Verse
of the day: Exodus 14:15 And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children
of Israel to go forward.
There
are two things we can observe from this verse; but today I will only speak in
respect to one of them. God’s response to Moses is an obvious answer to Moses’
prayer. Wait…what prayer? It was an answer to Moses’ silent prayer. We must not
be caught up in the notion that God only hears long, eloquently spoken, prayers
that we often hear people reciting when we get together in our local churches.
Sadly, sometimes we hear people pray these long, Scripture filled, eloquent,
prayers that sometimes only serve to boost the ego of the person praying them.
The honest, and down to earth, truth of the matter is that God does not want
our fancy words; He wants to hear our hearts. Some of the most heartfelt, and
honest, prayers I have heard came from people who were not well spoken, and
sounded even childlike in their conversation with God, but prayed with such
passion and honesty that it brought me to tears. The Word of God tells us to
pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). How in the world do we pray
continually? Do we pray out loud wherever we are, regardless of who is around
us or what we are doing? Do we have to pray long prayers? The short answer is “no”.
God hears both our long prayers, and our short prayers. He hears our audible
prayers and He hears our silent prayers. He hears our sighs of despair, our
cries of anguish, and our painful silence. He sees, and hears, our tears. In 1
Samuel 1:12-13 we are told that Hannah spoke in her heart, moving her lips, but
not speaking audibly. In Genesis 24:45, Abraham’s servant recounts the prayer
he silently prayed in his heart in respect to finding Rebekah as a wife for
Isaac, and how God answered. Psalm 56:8 reads, “You number my wanderings; put my
tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?”
When Nehemiah was before King Artaxerxes and was asked what was wrong, he
prayed a quick prayer (details not given), and expressed his request to go back
to Judah to rebuild the city (Nehemiah 2:1-6). When Peter walked on the stormy
waters to meet Jesus, but then took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink, he
pray a short desperate prayer, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30). The bottom
line is that we, as born again believers, should be in constant communication
with our God. We need to be continually praying in our hearts, even when our
lips are not audibly engaged in speaking with Him. May I also remind us that
praying without ceasing is not about always asking God for something? It is
also about giving Him thanks and praise for who He is, and for His undeserved
goodness toward us (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Yes, there will be moments when
we will not know how to pray for a situation, or how to pray for someone who is
suffering. However, God has promised that the Spirit helps us to pray when we
do not know what to pray. Romans 8:26-28 reads, “Likewise the Spirit also helps
in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but
the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for
the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that
all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the
called according to His purpose.” It is because the Spirit intercedes on
our behalf, and prays for us in accordance to God’s will, that all things work together
for our good. In verses 13 and 14, Moses reassured the people that God would
fight for them against that Egyptians, but we see that he continued to pray in
his heart for God’s guidance in what to do next. Let us be a people who is
constantly seeking God in our hearts and minds, and be in communication with
Him in good times, bad times, and all the time. The enemy will not like this
and will do all he can to distract us. Nonetheless, let us do those things that
will remind us, encourage us, and keep us mindful of God’s presence in our
lives; like reading and studying His Word, listening to good Christian music,
and solid biblically sound messages. I try to make it my practice to listen to
Christian music, and sound preaching and teaching, while I commute to and from
work; as well as listen to Christian music while I work out. My wife had the
idea to have the Christian radio station playing softly in the background, in our
home, 24-7. It is during some of these moments that I have had some of the
sweetest fellowship with the Lord, outside of the times that I spend in His
Word. It keeps me mindful of His presence, and keeps me in communication with
Him continually, even when the world and the enemy is trying to distract me.
Ultimately, it helps me to deal with circumstances that come as a result of God
allowing life to go sideways in order to teach me something about Him, myself,
and life as a child of God.
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