For quite a while, I've struggled with the power of prayer, with the words found in John 15: 7, "if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."
My mind travels to 9 short months ago. I think of my brother-in-law and his wife. As they stood over their 3 month old daughter's frail, limp, and unbreathing body, they cried out to God to save her. As they followed behind the screaming ambulance, they cried out to God to save her. And as they stood surrounded by doctors and nurses in the Emergency Room, they pleaded, bargained, and screamed out to God to save her tiny, precious life. She died that night, and with that, their hearts were shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.
I have to wonder: how could their prayers have been any more pure? I know that they were praying the words of Christ over baby Lily, but to no avail.
John Piper says that prayer is for fruit-bearing. He says that prayer is not for natural interests, but it is for fruit bearing. His explanation of prayer is one of the best that I've come across. He says that we must be so in tune with God, so abiding in his word, that His desires truly become our desires.
I think of all the times I pray, thinking that it is for the right reasons, but really, it is for a natural desire. Piper challenges one to think of all of the greatest spiritual giants he/she knows. "Are they not oozing with the scriptures?" he asks.
I don't think that I abide in Christ enough. I don't think that I truly interact with his word. Piper examines the Lord's Prayer and notes that "give us this day our daily bread" only comes after acknowledgment of God's holiness, kingdom, and will.
I want to be saturated in his words. I want Christ to ooze out of me to the point that it drowns passers-by. I want my prayers to be more than short utterances of desires; I want them to be aligned with the Christ who "chose me to bear fruit that won't spoil" 15:16.
This is not an easy task.
2 comments:
Lindsay so true, I remember praying for 2 months straight everyday that my dad would be cured and that didn't happen and he died. At the time I was crushed,but as I think back I remember always saying "if it is your will" when in reality if I am brutally honest with myself it was for my own selfish reasons,not to bear fruit. Looking back I still don't see why he had to go like that but I am have come to grips with the fact that God is God and I am not, that his ways are not my ways and I am glad for that. It doesn't make it any easier to understand but it does make it easier to cope with.
ouch! this discussion hurts...
i hope that my motives and prayers are always pure, but the what little i know of my heart says they cannot possibly be pure enough...
may i, along with you, seek to know what it really means to "abide in Him"
i studied this chapter some time back and what i remember leaving with was this: Jesus says to abide in Him means to remain in His love...and if you obey His commands, you remain in His love...
then He ends with this, "This is my command: Love each other"
I remember asking Him, "Is it really that simple? Love each other and we will be abiding in You?" maybe i am too naive, or maybe i do try to complicate things, and
I don't know why I am always amazed that when things get broken down, love for others is what remains...
submitted humbly,
craig
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