Humility Before God in Prayer

One of my favorite ways to pray is to find a passage of scripture that really resonates with me- captivates my attention- and pray through it. Sometimes, it is difficult, and more like wrestling through the passage; I either don’t understand it, or it scares me. Other times, it is encouraging, and it brings about a sense of deep, spiritual joy in  seeing a facet of the revealed heart of God on the page. Most of the time, whether it is easily received or a hard fought acceptance, it is humbling. I think that it is good to pray in our own words, but I also want to impress the great value of turning to scripture to find direction in how we are to approach God. There are all sorts of prayers in the Bible, from individuals that come from all walks of life, and you can always find one that is applicable, at least in spirit, to your own life today. For example, while I am not a big fan of the twenty second “sinner’s prayer” as a road to salvation, I do believe that a genuine heart cry born from an individual who has been crushed by the weight of their sin and longs to be saved by God will be heard and honored. God has historically answered many short prayers, and one of my favorites comes from Mark 10:46-48, the story of blind Bartimaeus: “46 Then they *came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And again, the chapter before, in Mark 9:20-25, with the story of the man and his possessed son, whom the disciples of Jesus were unable to cast the demon from: “ 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.”” Both of the passages shared above are brief and emotional, and the requests made in them reflect an urgency in the petitioners, a real sense of awareness of their weakness. Bartimaeus cannot restore his own sight, and the boys’ father cannot set his son free, try as he might. But the One who can is right in front of both of them, and they don’t mince words in asking Him for His help. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” is, in my opinion, a perfectly valid sort of “sinners prayer,” provided that it is not where the prayer life stops. Likewise, I believe that “I do believe, help me in my unbelief.” is a valid prayer, so long as our hearts do not remain in a perpetual state of unbelief. The man was corrected for his lack of trust, and was received when he responded to the correction and humbly asked for the faith to believe. The individuals in these stories were obviously not praying or crying out for salvation, but I think the principles on display hold true as a rule; God is gracious to those that are willing to humbly acknowledge their state before Him, regardless of how lengthy or brief their petition is.  “13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. 14 For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14) God has great stores of compassion that He is willing to open up to those who look to Him in awe and cry out for Him. Most of the time, though, we don’t approach Him with the right amount of awe, fear, or reverence. It’s not that we don’t have any care at all, necessarily, but we don’t have enough. We treat God lightly and trifle with Him in our diligence in prayer. We very easily slip from cries of “Have mercy on me, Son of David,” to half-hearted, inconsistent prayers. I want to encourage you this week to make the conscious choice to evaluate your prayer life and ask yourself, “Am I praying like Bartimaeus? Am I praying like someone who really understands that they have no power of their own, apart from Christ? Is my estimation of God high enough, and my estimation of myself humble enough?” I have recently been thinking a lot about Psalm 90 with these types of questions in mind and will share it here for you to read and meditate on. It is one of those passages that, like I mentioned earlier, resonates with me right now- all of it, but especially verses 11-14. If you are struggling to find something to pray about, consider praying through the Psalm with me this week, and evaluate yourself in light of it. 

I love you, and hope you have a blessed and beautiful week! Take care, and see you next time!

1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

3 You turn man back into dust
And say, “Return, O children of men.”

4 For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night.

5 You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;
In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

6 In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;
Toward evening it fades and withers away.

7 For we have been consumed by Your anger
And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.

8 You have placed our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

9 For all our days have declined in Your fury;
We have finished our years like a sigh.

10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.

11 Who understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?

12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

13 Do return, O Lord; how long will it be?
And be sorry for Your servants.

14 O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

15 Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,
And the years we have seen evil.

16 Let Your work appear to Your servants
And Your majesty to their children.

17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And confirm for us the work of our hands;
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.