To start with, for the purposes of discussion, we can break the grid into intercessory and personal prayer. I would further break the grid down to answered and unanswered prayer in both categories. In the category of intercessory prayer, am I ever going to know for sure, that a prayer I say is answered, especially as I pray for more distant concerns. I might pray for every person with who is suffering from a diabetic condition in India, but I don’t know anybody in India and I have never been there. There is nothing stopping me from saying this prayer, which is getting to be a big prayer, and there is nothing in the Bible saying I can’t pray bigger prayers others or other situations. Maybe if I pray for a friend to do well on a job interview and they don’t do well, I could partially put my intercessory prayer into the unanswered grid. Yet, I have still done my duty, and tried to spread the wealth of my prayers even further in my intercessory prayer pattern, by praying for my friend, and maybe the prayer did help my friend in some other way that I can’t be sure of. Really, my job was and is to say the prayer, and whether or not it seems to be answered, is often not directly affecting me personally. Unanswered prayer in the intercessory grid, is often though not always, not going to affect me. In a sense really, intercessory prayer is a no lose situation. I get to participate by praying for other people and issues, sometimes in a big way, there is no limits in the prayer, and there is mostly no direct pressure on me as to whether the prayer is answered or not, as to how my personal life is going. It is better however, to take a more sunnier view, that yes, my prayer for Africa is life affirming and may be helping, and it is great that I can be of help this way, by the relatively simple act of praying.
Now going to the grid of personal prayer for my personal concerns, there seems to be more potential for gridlock. Answered prayer is great, seemingly unanswered prayer can pose a big problem in that it can have a direct affect or consequence on so many things. If I am asking for a financial blessing and losing money at every turn, then I might be hindered to any number of things I did want to do, that involved paying my way. Or I take the idea of persistent prayer, which is at least allowed according to the common understanding of the Bible, to also mean an exclusive focus on a specific prayer and that if I am not praying every spare second about this, then I’m not being persistent. I can think about how my specific prayer request does relate to any number of other things and if it honestly does why not bring those other related things into the prayer as well. For example, if I am praying for a healing for a sprained ankle, I really want this healing as related to my hopes of running or jogging in the sun along the beach or waterway, so I can bring the related idea of jogging without a sprained ankle in my prayer for healing for the sprained ankle. Talk to God about not only what you want but what you want to do with what you want if and when you get it. Let the umbrella down and open up the request more fully. You can give God any number of reasons why you want this.
I’m taking a word or concept and not defining it properly. A truly prospered Christian needs room to prosper. I am praying for prosperity, but I am spending so much time praying for prosperity, that I have no time for anything else towards this wanted prosperity. Take for example, the adage, work hard, and you’ll make it. Well, I could work hard in setting up my lemonade stand in Alaska in the middle of the winter, and stay at that stand for half the winter, but not many people are going to come by to purchase the lemonade. I've got to set up my lemonade stand nearer to what I want to do and what I want to happen.
Any concept can be meditated on as well. And I could even ask God, how persistent do you want me to be with this prayer, when and how is this prayer going to move, in the sense of moving the mountains type of results, or do you want me to let go on this prayer? How then is God relating to the prayer and what related concerns and approaches does God want me to bring into this prayer? Even though we have the Biblical concept of persistence in prayer, we may need to petition God as to whether at this time we should put on the breaks or temper this prayer in some way. Other concepts might relate to this prayer, being patient, being watchful for the answer, being specific, being thankful in advance, and visualizing the results and so on. I could be overdoing it in trying to form an overall balanced prayer grid by just focusing on this one prayer too much. The good asset of being a hard working person can be well applied to prayer.
That hard work might need to be spread out the table a bit on my personal prayer grid as well. In my personal prayer grid, I really feel I just want this one big prayer answered. What God might want, is a lot of personal prayers from me in particular on any number of things on an ongoing basis. The prayer of omission, the prayer not said, is more likely with a narrowly focused prayer approach. Just the idea that God did give us intelligence, and intelligence tells me that any number of things could relate to this particular prayer request I am making to God. A more intelligent approach to prayer might be to think about and bring in what might be related to my big time prayer request. I am praying for a more luxurious head of hair but this really does relate to wanted to look better when I look in the mirror, for that big meeting at work, or for walking on the beach in the summer.
The imagery of God from Psalms" operating on many waters" is an important one. As it says in Paul's letters, for now we only see dimly. But that doesn't mean that we don't see at all. If I do pray for all the poor people in Africa, I can begin to increase my awareness and begin to see, just how important that prayer might be. We are called to have faith but in all instances and in all ways it is not just blind faith. I can contemplate and begin to see in some small ways on how important this prayer might be and how it relates to God's kingdom on the earth. I can begin to shift my waterways on prayer and operate on many waters, especially in my intercessory concerns but also in my personal concerns as I begin to increase my awareness on my own prayers and the various ways my hoped for answers relate to what I really do want, often in not just one but several ways in the many waters of my own personal life. For example, the ability to read is a gift that relates to so many things. Not only can I read on whatever I want for both enjoyment and to inform myself, but it might be important just in finding my way around, in a foreign country for example, in being able to read a map or directions. In prayer I might also be praying for directions, for finding my way around. I might be in that foreign country lost and just ask in prayer for the appearance of someone who can give me directions in the moment.
I might be stuck in a strong current while swimming in the ocean, and I’m trying to get back to the beach from a mile out. I say, God, all I want is to get to the shore. In that moment, maybe it is true. The immediacy and the danger of the situation, of getting caught way out there in riptides, obscures that I do want to get back on the beach, have it remain a nice and sunny day, and I hope I still have the scenery of lots of girls of the beachfront. It wouldn’t be wrong to say to God, I want to get out of this to enjoy the rest of the day this way. However, I don’t say this, and God answers my prayer regardless and now I am finding my way out of the riptide and getting closer to the shore, and I’m seeing everyone having fun on the beach, and now my attention turns to that. Maybe I can say a status post prayer, thanking God that he got me out this by calming the surf, and that I am also thankful for the good time on the beach as well which I am subsequently enjoying because I did not get swept totally out to sea never to be found.
Really, the key is to that I also want to continue to spread out my personal prayer grid, putting in any number of prayers, prayers that might emerge even more as a priority if I can get past a few obstacles but for the moment I at least want to give them a light brush in my prayers. With intercessory prayer, I often do not need to get past too many obstacles, to get going with that. I can pray for so many things on a worldwide basis, and I really just need some knowledge or know how rather than some more unobtainable means. That is why Paul writes in the Epistle to Timothy, that he wished prayer for Kings and all men. Some of the people he was writing too probably had no means comparable to a king in those days, yet they were being admonished to pray even for kings and others in intercessory fashion, and it doesn’t say anything about having your personal prayers being answered first before doing this.
Jesus wanted Peter to believe him for walking on water. Now, what is so good about walking on water anyway? Is it that much fun? Maybe it would be more the message that Jesus wants his followers to believe for different things, exciting and far fetched things, maybe things that seem unusual and quite extraordinary to my usual experience. This was almost like Jesus was taking Peter into an amusement park experience.
I’m sure that when Jesus spoke to the apostles about prayer, he didn’t just want them to pray for a better catch of fish or in Peter’s case to walk on water. There is a verse in Psalms about God operating on many waters. We see in David’s writings in the Psalms that many different things are mentioned as a matter of prayer, What I want to do then, is think about Peter walking on water, the apostles asking for a better catch of fish, and realize the diversity of situations that can equate to a prayer response and the need for prayer, and see that these could go from the practical to the more unconventional and that Jesus might be the initiator in taking us to a new range of prayer, symbolized by him asking Peter to walk on water with him. It was a joint project discusses between them.
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I am currently writing in varied areas including on the Christian faith.
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