Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition

Condition

In the history of humankind there have been also men of God who did not get answers from God like they wanted.

Even though David had called out to God day and night, God had not answered all the prayers of King David.

King David singing the Psalms (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“(1) My Ěl, My Ěl, why have You forsaken Me – Far from saving Me, far from the words of My groaning? (2) O My Elohim, I call by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I find no rest. (3) Yet You are set-apart, Enthroned on the praises of Yisra’ĕl. (4) Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. (5) They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. (6) But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. (7) All those who see Me mock Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, (8) “He trusted in יהוה {Jehovah}, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, seeing He has delighted in Him!” (9) For You are the One who took Me out of the womb; Causing Me to trust while on My mother’s breasts. (10) I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s belly You have been My Ěl. (11) Do not be far from Me, For distress is near; For there is none to help. (12) Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong ones of Bashan have encircled Me. (13) They have opened their mouths against Me, As a raging and roaring lion.” (Psalm 22:1-13 The Scriptures 1998+)

Set to “The Doe of the Morning.” this psalm by David brings the well know cry Jesus also uttered some hours before he was going to die: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Was God really far away from David or Christ Jesus? In case Jesus was God he would not have to fear because God cannot die. But being a man of flesh and blood Jesus faced the reality of going to die in agony. Both gave the expression of their thought that it looked like God far from helping them. From their words of their groaning we can hear that even such a loved one as King David, from whom Christ Jesus would come onto this world, cried in the daytime, but did not get an answer, although David was not silent at night either.

Neither David nor Jesus ever doubted that God was the Most High. Both knew they could do nothing without God. Both also let others know that they should get to know and respect the Most Holy. They also showed us, like we can find in the Scriptures that their ancestors, the Israelites trusted in the Only One Creator Divine God. They trusted, and Jehovah God delivered them. God His people more than once cried to Him, and was delivered.

As written in one of the previous chapters the men of God knew they needed prayers to express their needs and desires. Prayer that is without any desire you could call a mockery to God. Even a prayer with thanksgiving is giving expression of a desire, namely willing to give thanks to the Most High and having the desire to please Him.

Here we also can find one of the major conditions for their prayers. We should try to please God, honouring and trusting Him. The men of God trusted in the God of Abraham and not as such in human beings. We also get to know that their Trust in God did not fail. They were not disappointed.

We can be sure that the one who believes and trust in God, although that man may be but a worm and despised by the people, being mocked and insulted, his trusts in YHWH, Jehovah, the One and Only One God, Creator of heaven and earth, shall be delivered by Him. Rescue will come from Him, since God delights in him.

When trouble is near and there is none to help and we are very, our strength ‘dried up like a potsherd’ it may look like God has abounded us, but He always looks at us. While our tongue may stick to the roof of our mouth, we being tested nearly to the end of what we can bear, it may seem that God has brought us into the dust of death. But God does not leave His beloved ones in the desert nor in agony. When the time is ripe He shall be there to help all those who love God.

Prayers may for some look as a sign of our weakness but there is nothing wrong with willing to show that we are frail, and feeble. We sometimes need trials to put us on our right place and to show us that we are weak and frail and that we desperately need a higher Being than ordinary humans.

Coming to the Father, telling him about our weakness and our needs He can supply us with whatever He sees to be needful for us. As such it is not bad as we want to be truly strong, not to refuse to be at the same time weak and telling that we are weak in ourselves and hoping to become strong in Christ.

Unable to ease the physical agony of the flogged back, unable to relieve the pain of the grinding spikes and the chafing of the rough timbers… how Jesus his extraordinary mind would battle the flesh’s weakness to concentrate on this precious fragment of Scripture. Like him we too should have our minds into the Holy Scriptures and contemplate.

This transcendent mind of Christ should also be in us as we follow his meditations and, like him, fix our affections on the hope set before us.

David and Jesus feared God more than anybody or anything else. They also told others that they too should fear YHWH, Jehovah being the Most High God of the universe and the only one to be praised! Like the descendants of Jacob, glorified Jehovah we also should stand in awe of Him! For Jesus, even when it pleased Jehovah to bruise him, causing Jeshua (Jesus) to suffer, the man from Nazareth made his soul an offering for sin, he also has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has he hidden his face from Him; but when he cried to Him, Jehovah heard. Jesus cried to the Father, and even when his voice was silent in death, his words still echoed in heaven, and the Father heard. Thus was brought to birth the new, or spiritual, creation. By doing so God also could see his offspring and prolonged his days, and the pleasure of YHWH, Jehovah prospered in his hand. (Psalm 22:24; Isaiah 53:10-12)

King David, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Those things which “please” God are those things which fulfil His purpose. He has no “pleasure” in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32); but, marvellously, He finds “pleasure” in the death of a perfectly righteous son, because that death brings salvation to others, like us!

There are believers and non-believers which all have to live on this earth under the same conditions. After the first sin God has given the right to all humans to make the world like they want to make it. Those who prefer to do that without God, Jehovah allows them to do so. But those who prefer to live with God should know they are all part of that world where man wants to be in charge. Nobody can escape the stings of this world. Also persons who have walked with God for a while have experienced seasons of despair and seasons of exaltation. Sometimes these seasons overlap, even in a single prayer. In agony, people cry out for God’s help. Then they remember His goodness. Then their desperation returns as they wonder why God seems so distant. Then they expect straight an answer that brings the solution.
Many when that solution is not what they expected lose faith in God and are carried away by their unbelief and by the different opinions of those who hate God. There we can find another condition for getting the right answers and seeing our wishes or hope fulfilled. In case we cannot stay by God, how can we expect God will stay with us? He is not a Tiran who keeps us in the chains. He lets us free where to go, where we want. In case we want to walk without Him, we our free. But in case we do not want Him to be with us, we cannot expect from Him that He Will jump at once to us when we call onto Him without real faith in Him.

We are encouraged by the promise of His presence. And so it goes when we live in the tension of faithful prayer. God wants us to bring our true self before Him, without feeling as if we have to clean ourselves up to impress Him. We do not need to make up ourselves or dress us differently to pray in front of Him. God knows our heart and the condition of the heart is the most important thing in our relationship with God. Our Faith should be in Him and in His son Jesus Christ. Like Jesus trusted his Father totally, we also should give our full trust in the Most High, so that He also can give us confidence to live a genuine relationship with Him.

Jesus also tells us how not to pray. A few decennia ago it still was the custom in Flanders to have a preserved seat, some with the names of the believer, so that those believers always could take their seat, but also could be seen by the community. From the parables of the Master Teacher we got to know that we should not pray to be seen by others, nor should we pray as though our words themselves have something to do with the effectiveness of our prayers. Both of these negatives have to do with having a prideful heart. Prayer is first and foremost an act of humble submission before a holy God, thus we pray not to receive the accolades of men, but to commune with our heavenly Father.

Praying is not about reading from a prayer book or always praying the same words the same way. Recanting or repeating several words over and over again or repeating certain prayers every time we pray is also something we do not need to do. Verbiage or verbosity is to devotion as chaff to the wheat. Lots of words or repetitions will not make our prayer life be complete. The strength of prayer is more important than the length of prayer. Prayers should not be half-hearted or lukewarm, nor general or aimless, but prayers that are particular, specific, definite, measurable and detailed, intense, urgent, earnest, and burning in burden.

The prayers may not become ritualistic like in some congregations where many end a prayer with the words “amen” but giving the feeling that it was not the whole congregation taking part in the prayer, but just saying that closing word because it’s in the program. That is ritualistic, inorganic prayer and God is not inorganic or static.

Personal words which come straight from the heart, said in our own privacy, belong to the proper type of prayer. Prayer happens in our human spirit, where God dwells (John 4:24) But also the prayers said together in the ecclesia, where all of us acknowledge God as our Father in heaven and where harmony or oneness in prayer forms a good asset in our lives.

We should acknowledge the position of God and should praise His Name. Today too many people do forget the importance of This Holy Name of the Adonai, the redeemer of old, Elohim God of Israel, forever and ever the Potter (1 Chronicles 29:10;Isaiah 63:16). We should acknowledge we are all the work of His hands. (Isaiah 64:8; Malachi 2:10) We all should ask that His name of the One in the highest heaven, be kept holy. (Matthew 6:9; Mark 11:10)

Jesus has given us an example with the “Lord’s Prayer” “Our Father” which we may use, but we also can use our own humble words which come straight from our own heart.

Preceding articles:

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #5 Prayer #1 Listening Sovereign Maker

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #5 Prayer #2 Witnessing

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #5 Prayer #3 Callers upon God

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #6 Prayer #4 Attitude

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #7 Prayer #5 Listening Ear

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

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #9 Prayer #7 Reason to pray

Next article: Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #11 Prayer #9 Making the Name Holy

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Vertrouwen, Geloof, Roepen en Toeschrijving aan Jehovah #10 Gebed #8 Voorwaarde

Please do find to read:

Also of interest:

Making prayer powerful (The christadelphians.org)
We live in an affluent age, when in the abundance of things possessed, many overlook their need of the Lord God and take for granted the material blessings of life. Thus Worship tends to become cold and distant; and Prayer a mere, mechanical repetition of words without power, instead of the fervent outpouring of the heart unto God.
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All study and no prayer can fill us up; all prayer and no study can puff us up; but continual study blended with prayer will build us up.
The Power of the Word, blended with the Power of Prayer, can transform our preaching, our worship, ourselves.
The Aim of Communal Prayer (The christadelphians.org)
A most important function of divine service is that of communal prayer. In Ecclesial meetings, the presiding brother has the onerous duty of leading the congregation to the Father in prayer. He can do so in such a manner as to move the worshippers by the words uttered, or he can leave them cold and untouched by the exercise.
The Posture and Time for Prayer – theChristadelphians.org Home …
How should we set about praying? Should we stand, kneel, sit, recline, or prostrate ourselves upon the ground? There are examples in Scripture of all these …
Prayer is an Act of Communion
Prayer is an act of communion. Through it we discourse with God. He speaks to us when we study His word; we speak to Him when we respond in prayer.
Draw Close to God in Prayer (What Does the Bible Really Teach?; JW.ORG)
Addresses the questions: To whom should we pray? Must we assume a special position or posture when praying? What may we pray for? How long should our prayers be? How often should we pray? Why should we say “Amen” at the end of a prayer?
Would God listen to the prayer of someone else on a person’s behalf more, or would it be the same as if the person prayed for themselves? (Search For Bible Truths)
What could make a person’s prayers unacceptable to God? (Search For Bible Truths)
What could make a person’s prayers unacceptable to God? (Jehovah’s Witnesses Questions and Answers)

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The Lie That Made God Nameless (illustrationstoencourage.wordpress.com)
Jehovah wants us to use his name. “Call upon his name,” states the Bible. “Make known among the peoples his dealings. Make mention that his name is put on high.”—Isaiah 12:4.

Jesus used God’s name. In prayer, Jesus told Jehovah: “I have made your name known to them [Jesus’ disciples] and will make it known.” Why did Jesus make the divine name known to his disciples? He continued: “In order that the love with which you [God] loved me may be in them and I in union with them.”—John 17:26.
Give God Thanks for the Blood of Jesus! (crosbyp12003.wordpress.com)
The Psalm(91) says: (my version) that even when evil is all around he will cover us with his wings. I don’t need just healthcare, Medicare, police , firemen we need to trust in the Army of the Hosts whose name is God-he is Jehovah Nissi.
Little Book, Big Prayers: Mental & Physical Wholeness (christinebrooksmartin.wordpress.com)
Each of us have daily needs. God has already instructed us to ask and believe to receive. Your faith in Him and His scriptures moves God. He wants to meet your needs but you must learn and know how to trust Him.