Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation

Prayer

Communication and manifestation

John Calvin (Jehan Cauvin / Jean Calvin ) the influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation summarized prayer as when “we call upon Him to manifest Himself to us in all His perfections.”

We may find different aspects of prayer.

Prayer is mentioning the calling upon someone. It is the coming in contact with someone. In this case it should be the Most High God, Jehovah the Elohim. As such we can be the creatures communicating with our Creator. As we call upon him it might be for our benefit.
Prayer is to help us through.
Prayer is the way to express our fears, our hopes, and our desires, but also giving voice to our dreams, our grief, and our confessions.
It is an expression of our willingness to move toward where we want to go.
Prayer is an expression of our desire before God.
It is a petition and a plea for God to reveal Himself to us.
Prayer is our way to describe the God to whom we pray. Describing God in terms of His virtues, His attributes, and His actions.
Prayer is the giving notice of willingness to render the Most High God acceptable service.
It is offering yourself willingly unto Jehovah.
The prayer is a thanksgiving for the assurance we have received that the accomplishment of the great purpose of our life is virtually secured.
Prayer recognizes God’s perfections.
It is an honouring of Jehovah and sanctifying of His Name.
Prayer is also the expression of trust in God that He will provide.
It is a means to an end but not the end itself.

Because God has already everything and everything belongs to Him there is nothing we can give to God what does not already belongs to God. Therefore our praying can never be in the benefit of God.

Calling upon our Creator, we can enter into intimate communion with Him, recognizing our utter dependence upon His provision. When we communicate to and listen to our heavenly Father, we grow in his grace and in his knowledge, becoming more sensitive to and more aware of his constant presence and protection in our lives.

Prayer should be the means by which we call upon our Creator to rule over our lives. We should put ourselves at the side and bring God in pool position. In our prayers we should show understanding that everything comes from God and belongs to God. We, by praying to God, recognize that we do need Him and that we realize that He is powerful and able to change things. But by opening our thoughts onto Him we allow Him to enter into our circumstances, and by His sovereign power to work all things together for our good, as we love Him and as we trust Him.

When we pray we are acknowledging God’s rule over our lives, His ability to work in our lives, and His goodness in the midst of any circumstances He allows to enter into our lives. Prayer is then a demonstration of absolute trust and dependence on our Father’s perfect provision.

The Holy Scriptures records that many people had their prayers answered. We can see that biblical events where God intervened sometimes came to existence because people dared to ask God for a favour or for help. The people who got their prayers answered where those who prayed with a desire. Without a desire, there is also no need for prayer. If what we pray for truly comes from the bottom of our heart, surely the answers to our prayers will not stay out. But those biblical figures knew that they could not do without God and where fully aware of the need of prayers.

Samen bidden voor God — Praying together before Jehovah God

Writer Phillips Brooks penned these words:

“If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer is not merely an awful thing; it is an infinitely foolish thing.”

John Wesley was convinced that the prayers of God’s people rather than his preaching accounted for the thousands who came to Christ through his ministry.

It is the Wonder of God, the Almighty Being, which creates and destroys. Without the Almighty Power of the Eternal Spirit things would stay chaotic and humans would mix everything, making it impossible to work out for everyone. But by the Hand of God there shall come a time when everything shall work for the good and the whole world shall be restored.
In the meantime we do have to live in this ‘worldly life’ and count on the powerful God.

If God were not good, working all things together for the good of his people, why should we pray?
If God were not everywhere present, able to attend to the needs of all of his children all at once, then why should we pray?
If man can bring for everything a good solution, then why can we trust not men?

Our prayers acknowledge our finite helplessness, and God’s infinite wisdom and provision.

The Ear of God hears, and with Him ear and heart go together, and the hand does not long linger.

“(9) יהוה {Jehovah} has heard my pleading; יהוה {Jehovah} receives my prayer.” (Psalm 6:9 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(7) “When my life fainted within me, I remembered יהוה {Jehovah}. And my prayer went up to You, into Your set-apart Hĕḵal.” (Jonah 2:7 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(1) And Yonah prayed to יהוה {Jehovah} his Elohim from the stomach of the fish. (2) And he said, “I called to יהוה {Jehovah} because of my distress, and He answered me. From the stomach of the grave I cried, and You heard my voice.” (Jonah 2:1-2 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(15) “And call upon Me in the day of distress – Let Me rescue you, and you esteem Me.”” (Psalm 50:15 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(28) Then they cry out to יהוה {Jehovah} in their distress, And He brings them out of their troubles.” (Psalm 107:28 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(14) And they cried out to יהוה {Jehovah} and said, “We pray, O יהוה {Jehovah}, please, let us not perish for this man’s life, and do not lay on us innocent blood. For You, O יהוה {Jehovah}, have done as it pleased You.”” (Jonah 1:14 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(9) “And I shall bring the third into fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My Name ^{1}, and I shall answer them. I shall say, ‘This is My people,’ while they say, ‘יהוה {Jehovah} is my Elohim.’ ” {Footnote: ¹Zeph. 3:9.}” (Zechariah 13:9 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(18) יהוה {Jehovah} is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. (19) He does the desire of those who fear Him; And He hears their cry and saves them. (20) יהוה {Jehovah} preserves all those loving Him, But all the wrong ones He destroys.” (Psalm 145:18-20 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(24) “And it shall be that before they call, I answer. And while they are still speaking, I hear.” (Isaiah 65:24 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(12) And he said to me, “Do not fear, Dani’ĕl, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your Elohim, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words.” (Daniel 10:12 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(32) “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the Name of יהוה {Jehovah} shall be delivered ^{1}. For on Mount Tsiyon and in Yerushalayim there shall be an escape ^{2} as יהוה {Jehovah} has said, and among the survivors whom יהוה {Jehovah} calls. {Footnotes: ¹Acts 2:21, Rom. 10:13. ²Isa. 4:2-3, Obad. v. 17, Rev. 14:1.}” (Joel 2:32 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(2) “Thus said יהוה {Jehovah} who made it, יהוה {Jehovah} who formed it to establish it, יהוה {Jehovah} is His Name, (3) ‘Call unto Me, and I shall answer you, and show you great and inaccessible matters, which you have not known.’” (Jeremiah 33:2-3 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(11) ‘For I know the plans I am planning for you,’ declares יהוה {Jehovah}, ‘plans of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and an expectancy. (12) ‘Then you shall call on Me, and shall come and pray to Me, and I shall listen to you. (13) ‘And you shall seek Me, and shall find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart ^{1}. {Footnote: ¹Dt. 4:29, Joel 2:12.} (14) ‘And I shall be found by you,’ declares יהוה {Jehovah}, ‘and I shall turn back your captivity, and shall gather you from all the gentiles and from all the places where I have driven you, declares יהוה {Jehovah}. And I shall bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.’” (Jeremiah 29:11-14 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(29) “But from there you shall seek יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim, and shall find, when you search for Him with all your heart ^{1} and with all your being. {Footnote: ¹Jer. 29:13.} (30) “In your distress, when all these words shall come upon you in the latter days, then you shall return to יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim and shall obey His voice. (31) “For יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim is a compassionate Ěl, He does not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. (32) “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that Elohim created man on the earth, and ask from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens, whether there has been a Word as great as this, or has been heard like it.” (Deuteronomy 4:29-32 The Scriptures 1998+)

“(9) “And I say to you: ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. (10) “For everyone asking receives, and he who is seeking finds, and to him who is knocking it shall be opened. (11) “And what father among you whose son asks for bread shall give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish shall give him a snake instead of a fish, (12) or if he asks for an egg shall give him a scorpion? (13) “If you then, being wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father from heaven give the Set-apart Spirit to those asking Him!”” (Luke 11:9-13 The Scriptures 1998+)

“He who fails to pray does not cheat God. He cheats himself.” (George Failing)

Statue de Jean Calvin par Maurice Raymond (1862-1910), musée international de la Réforme, Genève (Suisse) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)