When we feel afraid, we can still pray boldly. We may think these prayers are not bold, because we may not have bold personalities. We may think that crying out in pain or asking God for answers is not as bold as asking God to give us the courage to speak to huge crowds (especially if we know God has not called us to do that.) Be assured, these heart-felt prayers are still bold, because our boldness comes from the freedom God gives us, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most,” (Hebrews 4:16.) Unlike the Israelites who could not enter the most holy place of the temple, we can enter God’s courts, in the spiritual realm, and ask him for whatever we need. We just need to understand the difference between boldly asking in faith and asking outside of faith. So let’s explore the idea of bold, faithful praying (versus all the counterfeits to this prayer.)
Let’s look at what bold, faithful praying is not. In his epistle, James said in 4:2b-3 “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your selfish pleasures.” James points to our loss when we do not pray at all and our lack when we do pray but ask selfishly for selfish desires. Godly prayers also do not ignore other people’s needs, such as the poor (Proverbs 21:13, “One who shuts his ear to the outcry of the poor will also call out himself, and not be answered.”) and the abused, (Isaiah 1:15, “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; yes, even though you offer many prayers, I will not be listening. Your hands are covered with blood.”) Prideful and wicked prayers are not godly, nor are they heard (James 4:6, “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble,” and Psalm 66:18, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”) This includes disrespectful husbands, (1 Peter 3:7, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.”)
That is a general picture of the ways our prayers are not truly bold, truly godly. The Scripture gives many other examples. Of course we have to be careful to fully read the Scripture, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Foolish people take a verse out of context, as do people in the “Health, Wealth and Prosperity so-called-Gospel.” They falsely imagine boldly praying means we ask for expensive luxuries. For example, John 15:7b (last half of the verse) says, “…you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!” But this cuts off the beginning of the verse. Look at all of John 15:7, “But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!” We need to remain in the Lord and his will. Thus we have to ask according to God’s will. We have the ultimate example of saying, “Not my will, but your will be done,” with Jesus when he said this near his death (Luke 22:42.) We have to trust that if we ask in God’s will, he hears us and answers us, although sometimes the answer is, “No.”
But if we ask, according to God’s will, what are some details of this boldness? James again speaks of this in his epistle (James 1:5-7 “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.” We don’t have to know for sure if something is in God’s will when we pray. We can ask, like Jesus did, “Lord, if you wish for this,” and then boldly pray for whatever we need. If we need transportation, God might not give us a new car but an ugly but reliable one or a co-worker who can carpool with us. The answers are up to God, but we must ask.
Bold praying also does not consist of us saying, “I can do anything,” because Paul meant that he could do anything “In Christ,” when he said that in Philippians 4:13. Again, this meant doing anything God called him to do. There are many things God will not call us to do. Even if we claim “I can do this in Christ,” if God did not call us, we cannot do it, even with all the positive thinking we can apply. But if we ask God if he wants us to do something, he can direct us to see if it is his will for us or not. Surprisingly, saying, “Lord, I cannot do this,” can also be a bold prayer, if we finish that prayer by saying, “…unless you do this through me.”
A friend taught me how she prayed the Scripture back to God. For example, when she was unsure, she reminded God, “You promised, in your word, that you would send the Advocate (John 16:7) and you would never leave me an orphan, (John 14:18) and you would fill me with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Roms. 8:11 & Ephs. 1:19-21.)” We understand that the Holy Spirit can even pray for us with power through groaning that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26.)
We can pray back specific Scripture promises to the Lord, as long as they are truly ours. For example, we cannot pray that we will be a very, very old woman and become pregnant like Sarah of Genesis, and Elizabeth of the book of Luke got to do. Those were one-time promises for each of those women. We do have to use some common sense when we pray. W must acknowledge that in our flesh, we can do nothing. Then we pray and trust the goodness of God. We can come to him and tell him anything, since he already knows everything in our hearts.
I have often written about the need to cry out to God, even if we are angry with him. Of course he is not at fault, but our frail minds and emotions get so worked up that sometimes we can’t seem to get past our hard feelings. God can handle all the mean, sad and confused things that go on in our heads. When we tell him how we feel, he can help to calm us and then help us to sort out those feelings. He is always faithful.
We can boldly claim all the promises God offers to the entire family of God. We can also tell him when our feelings don’t agree with Scripture, whether we feel like an orphan, unloved, unredeemed, or any other quality that God promised he would not leave us experiencing. We have full right to tell God we feel this way and then tell him back what he said about our being loved, redeemed, kept close to his Father’s heart, and all the other good promises. God might have to reveal any hardness in our hearts that is keeping us from him (such as unforgiveness, unwilling doubt, and anything else we are harboring and not willing to let God heal.) Sometimes we do not feel close to God, due to our hard hearts. At other times, God may be nudging us so we will call out to him. He wants us to make the move to draw near, and when we comply we feel his heart.
Satan wants us to feel timid about approaching God. Satan is happy to remind us that we are not bold by temperament or remind us of our past mistakes to discourage us from coming to God. But the attacks of our flesh and Satan are all telling lies, denying how Jesus feels about us. Even as Jesus was upset when the disciples would not let children come to him, Jesus feels that way about us if anyone tries to stop us from coming to him in prayer too. So think of yourself when you hear this verse from Matt. 19:14, “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them {her}, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” You can substitute your name for the phrase, “the little children,” and then read that passage again. Jesus is saying he wants to let you come to him, and come boldly.
Jesus and the heavenly Father adore us. They want us to pray boldly, even when we feel timid. They love us, and we here at “threeblessedgals” love you too. Thanks for joining us in this week’s post!