Praying Confident Prayers (2)

Jim Davis

1 Kings 8:33-40; Psalms 139:1-10

James calls Abraham God's friend (James 2:23). Someone defined a friend as s a person who knows everything about you and remains your friend. 

God is such a friend. When God called Abram he knew every issue of Abram's heart. (Abraham's name was initially Abram.) God proclaimed promises to Abram when he knew things about Abram—Abram didn't yet know about himself. God wrestles with the issues of Abram's heart only as a friend would. God picks up the pieces of Abram's every misdirected decision. Each time Abram failed, God enter his life reminding him of the promises he had made to him. He enters encouraging him as he reiterates his promises to him. Sometimes he even laughed as he doubted the possibility of God’s plans. God simply ask, “Is anything to hard for me?” 

God knew every weakness of Abram’s heart, yet he remained his friend. This is the beauty of a relationship with God; he claims us as his own in the face of the weaknesses of our hearts. It is not that God accepts the sin of our hearts. He accepts us to encourage us to face the afflictions of our hearts to bring us to maturity. 

Facing God with Our Afflictions

How often have we wished we could really take an objective view of our lives? In seeking direction we try to figure out how others view us. We endeavor to get a handle on how the world views us. We seek the advice of a close friend. It is not all bad. Yet, no one has a more objective view of me than God. There is no closer friend than God. God is familiar with all my ways. God is eager to enter into the afflictions of my heart to give me a strong sense of being as he directs my life. 

Solomon instructs the Israelites through prayer to turn to God as they wrestle with the afflictions of their own hearts. 

1 Kings 8:33-40
33 "When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple, 34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their fathers……..38 and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel - each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple- 39 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men), 40 so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers. NIV

Solomon’s prayer is about Israel’s future disobedience. When Israel disobeys, Solomon asks God to hear her prayers as she turns back to confess his name in prayer and supplication. He not only asks God to forgive. He implores God to deal with each person’s affliction as each person turns to God. 

Three key words in this statement in Solomon's prayer that should instill confidence: forgive-act-deal. Solomon prays, “Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men), so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers (1 Kings 8:39-40). We love forgiveness, but we may not be so eager to ask God to deal with the afflictions of our hearts. 

Israel’s relationship goes much further than mere forgiveness. God will act and deal with Israel according to all her ways so that Israel will fear him. Jeremiah lived in a time when God heavy hand of discipline was upon Israel for her disobedience as he writes:

Jeremiah 17:10
0 "I the LORD search the heart 
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve." NIV

Just think---how God actively moves in my life will be based upon his knowledge of what is going on in my heart. Great comfort comes knowing that no matter what is going on in my life—God is a friend who is up close and personal. There is never a time that he refuses me his presence.

Isaiah prophesied in a day when God disciplined Israel’s disobedience. In the mist of Israel’s discipline Isaiah reminds Israel of God’s desire to help.

Isaiah 41:13
For I am the LORD, your God,
who takes hold of your right hand 
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you. NIV

God will not turn his back on us, but he will not allow us to run and hide. He will take us by the hand. He will bring us face to face with the afflictions of our own hearts. God knew the afflictions of the hearts of the Israelites. He dealt with them accordingly. It brought his discipline. In the midst of his discipline he declares, “Do not fear; I will help you.” This is the basis of confidence. 

God wouldn’t be much of a friend to simply forgave while allowing Israel to continue in her disobedient self-destructive ways. Forgiveness brings accountability. It’s called repentance. God’s power is available to those who turn to him in repentance. Forgiveness without repentance would simply encourage self-destruction. 

Prayer Requires Confidence in God’s Faithfulness

Failures may tend to drive us away from God. If this is our attitude we will have trouble praying because of our unwillingness to face the issues of our hearts. When it comes to prayer we must think in terms of God’s faithfulness. David was a man after God's own heart. He knew he could not escape God’s presence. As a result he refused to allow his failures to drive him away from God. This is actually what made him a man after God's own heart.

Psalms 139:1-10
O LORD, you have searched me 
and you know me. 
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar. 
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways. 
4 Before a word is on my tongue 
you know it completely, O LORD. 

5 You hem me in - behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me. 
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. 

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? 
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea, 
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast. NIV

David cries, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” The resounding answer is—no place. No matter where you go—how deep you have fallen—God’s hand is there to guide you and he will hold you tight. 

David writes, “You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” (Psalms 139:5-6). God sets the boundaries of our lives. He says this far you will go and no further. God hems us in to encourage us to face his assessment of our lives.

Psalms 139:7-10
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? 
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea, 
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast. NIV

We often fail to trust God in difficult times. We fail to turn to him. We feel more comfortable seeking our own solutions. It may seem easier to run from God. More often than not we end up marred in our choices. It is difficult to face the afflictions. When we fail to turn to God, he hems us into a corner. 

Jonah ran from God refusing to face the prejudice in his own heart against his enemies in Nineveh. God tailor made a storm at sea and a fish to swallow Jonah. God hemmed Jonah into the belly of a fish. 

Jonah 2
2:1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: 
"In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4 I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.' 5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. 
7 "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

8 "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD." 

10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. NIV

It wasn’t easy to walk through Nineveh proclaiming the message of salvation to his enemies. Jonah decided to face toward the holy temple in Jerusalem and deal with the afflictions of his heart. Yet, Nineveh’s repentance made his job even more difficult. 

Jonah 4:1-4
4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." 

4 But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?" NIV

God’s discipline brought Jonah face to face with the afflictions of his heart. 

God’s purpose has to do with the battles raging in my heart. We may pray for world peace, for Uncle Joe to be healed of cancer, for God to protect soldiers in times of war, but do we have the courage to face our personal afflictions. Do we face the truths about ourselves? Or do we take for granted we have been saved and forget we were saved to become God’s new creation. Praying for God to enter into the afflictions of my heart to recreate me into the image of his Son makes for a new creation. It can be the very beginning of a new world order. It was for Jonah—imagine Nineveh’s repentance—who could have ever imagined that God was also wrestling with the issues of their hearts. 

Confident In God’s Sanctification 

If our lives stop at mere forgiveness we may have a tendency to become sanctimonious rather than sanctified. Many become sanctimonious touting they have been born again—they have been chosen by God. God set us apart to be holy and blameless. He didn’t set us apart because we are holy and blameless or could ever be without his intervention. Those who are truly sanctified allow God to cover their sins through the blood of Christ. They rely on God’s merciful hand to guide them as he wrestles with the sin in their hearts to salvage their lives. We discover a different mindset among those seeking God throughout the Psalms. 

Psalms 130
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; 
2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive 
to my cry for mercy. 

3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand? 
4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared. 

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope. 
6 My soul waits for the Lord 
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning. 

7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love 
and with him is full redemption. 
8 He himself will redeem Israel 
from all their sins. NIV

The psalmist is fully aware of his sin. The psalmist is not standing on sanctimony. He is standing because he is sanctified by God. The psalmist waits upon the Lord’s redemption as he experiences God’s hand of discipline. He is dependent upon God’s salvation.
	
We may look at salvation in past tense. It’s something we experienced when we were baptized into Christ (Acts 2:42; Galatians 3:27). However, salvation is an ongoing process as God wrestles with my sins and encourages me to face the afflictions of my heart. God’s Holy Spirit works in my heart to salvage me in my afflictions.

It is often difficult to pray when God's hand of discipline hems us into the corner. It is difficult to face the afflictions of our hearts. Yet, this is exactly what God encourages us to do. 

Praying for God to direct us into his will gives confidence in prayer. It doesn’t always mean we will clearly see God’s purpose, but we are trusting God to hem us in to prevent us going too far off course. Abram often laughed at what God was asking him to do. He couldn’t understand God’s way. It seemed impossible!! Yet, God remained faithful to hem Abram into the direction he had laid out for him. 

When we are hemmed in it is a sign of God’s presence. We must believe in God’s presence and forgiveness before we can face God in our afflictions. Knowing we are forgiven means all is well. It doesn’t mean everything is perfect, quite the opposite. Where there is need for forgiveness, there is a need for redirection. There will be times of discipline to redirect our lives. Forgiveness simply means when God hems us into the corner, we don’t have to stand there with our faces hidden in the corner in shame. He doesn’t want us to live in the corner. He wants us to take hold of his hand and allow him to lead us out of the corner. 
 
Conclusion:

Throughout the Old Testament we witness Israel’s battles with her enemies. We may fail to see those battles as spiritual battles. God often allowed Israel to be threatened by her enemies as a form of spiritual discipline to persuade the Israelites to examine themselves. This was often referred to as the sword of God’s judgment. It was never a sign that God had deserted Israel. It was quite the opposite.

2 Chronicles 20:6-15
"O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. 7 O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 9'If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.' 

10 "But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. 11 See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. 12 O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." NIV

13 All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the LORD. 

14 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph, as he stood in the assembly. 

15 He said: "Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's. NIV

Remember when calamity comes. No matter the source, whether God’s judgment of discipline or whatever. No matter how far you have fallen. The battle is not yours, but God’s. This is the confidence we have in prayer as we turn to God with the afflictions of our hearts. John says it this way:

1 John 5:13-15
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him. NIV

This is the gospel of Christ. God is here to save us to the uttermost. Understanding this, as God’s purpose, gives confidence in prayer.