The Gracious Delight of Prayer.

“You who answer prayer,    to you all people will come” (Ps 65:2).

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mat 7:7-8).

“Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God.” ––Oswald Chambers.

O what peace we often forfeit,  O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry  Everything to God in prayer!

––Joseph Scriven––Charles C. Converse.

A woman of prayer and faith is awakened in the middle of the night. A missionary is in desperate need of deliverance. Intercession arises from the woman’s heart to the throne of the Almighty. God intervenes––just in time––in answer to prayer. There is much rejoicing and thanksgiving among the children of God to our faithful Lord and Savior for his tender mercies in our times of need.  

We pray to the true and living God because he is a God who answers prayer. His ear is always open to the cries of his children and out of his treasure of unfathomable grace he delights in supplying every need.

We come because when we knock he opens the door. When we seek him we find him and in asking our gracious Lord blesses us.

We seek and we find the One who completely satisfies. We knock and the door swings open and standing in the doorway is the glorious Son of God, waiting for us to dine with him (Rev. 3:20). We seek and we find the bread of life to satiate our hunger and living water to quench our thirst––gifts that more than satisfy our souls.

In prayer we grow in our knowledge of him––our souls being enriched through intimacy with him––as we draw near to him he draws near to us (James 4:8). Joy inexpressible and glorious floods our souls as we draw ever closer to the One who is our soul’s satisfaction.

   As we wait before our Maker we commit ourselves to his purposes. In humility we continually confess our surrender to our Master: “not my will but thine be done” (Luke 22:42).

We yield ourselves in prayer to his eternal redemptive plan to not only believe in him but to also suffer for his sake (Phil 1:29). We delight in taking his yoke of suffering upon ourselves so that we might share in his resurrection life (Phil 3:10; 2 Cor 12:10).     

In prayer God’s heart touches our hearts so that his desires become our desires. We are sanctified as our hearts are purged of self-desire, finding childlike trust that glorifies our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the secret place of prayer we commune with God, opening our hearts to his favor, coming expectantly to receive what is most needed––the infilling of his blessed Spirit (Luke 11:13). In that blessed moment the Spirit pours out upon us power, love and wisdom (2 Tim 1:7).

As we remain in the secret place of prayer we come to know that the only way forward is on bended knees. Our hearts touch his heart and in that moment we find our eternal destiny––all desire is met as we bask in his boundless love and grace.

As we commune with Our Lord, we wait in his presence, wanting him more than anything else. Wanting to live forever, we close ourselves off with the Giver of our daily bread—the bread that came down from heaven and gave his life for us (John 6:51).

In prayer our souls touch the eternal so that the temporal no longer satisfies. One’s spiritual eyes are lifted upward to the hills from where comes our help––the help we desperately need in our greatest time of need (Ps 46:1; 121:1).  

Like Moses we climb the mountain of God as he calls us up to meet him in the cloud that we might bathe in the radiance of his glory, becoming the glorious people of God (Ex 24:12-16). There, his presence envelopes us, the Lord breathing on us–– we learn the blessedness of yielding to his guidance; empowered to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

We taste and see that he is good ––the Lord himself becomes our delight. In prayer we come to him and feed on him, drinking the eternal blood and eating the eternal flesh of the Son of Man, experiencing renewed strength and an unshakable hope.