Let’s look at some of the specific ways God blesses us as we pray.
Prayer is an opportunity to de-stress.
I Peter 5:7 says this: CAST all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. God cares for you. You are His treasured possession. He has made a huge commitment to you and investment in you in the sending of Jesus to die on the cross for your sins. He will take care of you. He will.
Another verse puts it this way: Psalm 55:22-CAST your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. Sometimes God takes care of us by removing the problem, and at other times He takes care of us by sustaining us and giving us what we need to endure. Both are equally helpful because we learn new things about God and ourselves through both experiences. Our faith is refined in both cases.
“Cast,” here comes from the Greek verb “epiripto” which means you are propelling something from one place to another. It is an intentional throwing or hurling that transfers the weight of your burden onto the shoulders of God. We aren’t talking about a cute tossing, like the gentle arc of a corn hole bean bag as it is lofted through the air, but a violent projectile and deliberate separation from worry and anxiety.
A lot of times we don’t take the deliberate step we could and need to. Instead, we nurse our wounds, we feed our fears, we ruminate on the heaviness of life and allow it to haunt us all throughout the day as if we are powerless to think about or experience anything else. Here in I Peter we are told to hurl our issues onto God.
Philippians 4:6 says, 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Paul says we are to literally pray about everything. Nothing is too big. Nothing is too small. And Philippians 4:7 that follows gives us a glimpse of what to expect when we have made prayer a daily habit: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Cast your cares on God through prayer, and then don’t reel them back in!
Prayer paves the way for deep and sustained change.
The way to keep our relationship with God healthy is through the confession of sin and by talking to God about our struggles. This is clearly seen in what I will call “confessional prayer.” Confession is about more than gaining forgiveness, but it is about inviting and permitting God to work in us. Isn’t that what we need? For God to keep working in us? Look at David’s confessional prayer in Psalm 51 and note the many ways he invited God to be at work in his heart and life.
David doesn’t just want to be off the hook with God, but he wants to be a different person. He wants cleansed from anything that led him to pursue his sin. He wants who he has been to be washed away. David invited God to do a deep internal work in his heart. He didn’t only want forgiveness, but he also wanted a new heart, one that didn’t entertain the desires of sin. He wasn’t just sorry that he got caught. He wanted to change. He invited God to remake him, to makeover his desires. He wanted strength to be faithful and fully committed to God. He was surrendering fully to God.
In verse 11 of David’s prayer, he said, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” Do you know why David prayed that? Because he needed the accountability of the Holy Spirit. Because he absolutely wanted to be done with sin. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin. David never wanted to be without the One who would convict his heart immediately when he had gotten into spiritual trouble. He never wanted a repeat of that disconnect from God. Woe to the person who feels no sorrow over sin anymore. That person is truly lost. David never wanted to be in danger of that happening to him.
Prayer is Spiritual Warfare
Ephesians 6 is a spiritual warfare passage. Verse 10 tells us to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power and the subsequent verses tell us how to do it. There is spiritual armor that we have to put on in order to be able to stand against the devil’s schemes. But Paul says, even all of that isn’t enough to defeat the devil. We have to add prayer. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
You need to not only pray for God to take anxieties and burdens from you and to keep your relationship free from the clutter sin creates, but you also need to pray out loud against the enemy of your soul as well. You need to open your mouth and declare that Satan cannot have your nervous system and your mental health. He cannot come at you through your physical body or your marital relationship. He cannot have access to the souls of your children. He cannot attack you through your finances or whatever way he is attempting to harass and assault you.
Paul says to ward Satan off, stay suited up AND then pray, pray, pray. omplish.
Prayer aligns my will with God’s will.
Over time, as we spend time in prayer, our wills become conformed to the will of God. In prayer, we can ask God to reveal His perfect will to us. We can ask Him for Heaven’s perspective on our pain. We can acknowledge that we will trust God no matter what. We can surrender by praying the prayer Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will but Yours be done.”
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Day in and day out we are bombarded with worldly messages, with evil and confusing patterns of communication, with secular expressions which Satan wants to use to conform us and convert us to his will. Do you realize that Satan has a will for your life?
That is why regular prayer is so crucial! Prayer is one of a few ways that God gives us to help us conform our will to His will. Prayer time becomes the time during which our mind gets conformed to the mind of Christ. The more we pray, the more we will know what God’s good and pleasing and perfect will is.
I say that because prayer is two-way communication. It isn’t just that we talk to God, but it becomes a conversation. John 10:27 says that we can learn to know and listen to the voice of God. In prayer, we get to hear from God, and the more time we spend talking AND listening, the more we will become accustomed to the voice of God and be able to know God’s will when we aren’t even actively engaged in conversation with Him. His will, will be imprinted on our minds and hearts as we spend time with Him in prayer, and we will begin to automatically, supernaturally know what would please Him in any situation.
Living well means living as God desires. He doesn’t want you stressed. Pray. He wants access into your life to transform you into the image of Christ. Pray. He wants you living in victory over Satan and his traps. Pray. He wants you to be able to hear Him clearly and know what His plans are for you specifically. Pray.
