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Thirst
We all know that prayer is important. Without prayer, our spiritual life will become dry. With prayer, we will be able to overcome our worries and anxieties. Through prayer, our faith will grow and we can live a more meaningful and confident life.
Prayer is so important and so good. God gave us this precious gift to take care of us.
Then what is prayer? Many people think of prayer merely as one of religious activities. To them, prayer is simply what they do.
When we look at prayer simply as what we do, we won’t be able to see the fruit of our prayers. Prayer is not just what we do or what we say. Just because you are not articulate, that doesn’t mean that you don’t know how to pray. Prayer is for everyone. Prayer is not limited to just few devout people. Anyone can pray. You can get so much help through your prayer.
TO ME, PRAYER IS DESIRE. Prayer is my soul’s desire. It is my desire to know God. It is my desire to live.
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. (Psalm 42:1, 2)
This is what prayer is. Longing, Thirsting. The Psalmist knew very well what prayer was. The more desire you have for God, the stronger your prayer becomes.
This desire should be pure and beautiful. You don’t need to brag about yourself. You don’t need to show off yourself. You don’t need to display yourself. You just need to pour out what’s in your heart in as the simplest way as possible. That’s what prayer is.
Outpouring Desire
In that sense, the prayer of a tax collector was a better prayer than the prayer of a Pharisee.
The Pharisee prayed like this.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” (Luke 18:11, 12)
But the tax collector prayed like this.
But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)
Who poured out his heart? It was the tax collector. In that sense, the prayer of the tax collector was a better prayer than the prayer of the Pharisee. It was much shorter and simpler. But he said what was in his heart.
Jesus at the end said this.
I tell you, this man (tax collector) went down to his home justified rather than the other… (Luke 18:14)
The disciples saw Jesus’ prayer, and they saw something different from the ritualistic prayer that they were used to. They saw Jesus pouring out his heart to God. It was beautiful. So they wanted to learn how to pray.
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray…(Luke 11:1)
Outpouring of our desire before God – that is prayer. Our desire is invisible. But when it is expressed, it becomes prayer. Prayer is the visible form of the invisible desire.
Desperation
There is DESPERATENESS in prayer.
Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him,…(Luke 11:5)
He went to his friend at midnight – How desperate he must have been to go to his friends’ house at midnight, knowing that it was an imposition on your friend. Jesus showed the desperateness of prayer through this story.
Prayer is not just our desire; it is our desperate desire. We pray, because we are desperate. We are so desperate that we cannot give up.
Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. (Luke 11:9)
The actual meaning of the sentence is,
Ask and keep on asking
Search and keep on searching
Knock and keep on knocking
That is what desperate people do. They don’t give up. They are persistent. Because they have no other option.
Desperate Prayers
Last Thursday, I went to Danielle’s wedding rehearsal. Danielle’s father asked me how my daughter was. He was a former member of TKPC where I used to work. He remembered the whole church praying for her. My daughter Grace was a miracle baby. The doctor said she had only 10% chance to live when she was born. I basically lived in a chapel at the Women’s College hospital. My prayer at that time was pure desperateness. My desperate desire. I had no other option.
That is what prayer is. You want to learn to pray? The first thing you need to learn is to cultivate this desperate desire. This desire is pure and beautiful. Our basic human desire is expressed.
I want to be healed. I want this suffering to go away. I want my child to survive. I want to live.
Last week, I got a phone call from a member who felt desperate about her daughter. I prayed for her and her daughter. And another person called. She desperately asked me to pray for her. I prayed for them. I pray that God may answer their desperate prayers.
And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me…’ (Matthew 26:39)
We see Jesus’ pure desperate desire. He wanted to live. He didn’t think about anything else. His desperate desire was expressed purely as it was.
God listened to this desire. God raised him from the dead.
For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:10)
God Listens
God listens to our desire. If you ask, you will receive. If you search, you will find. If you knock, the door will be opened. But before you ask, you search, and you knock, there has to be desperate desire. God hears what’s in your heart.
God does not listen to what we say. Elijah asked God to kill him. He was tired of running away. He was tired of living in fear. So, he asked God to kill him.
It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life… (1 Kings 19:4)
God did not hear what Elijah said. God heard the deep seated desire of Elijah. God gave him food and the strength.
God listens to this desire. This desire is beautiful and precious. When you have this desire, your prayer is already half done. You just simply have to express that. Without this desire, thousands of words will mean nothing.
This desire will move God. This desire will make us live. This desire will transform us.
Pour out your heart to God. Express your deepest desire to God. You don’t need to be anybody great, noble, and admirable. Be like a baby. You can pour out even your raw desire. God knows how to listen to your heart.
You will be able to experience that your desire is fulfilled.
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