Petitions

"And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." - John 16: 23-24

"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." - 1 John 5:14-15

I've been thinking a great deal about prayer of late - specifically my own, not only in terms of time spent (which is typically abominable), but what I pray about.

I've been through many different forms of prayer: the standard written prayers of a Luther or St. Anselm, prayer acrostics (Worship, Adoration, Thanksgiving, Petition), even free forming as I go.

But in my reading through the Bible in a year and especially of late, moving through 1-2nd Chronicles, 1-2nd Kings and Ezra, I am struck by the difference in my own prayers and those recorded.

Among other elements of the prayers there, the thing that struck my mind this week - even this morning- was how the prayers focused around 1) The need for God's mercy, for God to act; and 2) Petitions which were addressed to things God had already said He would do, if the people would obey. It brought me spinning back the verses quoted above in 1st John, which may be some of the most abused biblical verses in the Bible.

While many people, especially those of the "health and wealth" gospel, have used it to justify praying for anything and been assured that it will be answered, they fail to address the part "according to His will". Apparently it is assumed that God's will is pretty close to my own, since He wants me to be happy and have life abundantly, doesn't He...

How often do we think before we petition God? Yes, I know that we need the elements of praise, thanksgiving and adoration in our prayer lives, but these are typically things which we can never have too much of. It's only in petitions that we seem to never have issues - although for myself, too often those issues are around prayer requests that directly affect me.

Can we know all of God's will? Of course not. Could our petitions be more in line with
what God wants? Sure they could. Scripture is replete with petitions we are to pray for: for God to raise up laborers for His harvest, for strength, for mercy and forgiveness, for our enemies, for healing. In fact (with some limited exceptions) I can scarcely think of a place in the New Testament where a recorded prayer is specifically from an individual about wants or desires - only needs.

This morning I tried an experiment: after thanksgiving and forgiveness, I prayed for the petitions I know of for others. I tried to eradicate any particular requests I had except for one (we're not told never to ask, just not to expect those things to be given to us), and of the rest only those which I perceived would be according to God's will: healings, relationships, health, restoration.

I've no idea that those prayers will be answered, any more that I did for the requests before. But I would suspect that if we do what God says - pray according to His will - our chances significantly increase.