Prayer That Pleases God

For the next three weeks the Overflow will be purely a devotional opportunity adding to the emphasis on prayer at Faith Baptist for this period.

If you are well-versed in prayer and find it to be a regular life-giving practice there isn’t a great deal I am trying to say to you today apart from encouraging you to carry on in the discipline you have cultivated in your life.

But if you are one of the many people who struggle with prayer I’ll try to offer a bit more. There a lot of things that trip people up when it comes to prayer. Some people just don’t know where to start. This is especially true if your exposure to prayer has come mainly through hearing people pray publicly in church.

Public prayers are often written in advance, organized to include all the right details in some kind of structure, and tend to be written in language that sounds more formal or proper than everyday speech. It feels very odd to pray in this way when you are alone – and it should.

Public prayer in worship is valuable, but it’s not the same as personal prayer. That’s just you, expressing what’s true to the God you have put you hope in.

Public prayers are normally fairly long. Many of Jesus’ prayers were only a sentence or two. And personal prayer doesn’t have to have any words at all – it may simply be a reaching out to God or an awareness of Him.

Public prayers often sound quite confident or declarative. “Almighty God, we know that you can do all things and that you will (do this thing that’s important to us)…”

When you try to pray on your own you may not have any confidence or certainty. I am really talking to someone, and are they listening? Does this matter? I am doing it right? Do I have any right to address to sovereign ruler of the universe?

If that’s you or if it's ever been you then I have a prayer you can try out for yourself. Composed by Thomas Merton (an American monk and theologian) this prayer expresses just how little we know about what we are doing and whether or not we are pleasing God even when we give it our best effort. It encourages trusting that God will receive whatever we give, and be with us even when we are uncertain. I’ll end with this, followed by a worship song about prayer that might bless you today.

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0aOG9AKbwg