that submits to God.
When we pray, we must be clear that we are creations and God is our Creator. God holds all things and events in His hands. Our all is controlled by God. Whatever we encounter each and every day, regardless if it is a major matter or a minor matter, all of it is due to God’s arrangements. When we pray to God, we should stand firm in our position as creations, and seek God’s will with a devout and submissive attitude before God. We should not have any demands for God. For example, when we encounter difficulties and we do not know what to do, we can pray like this: “God! I do not understand the truth in regard to this matter. I do not know how I should do things in accordance with Your intentions. However, I am willing to seek in Your words and do things in accordance with Your requests and to satisfy Your intentions. Please enlighten and guide me. Amen!” When our hearts have a place for God and when we can stand in the place of a creation and pray, prostrate, give worship to our Creator, and when we can obey His work and put His words into action, only then will we build a normal relationship with God and obtain the Holy Spirit’s work. We all know Job was a man that feared God and shunned evil. When he lost all his livestock, sons and daughters, was covered with sores from head to toe and was enduring a great deal of pain, he believed that God was the ruler of everything and that without God’s permission, these things would not have befallen him. Furthermore, he also knew that everything that he had including his life was given to him by God. Regardless of when God wants to collect, it is natural and proper. Therefore, he did not complain to God nor did he have any demands for God. As a result, he bent over and worshiped and with a heart of submission he prayed to God. He said these words: “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Job stood firm and bore witness for God. His sense and his submission to God obtained God’s praise. If we are also able to address God in the way that Job did, if we have a place for God in our hearts and if we are able to pray to God with a heart that submits to God regardless of what trials we encounter, God will guide us and enlighten us so that we will understand the truth. Our spirits will become more and more sharp and our thoughts will be more and more clear. When we reveal some corruption or have some bad situations, it will be even easier for us to be conscious about it and resolve it in time. Then, our relationship with God will become more and more close and our life will grow faster and faster.
Third, if our church does not have the Holy Spirit’s work, we must have prayers of seeking.
We all know, in the later period of the Age of Law, man was corrupted more and more deeply by Satan. Man lived within sin and he faced the danger of being convicted by the law and put to death. Then, God, under the name of Jesus, ended the Age of Law, started the Age of Grace and did the work of redeeming the human race. From then on, Judaism completely lost God’s glorious presence. For all those who did not accept the Lord Jesus’ name and work, regardless of what circumstances they encountered and regardless of how they prayed and appealed to Jehovah God, God would not listen to them and they would not obtain the Holy Spirit’s work. However, all those who accepted Jesus’ new work and prayed in the name of Jesus would enjoy the nourishment of God’s living water fountain. When they called on the Lord they would be able to see God’s deeds and they would have the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit’s work.
Nowadays, regardless of how we pray in the Lord’s name, we do not feel the Holy Spirit’s work, and we cannot sense His presence. We cannot obtain nourishment for our lives and we commit sins but do not receive discipline. It is very possible that the Holy Spirit’s work has once again been diverted. The Bible says, “And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:47–48). “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). From these verses we can see that, in the last days, God will return once more to do the stage of judgement work. The Lord is faithful. What He says will happen, will happen. As for us, we should seek and pray, asking God to guide us to the fountain of life so that we can obtain watering and nourishment and follow the footsteps of our Lord. I believe that as long as we have a heart that thirsts and seeks, we will obtain God’s guidance. This is because God has promised us, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
Thank the Lord for His guidance. I hope that the content that was shared today in regard to how to pray will benefit everybody. Prayer is an important step in establishing a normal relationship with God. It is also a key path through which we can obtain the Holy Spirit’s work. When we understand how to pray to obtain the Lord’s response and have a practical path to follow and when we practice it often, only then will the Lord hear our prayers. May our prayers soon be in accordance with God’s intentions.
May all the glory be unto God!
Source From: A Guidebook for Faith
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