Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do.
~Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
~James 5:13-18
Prayer is a believer’s vital breath. It is life breathed back to the One who has breathed Life into us. It is a stunningly beautiful loop within the overlapping circles of our relationship with Him.
And, beloved, confession is the clearing of that airway.
Confession feels really scary, but this fear is naught but a lie. For the liar knows that in actually agreeing with G_d and others that we have specific faults and have committed certain transgressions – the fetid wounds of our sins are instantly drained and cleansed. These same wounds instantly lose the power to bring disease to our existence.
The temptation is to believe that if someone knew the real you, that they would turn around and walk away in abject rejection of the evil, wretched being we have just revealed ourselves to be. Oh, dear friend, fear not. G_d already knows, and 2,000 years ago He voluntarily poured out His blood to both pay for and cover WHATEVER is in the deep, dark closets of our lives.
I’ll not unnecessarily burden readers here with the sordid details of my past. They are indeed sordid, and this is not the proper forum to share stuff like this. Neither is it necessary for any of us to hang our dirty laundry out for everyone to see it (though, it is almost always useful for someone we know and trust to know the details). But, it IS necessary for us to be transparent with just about everyone about the truth that we are all wretched sinners saved by grace. Any other position is only a lie that perpetuates death in our lives. i will neither candy-coat it, nor glorify it, but suffice it to say here, that this writer’s list of things he has NOT done in transgression against a holy G_d is VERY short. All seven of the seven deadlies are well, and darkly represented in my past. Like the apostle Paul, i count myself as a chief of sinners. Perhaps this truth is what makes His Salvation so very powerful in my life. i know what i have been saved from.
So, once the airway is cleared through confession. Then what?
JUST BREATHE!
Go to battle. Assault the throne of mercy, and obtain that ever-obtainable grace in our times of need. Hammer the Heavenly Father with your petitions, requests, supplications, entreaties, intercessions, ideas, feelings, constructs, fears, paradigms, everything. Pray like you are a man on fire trying to find water. Pray! Just fleeping pray! Don’t stop. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray… and then start praying.
Then, pray some more.
Oh dear ones, i can’t explain it. Trying to explain a human asking G_d to do something – and then having that same G_d actually do it – is like trying to unify Newtonian and Quantum physics. We know they both work, but we don’t really understand either model, and we definitely cannot reconcile either theory to each other.
Just pray. Talk to Him. Listen to Him. Keep company with the One who simply was, is, and is to come.
Do this for a while, and just wait and see what begins to happen in your life and the life of those around you. This writer guarantees it will be good. For the One we petition is Good itself, and He has given us His very Self already.
