The
Perfect Prayer
Prayer has been an integral part of
my life since May 15, 1976, when I
received Jesus Christ into my heart as Savior and Lord. So I have
had 38 years of prayer experience, and have heard others pray for 37
years as well. I once read through the Bible - Old Testament and
New - and highlighted every prayer.
As I read the Bible I was struck by
the notion that there is no prayer
which is too big for God to answer, and that as a result we have the
authority and responsibility to pray the biggest prayers we can pray so
that no one gets left out of God's answers to our prayers.
I have also noticed painfully that
God does not always answer our
prayers in the way that we want Him to, or that we expect Him to
answer. But that never seems to deter most folks from praying for
what they want the way they want it.
Eventually I realized that if I asked
our heavenly Father to do
whatever needed to be done in my life and everyone else's lives, and
not to dictate the method or means by which He should answer, that I
could count on His goodness and love and wisdom and righteousness to
move Him to do what was right.
Somewhere along my path of life I
came across the prayer in Hebrews
13:20-21. I was struck by the notion that this prayer is the
perfect prayer for every creature in every circumstance. It
is focused on doing God's will, leaves Him plenty of 'elbow room' to
answer as He sees fit, and makes His pleasure the ultimate goal of the
prayer:
Heb 13:20
And may the God of
peace, who brought again from the dead the great pastor of the sheep,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in the blood of the everlasting testament,
Heb 13:21 Fit youall in all goodness, that youall may do his
will; doing in youall/us that which is well pleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen.
You may notice that I have used the
second person plural English word
'youall' and 'us' to make clear that the prayer is a community prayer,
not a personal prayer.
You may also notice, as I did, that
the prayer is focused on doing
God's will, not our own will as Jesus exemplified in the Garden of
Gethsemane when He prayed, "Not My will, but Thy will be done, Father."
You may also notice that the One Who
answers prayer gets all the glory,
not the one doing the praying!
Therefore I consider this prayer to
be the perfect prayer for every
situation and creature, and STRONGLY urge everyone to begin with this
prayer, and let the Holy Spirit focus it more clearly as He sees fit in
ways that you may not have even imagined !
Eph 3:20 Now
to the One who can
do infinitely more than all we can ask or imagine according to the
power that is working within/among us— to Him be glory in the church
and in the Messiah Jesus to all generations, forever and ever! Amen.