Questions and Answers on Prayer (A.W. Tozer)

Prayer for Personal Desires QUESTION: Can one pray to have a personal desire fulfilled and still be fully surrendered to Godís will? A personal desire, yes, but not a selfish one. There is a difference. A prayer may be personal and still have no element of selfishness in it. The motive is everything. To be free from selfishness a prayer must be (a) according to the will of God as that will is revealed in the Scriptures; (b) for the honor of God rather than for the mere fulfillment of carnal ambition; (c) made in unaffected love for God and men. Of course this rules out covetousness, competition and all evil desire. A few Biblical examples of personal requests which were honored by the Lord are found in the prayers of Abraham, David, Hannah, the woman of Shunem, Jabez, Hezekiah, Ezekiel, the leper in Matthew 8, Bartimaeus and Paul. QUESTION: You warn against using God and trying to employ Him to achieve our own ends. Would not asking God for something personal be an attempt to use Him? A truly spiritual man will be so united to Christ that he will have no desires apart from Him. If we Christians lived in the Spirit as perfectly as we should and could, our common interests would touch not only ourselves but the honor of God and the welfare of mankind as well. In answering a ìpersonalî prayer God would then be helping the individual, blessing mankind and bringing glory to His own name all in one act. We need not hesitate to ask God to help us to achieve ends that lie in God. Our difficulty comes from asking Him to help us to reach ends that lie outside of Him.

Quotes on Prayer

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?-- Corrie Ten Boom Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in prayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to Him, make prayer a rare and feeble thing. --E. M. Bounds God's answers are wiser than our prayers. –Unknown The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men…Men of prayer." --E. M. Bounds So when we sing, 'Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,' we are not thinking of the nearness of place, but of the nearness of relationship. It is for increasing degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect consciousness of the divine Presence. We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts. --A.W. Tozer We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties. - Oswald Chambers

Pray

Prayer is probably one of my least practice activity in my spiritual life. In the past few months, God is telling me to pray to Him and that He wants me to talk to Him. Why do I not pray? Its not my pride (it may be) but mostly about my remorseful past. I turned away from God when I knew in my heart that I should not. When I faced circumstances many years ago, I didn't have strong roots in my heart to withstand them. Some may have said that my circumstances were so bad that they themselves probably would not have stayed strong either. Yes... my circumstances were so bad that I thought a lot of negative things about what to do with my life. I am glad I didn't take action. I had reasons not to take action. I have struggled and I have failed in some areas in my life that I am now suffering the consequences today. I wished I can go back and start all over but I know I can't. The consequences I am facing will take some time to heal. One of the consequences are finances and I know I won't have financial peace until I am caught up. That will take time. My other "consequences" are my health. I was born "hard of hearing". Now I have Multiple Sclerosis and diabetes. Anyway, my point is that, I knew my Bible and I knew what God expected from me with that knowledge. In my heart, I still feel that I do not deserve to pray and talk with God after what I did. I know biblically that I am forgiven by His Grace. Grace means undeserved love and forgiveness that I can go to God and pray. This will take me time to learn to accept God's grace in my heart. I need to have "grace" rooted in my heart. I know that as long as I repent my sins daily and talk with Him daily, God will be with me, give me internal peace and guide me through my circumstances. I should ask God for help. Psalm 40:13 God will not hear my prayers if I am willfully sinning. Micah 3:4 Prayer should be private. Matthew 6:6 Jesus taught me how to pray. Matthew 6:9-13 I should pray with an attitude of humility. Luke 18:9-14 I should pray in Jesus' name. John 16:23-24 I should pray all the time. Ephesians 6:18 I should pray without doubting. James 4:3 I should pray with the right motives. James 4:3 I should pray according to God's will 1 John 5:14-15

Circumstances and Hope

Circumstances have taught me patience and made me look upward to God for hope. Romans 8:28 basically means "Christian should always have hope" and later in Romans 15:13, "Hope comes from the Holy Spirit." As much as I hate to deal with certain circumstances, I always (I tried and will try) put my hope in God to guide me through my circumstances. As A.W. Tozer said: "Faith is confidence in the character of God, and hope is the sweet anticipation of desirable things promised but not yet realized. Hope is an electronic beam on which the Christian flies through wind and storm straight to his desired haven. To the child of God, hope is a gift from the heavenly Father 'who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope' " (2 Thessalonians 2:16). Reading A.W. Tozer's books (as you can tell Tozer is probably one of my favorite theologians) have taught me that "overflowing hope is the gift of the God of hope by the power of the Spirit. It is that hope that carries us through the difficult experiences of life." The Christian's hope is founded upon the character of God and the redeeming work of His Son Jesus Christ. Peter call it "a living hope" (1 Peter 1:3). Hope is living because hope rests on reality and not on fantasy. I must be careful that I do not use this as a wishful dreaming but realistic expectations from my Loving God. Using some of Tozer's words from one of his writings . That by practicing my faith with godly hope, I can have my own personal spiritual revival within my own family. I can open myself to the Spirit of God. I can make the changes He indicates and do it by His enablement. I can live by the Spirit.