"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16
Last time I wrote about prayer I sort of left things hanging. I asked how Andrew Murray, author of "With Christ in the School of Prayer," could say that the Father will do the "will of the child in union with Himself?" At first this seems to us too presumptuous a statement. So then, let's explore this a little further to see if we can understand what he meant; while I also tell you about the last essential ingredient to praying effectually. To discover the answer to both these things, I'll turn to John 15:7, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Let me point out that two things stand out in this verse: 1) The words, "If ye abide in me," and 2) That the promise and its conditions are inseparable.
So what does this mean for us? What is it we must do, what condition must we meet, in order for our prayers to be answered? Simply put, we must be totally sold-out to Christ. We must truly die to ourselves. His glory, and His alone, should be our passion and lifeblood. In another passage of his book Andrew Murray said, "It is Christ whom the Father always hears; God is in Christ, and can only be reached by being in Him; to be IN HIM is the way to have our prayer heard; fully and wholly ABIDING IN HIM, we have the right to ask whatsoever we will, and the promise that it shall be done unto us."
Am I abiding "fully and wholly in Him?" Are you? Mr. Murray goes on to preach a very convicting "sermon" in the next paragraph concerning this, which I will quote in full:
Another such verse that gives us boldness to pray is the verse following the ones above: "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death." (1 John 5:16) Here again we have a promise. If we pray on the basis of this promise, and therefore pray according to God's will, we can know that our request will be granted to us. While I plan to share my list of Scriptures that I've prayed (or continue to pray) with you, I encourage you to search the Bible to discover verses and passages that will be relevant to you and your situation. To demonstrate and wrap up this point, allow me to quote from Andrew Murray once more: "In the Word the Father has revealed in general promises the great principles of His will with His people. The child has to take the promise and apply it to the special circumstances in his life to which it has reference... In His Word, God has given us the revelation of His will and plans with us, with His people, and with the world, with the most precious promises of the grace and power with which through His people He will carry out His plans and do His work."
2. Helps you to memorize large amounts of Scripture: For me this has been one of the neatest inevitable outcomes of praying the Word. Really it's been incredible how much Scripture I've memorized because I've prayed it over and over. A funny thing happened, in fact, on Thanksgiving Day last week in relation to this! My father in-law was leading our entire family in devotions and asked my husband to read Proverbs 3:1-12 for us. Right away in my own mind I piped up because I pray that all the time! While he was reading I recited it along with him in my heart.
After some time of praying through the Scriptures, you too, will praise God for how many Bible verses you're able to pray - without even opening your Bible! Remember, this is not so we can pat ourselves on the back, but rather so that we may be better equipped as believers. As the Word goes deeper within you, you'll find yourself surrendering to God's will more and more and entering into a closer and more intimate union with Christ. Thus, as a result, you'll be better enabled to "fight" for your marriage. (John 15:3; James 4:7; Ephesians 6:2)
Last time I wrote about prayer I sort of left things hanging. I asked how Andrew Murray, author of "With Christ in the School of Prayer," could say that the Father will do the "will of the child in union with Himself?" At first this seems to us too presumptuous a statement. So then, let's explore this a little further to see if we can understand what he meant; while I also tell you about the last essential ingredient to praying effectually. To discover the answer to both these things, I'll turn to John 15:7, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Let me point out that two things stand out in this verse: 1) The words, "If ye abide in me," and 2) That the promise and its conditions are inseparable.
So what does this mean for us? What is it we must do, what condition must we meet, in order for our prayers to be answered? Simply put, we must be totally sold-out to Christ. We must truly die to ourselves. His glory, and His alone, should be our passion and lifeblood. In another passage of his book Andrew Murray said, "It is Christ whom the Father always hears; God is in Christ, and can only be reached by being in Him; to be IN HIM is the way to have our prayer heard; fully and wholly ABIDING IN HIM, we have the right to ask whatsoever we will, and the promise that it shall be done unto us."
Am I abiding "fully and wholly in Him?" Are you? Mr. Murray goes on to preach a very convicting "sermon" in the next paragraph concerning this, which I will quote in full:
"When we compare this promise with the experiences of most believers, we are startled by a terrible discrepancy. Who can number up the countless prayers that rise and bring no answer? The cause must be either that we do not fulfill the condition, or God does not fulfill the promise. Believers are not willing to admit either, and therefore have devised a way of escape from dilemma. They put into the promise the qualifying clause our Savior did not put there - if it be God's will; And so maintain both God's integrity and their own. O if they did but accept it and hold it fast as it stands, trusting to Christ to vindicate His truth, how God's Spirit would lead them to see the Divine propriety of such a promise to those who really abide in Christ in the sense in which he means it, and to confess that the failure in the fulfilling condition is the one sufficient explanation of unanswered prayer. And how the Holy Spirit would then make our feebleness in prayer one of the mightiest motives to urge us on to discover the secret and obtain the blessing of full abiding in Christ."
I hope that you're stirred, as I was when I first read it, to examine your heart to see whether these things be true. To be honest, I think that as I was forced to look at my own faults and actions that may have led to my husband having an affair, it also helped me reflect on the question of whether I had been truly abiding in Christ. If you're facing this situation right now, please know that although painful, this trial can be used of God to get you right where He wants you to be! That will be a blessing, as well as the gateway to answered prayer. However, this is not my promise to you, but rather the way of our faithful Creator!
With that, it's time to look at one of the most effective ways to "stand in the gap" for your marriage. In my own experience, over a period of many months, the Lord led me to do this by teaching me to pray Scripture - for both my wayward husband and my relationship with him.
At first it started out "small." I'd be reading the Bible, searching for answers to my troubles, when a verse or passage would jump out at me. Having practiced the discipline of keeping a prayer journal for years, I'd jot down the reference, or sometimes the entire verse, and feel impressed to pray it. Now, when I say "pray it" (the Scripture) what I mean is taking a verse or passage and wording it into the form of a prayer. For example, Ephesians 4:20-24 becomes a prayer that goes like this: "Lord, I pray that Aaron would learn Christ, hear Him, and be taught in Him. I ask that as truth is in Jesus, so it would also be in Aaron. I pray that in reference to his former manner of life, he would lay aside the old man which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that he'd be renewed in the spirit of his mind. Furthermore, Lord, I pray that he'll put on the new man which in the likeness of You has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." The more immersed in God's Word I became, the more verses I was writing down until I finally I decided to compile all the verses onto one page and add to it from there. I didn't just pick one a day either - I'd pray them all!
By necessity this led to another thing that happened. Having all these passages to pray took time; because of this, my prayer life grew richer and fuller as I spent increasing amounts of time talking with God. I found that it no longer seemed difficult to find things to say in prayer, just to "fill up the time." For the first time I was getting up early to pray because I really wanted to and felt genuinely compelled to.
Additionally, I'd like to share other benefits to praying the Scriptures for your marriage, and how they'll enable you to take a stand as never before!
1. Helps you to pray according to God's Will: "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." (1 John 5:14-15) When we pray God's Word we can have confidence that we are praying "according to His will" and will have the thing we ask for. His will is revealed throughout His Word. It's as if through praying it we come to be "in tune" with His very heart. Let me give you an example of what I mean: If I ask God to make me a "1 Peter 3 wife" (which you've heard me mention a number of times here) - that is, submissive, chaste, and respectful - I can be sure that He will do it because it's His promise to wives that they may be the means to win their disobedient husbands back to Him.
By necessity this led to another thing that happened. Having all these passages to pray took time; because of this, my prayer life grew richer and fuller as I spent increasing amounts of time talking with God. I found that it no longer seemed difficult to find things to say in prayer, just to "fill up the time." For the first time I was getting up early to pray because I really wanted to and felt genuinely compelled to.
Additionally, I'd like to share other benefits to praying the Scriptures for your marriage, and how they'll enable you to take a stand as never before!
1. Helps you to pray according to God's Will: "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." (1 John 5:14-15) When we pray God's Word we can have confidence that we are praying "according to His will" and will have the thing we ask for. His will is revealed throughout His Word. It's as if through praying it we come to be "in tune" with His very heart. Let me give you an example of what I mean: If I ask God to make me a "1 Peter 3 wife" (which you've heard me mention a number of times here) - that is, submissive, chaste, and respectful - I can be sure that He will do it because it's His promise to wives that they may be the means to win their disobedient husbands back to Him.
Another such verse that gives us boldness to pray is the verse following the ones above: "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death." (1 John 5:16) Here again we have a promise. If we pray on the basis of this promise, and therefore pray according to God's will, we can know that our request will be granted to us. While I plan to share my list of Scriptures that I've prayed (or continue to pray) with you, I encourage you to search the Bible to discover verses and passages that will be relevant to you and your situation. To demonstrate and wrap up this point, allow me to quote from Andrew Murray once more: "In the Word the Father has revealed in general promises the great principles of His will with His people. The child has to take the promise and apply it to the special circumstances in his life to which it has reference... In His Word, God has given us the revelation of His will and plans with us, with His people, and with the world, with the most precious promises of the grace and power with which through His people He will carry out His plans and do His work."
2. Helps you to memorize large amounts of Scripture: For me this has been one of the neatest inevitable outcomes of praying the Word. Really it's been incredible how much Scripture I've memorized because I've prayed it over and over. A funny thing happened, in fact, on Thanksgiving Day last week in relation to this! My father in-law was leading our entire family in devotions and asked my husband to read Proverbs 3:1-12 for us. Right away in my own mind I piped up because I pray that all the time! While he was reading I recited it along with him in my heart.
After some time of praying through the Scriptures, you too, will praise God for how many Bible verses you're able to pray - without even opening your Bible! Remember, this is not so we can pat ourselves on the back, but rather so that we may be better equipped as believers. As the Word goes deeper within you, you'll find yourself surrendering to God's will more and more and entering into a closer and more intimate union with Christ. Thus, as a result, you'll be better enabled to "fight" for your marriage. (John 15:3; James 4:7; Ephesians 6:2)
3. Develops perseverance in prayer: "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up... And the Lord said, 'Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?'" The problem with us is that we sometimes give up too soon. We pray and the answer doesn't come. Then we get discouraged, and may even stop praying. However, may I suggest that praying the Scripture also helps us to overcome this tendency as well. The reason for this seems to be that having that tangible list of verses, written out before us, acts as a daily reminder of what we are to pray. It keeps us "on track," if you will. It also serves as an encouragement in why we are to pray; this especially true if many of the verses are ones that the Lord personally laid on your heart.
In the many dark days following my husband's disclosure, as my list of Scriptures grew, there were times when I felt like losing heart. However, through confidence in the faithfulness and justice of my Heavenly Father, I persistently kept praying through those verses. Although it was tempting to "listen" to my feelings, I disciplined myself to not be carried away by them. Thank the Lord also for godly accountability partners who reminded me often that my faith was not in myself, not in human thoughts or possibilities, but in the Word of the living God.
Tonight I'm running out of time to be able to share my list of Scriptures. My children are waiting for me so we can read our exciting Advent storybook together. Next time though, Lord willing, I'll post it here. I'll also give some personal examples of how God has answered my prayers. In the meantime, I hope to hear from someone who may have their own list as well! I'd love to hear about it!
In the many dark days following my husband's disclosure, as my list of Scriptures grew, there were times when I felt like losing heart. However, through confidence in the faithfulness and justice of my Heavenly Father, I persistently kept praying through those verses. Although it was tempting to "listen" to my feelings, I disciplined myself to not be carried away by them. Thank the Lord also for godly accountability partners who reminded me often that my faith was not in myself, not in human thoughts or possibilities, but in the Word of the living God.
Tonight I'm running out of time to be able to share my list of Scriptures. My children are waiting for me so we can read our exciting Advent storybook together. Next time though, Lord willing, I'll post it here. I'll also give some personal examples of how God has answered my prayers. In the meantime, I hope to hear from someone who may have their own list as well! I'd love to hear about it!
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