Prayer Changes Things

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Philippians 4:6).

“Gram, you’re not listening to me. . . .”

Those were the words of a very disappointed four-year-old. John, my grandson, loves chocolate ice cream, or he did when he was four years old.

John and his parents had been over for dinner and he had eaten the last of the chocolate ice cream. He had made a special request for me to buy some before his next visit the following week.

Unfortunately I forgot, and the next week when he came to dinner with my son, Eric, my daughter-in-law, Kristin, and my granddaughter, Maci, there-was-no-chocolate-ice-cream.

John had no idea that I could possibly forget something as important as chocolate ice cream, so after dinner, he opened the freezer looking for some. When he couldn’t find it, he came into the dining room where his parents and I were and said, “Grammy, where is the chocolate ice cream?”

I said, “Oh, Sweetheart, I’m so sorry, Grammy forgot.” I then tried to interest him in something else, suggesting several things.

His disappointment was palpable. He reached up and put one hand on each side of my face and said, “Gram, you’re not listening to me. . . !”

It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. But he was so serious, I absolutely could not.
Instead I said, “Sweetheart, I am so sorry. I will be sure to buy some for your next visit.” He wasn’t a happy camper, but he accepted my apology with as much grace as a four-year-old could muster.

That was a few years ago. John is thirteen years old now and much more mature. But he and his sister, Maci, still light up my life and continually bring me incredible joy. What a treat they are, and what wonderful gifts from God.

I wonder how much we miss by entering God’s Presence with “politically correct” prayer, instead of entering His Presence as my grandson did, with the knowledge that I love him dearly and will supply his needs.

And the need of a four-year-old is chocolate ice cream!

It was inconceivable to John that I would forget something so important to him. He just knew that when he went to the refrigerator that his inmost desire would be provided.

Likewise, we are to enter the Presence of the Lord with steadfast faith that God is going to hear us and answer our prayer. The apostle Paul exhorted us (opening verse),

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).

Prayer is literally worship; the motion of the soul towards God.
Petition is to beseech God, which literally means to beg God.

The only political correctness to prayer is loving and worshiping God. We have the awesome privilege of entering God’s marvelous Presence and asking Him for anything. It is also our right as children of God to beg Him, beseech Him, to earnestly and fervently pray for something.

The prayer of a righteous man (or woman) is powerful and effective (James 5:16, emphasis mine).

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-12).

“Ask, seek and knock” are all in the Present Imperative Active voice. This means that Jesus was giving us a command to a continuous and repeated action. Basically this means to continue asking, continue seeking and continue knocking.

Remember, this is a command!

It means having a loving trust in God, as children have in their parents. Actually, we should have a deeper and more intimate love and trust for God than children have for their parents, because we as earthly parents cannot possibly love our children as much as God loves us.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:9-11).

Jesus was obviously asking a rhetorical question, because there is an exclamation point at the end of the verse—not a question mark.

Jesus was saying that God will give good gifts to His children who continually ask, continually seek, and continually knock.

Prayer changes things!

After the apostle Paul told us not to be anxious and to present our requests to God with thanksgiving, he promised that. . .

“The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

We are to present our requests to God, and leave them with Him, knowing that He will take care of them. Like my grandson with his gram, it should be inconceivable to us that God would not respond to our requests, perhaps even with chocolate ice cream, because God is a lavish God. He is a gracious God and He longs to give us wonderful things.

We should know God through intimate time with Him in His Word and prayer, so that we know He is going to speak to us, love on us, and yes, answer our heart’s desire. We should be steadfast in our faith, because He still works through our faith.

So, dear friend, do you enter God’s Presence with praise and thanksgiving, knowing that He is listening and He can hardly wait to respond to your requests?

Or do you pray by rote, hoping He will answer, but not really sure that He is going to, and sort of letting Him off the hook with, “I guess it wasn’t His will?”

Remember, Jesus said, “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:8).

The continual asking, the continual seeking the face of God and the continual knocking is key. We don’t have to “let God off the hook.” God is perfectly capable of saying, “No.” And He is capable of saying, “Wait.”

But whatever His answers are—He will answer.

The best way to discern the heart of God is to be in His Word. Pray with absolute surety that God will speak to you. God wants intimate conversation with us much more than we can imagine.

God went to a great deal of trouble to write us a Love Letter. And His Love Letter is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12), and it will penetrate your inmost being like nothing else.

God’s Word is inspired.

“It was written by over 40 authors, living over a period of 1600 years. It is one Book, not simply a collection of 66 books. Its authors came from all walks of life; kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, statesmen, a physician, scholars, poets, and farmers. They lived in different cultures, in different experiences and often were quite different in character. The Bible has continuity that can be observed from Genesis to Revelation.”1

God’s Word will speak to every situation we face.

It is relevant. It is fresh. It is real.

We can depend upon it—and there is nothing else on this earth that we can depend on.

When we pray about anything, we can ask God to give us several verses that speak to our particular situation—and He will. They will literally jump off of the pages of Scripture and into our hearts, so that we KNOW it is from God through His precious Holy Spirit.

God loves us much more than we grandmothers love our delightful grandchildren (Isaiah 43:4; 49:16). He delights in us and He even rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). But unlike earthly grandmothers, God will not forget. He will remember every prayer we utter.

So, go ahead, dear child of God, develop a close intimacy with your Creator. Remember, God personally knitted you together just the way He wanted you to be, and then died so that He would have you with Him forever.

Seek His face. Who knows, He may just give you what He knows your heart has been yearning for.

Prayer Changes Things!

This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him. (I John 5:14-15)

Recommended Reading
Isaiah 26:3, 9
Jeremiah 29:11-14
John 14:13-14; 15:7, 16; 16:23-24
I John 3:21-22; 5:14-15

Copyright © 2009 by Peggy Britt. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.