Love’s Powerful Promise
Pursuing Effective Prayer - Part Two
"Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13)
My firstborn daughter arrived prematurely with jaundice. She cried a lot in her first weeks as we struggled with nursing. I discovered that the sound of her cries created an actual physical pain in me when I could not give her what she needed. My love and maternal connection made responding to her care essential to my well-being. I felt ready to smash through brick walls, if needed, to get to her when she called. She had no words to plea, just raw emotion and a primal instinct that someone more powerful listened.
Our instinct to call out in prayer carries expectations. We expect to be heard. We hope to connect with God in some way that leads to change. Our emotions overflow, our circumstances press in, our resources run out, or our understanding needs clarity. We want answers and action.
The Foundation of Powerful Prayer
The closest followers of Jesus watched him talk to God and witnessed the divine activity in his life. So, they asked him how to pray. As with all good teachers, Jesus began with the fundamentals:
"Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10)
The first sentence of his model prayer reveals the foundational premise—powerful prayer communicates within a loving relationship. Jesus emphasizes whom we address: “Our Father in heaven…” We speak to our Father, the one so passionate about our welfare that he is poised to hear and respond with love. We have a preeminent relationship.
And we address not only a father, but also the King in heaven. We appeal to the Ruler of Creation with authority over all powers and circumstances. We do not lunge into the unknown toward an impersonal force; we reach out to the tenderness of a father with the power of a king.
Mentorship from Müller
In Part One of our previous discussion, “Praying for Answers,” we looked to the life story of George Müller to discover the secrets of his extraordinarily effective prayers. We learned Müller’s fundamental lesson: “…the chief business of every day is first of all to seek to be truly at rest and happy in God.” Just as Jesus taught, Müller focused on the priority and quality of the relationship.
The first step of Müller’s advice seems clear enough. We make space in our day to nurture our communion with God. We can read God’s Word (his words to us) and communicate with prayers (our words to him and his words to our spirit). But Müller pushes us further than a rote habit. The second part, the goal of his time spent in communion, “to seek to be truly at rest and happy in God,” causes me to pause. Frankly, I’m not sure I accomplish that state of mind even fifty percent of the time. In fact, that’s often why I’m trying so hard to pray in the first place.
“To cross over into the territory of peace and contentment...requires navigating around some serious obstacles and fuel for my empty tank.”
When I recall times in my life’s journey when my heart felt broken with grief, or depression numbed my mind, or my spirit churned in a chaotic state of worry, Müller’s prescription seems impossible. Yes, I can make myself sit in my blue chair by the window or kneel by my unmade bed at first light. But sometimes those physical actions are the only faith I can muster. To cross over into the territory of peace and contentment (“at rest and happy”) requires navigating around some serious obstacles and fuel for my empty tank.
However, Müller provides a hopeful starting point in his qualifying phrase “to seek to be.” We may not feel the confidence or strength to reach the bullseye of “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” but we can notch a wavering arrow in the bow and aim at the target. We begin “to seek” by entering God’s presence with an intent to connect and a willingness to express our honest feelings. We follow the example of the Psalmists: voice our anger and moan our sorrow. Speak our heart questions and present our complaints. Then, after naming each lament, we send the arrow of belief flying toward the target of peace and begin the work of aligning our minds with the truth of God’s word.
I have climbed out of many emotional pits, rung by rung with a sweaty grip, by reciting what I know to be true of God and his love for me. I may not reach sunshine at the top on that particular day, but I can choose to move toward the light with an attitude of faith. Though our feelings may run wild, our wills can control the priority to engage with God. We come as we are, determined to set our minds in the direction of truth. The grace of the loving Father will meet us there.
A Union of Hearts
Once we commit to pursuing an honest relationship with the Father, whatever our state of mind, the essence of our prayers begins to transform. Through persistent aiming at the goal and vulnerable communication, our desires slowly recalibrate and merge within a growing love relationship. In time, we find ourselves wanting what God wants.
Loving unions change us. The day after my husband proposed and I accepted, everything felt different—as if something momentous had shifted beneath our feet. It had. When we committed our hearts to each other through our engagement promise, we no longer pursued two separate lives, but one. From that point on, we viewed life’s direction and decisions from the perspective of considering and pleasing each other. We began to move in concert together. Our purposes aligned.
When our souls pursue knowing God as our greatest love above all else, our desires begin to unite with his. The Bride falls in love with the Bridegroom, who is already in love with her! Our prayers for the trajectory of our life now blend with his, so that we ask according to his will and for his glory.
The Power Promise
Within this loving union, our Bridegroom makes an amazing promise:
"Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13)
Jesus says, “Whatever you ask...I will do it…” I can hardly believe such a statement, but isn’t this exactly what I want when I pray? Yet honestly, I don’t feel qualified or worthy of such power or grace. My heart trembles under the weight of my human weakness and inability to discern all outcomes.
Thankfully, two conditions guard the power in the promise. We ask: (1) on behalf of Jesus, and (2) for the glory of God. These prerequisites bring us back to Jesus’ model prayer. After addressing the Father in heaven, he says: “…your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
However, here again, we smack up against the challenge of conquering our own hearts. The gravitational pull of self-interest feels inescapable. Only the self-oblivion of true love can compete and overcome, allowing our prayers to move in sync with God’s will and purposes.
Müller’s Secret
We find a map forward from George Müller’s life walking in this kind of love:
“He gave up fortune-seeking and fame-seeking; he cut loose from the world with its snares and joys; he separated himself from even its doubtful practices…and step by step conformed to the pattern showed in that word [of God]. Every such step was a new self-denial, but it was following Him.”
“And unless love’s voluntary sacrifice be taken into account, George Müller’s life will still remain an enigma. George Müller had no monopoly of holy living and holy serving. He followed his Lord, both in self-surrender to the will of God and in self-sacrifice for the welfare of man, and herein lay his whole secret.” (Emphasis added.)
Step by step in his daily communion with God, Müller exchanged his self-love for the greatest, deepest, and most satisfying of all loves. A more powerful force than even parental or married love. Day by day, he “made love’s voluntary sacrifice” so that his happiness became united with the One he loved most. From that joining of hearts, his powerful prayers were born, refined, and answers sent forth, prompting divine action into the world around him.
What “voluntary sacrifice of love” holds you back from following God into a deeper union and powerful prayers?
Source Text: Pierson, A.T. George Müller of Bristol. London: Pickering & Inglis, 1899.
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