The Joy of Not Being Needed!

The Missing Pieces in Your Prayer Life, Part 2

           In the last post, I proved that the biblical pattern of praying begins with God; that is, we worship Him BEFORE asking Him for our needs. This change in how I pray has made a tremendous difference in my life and in the lives of others I know. Even believers think selfishly at times, and unless we immunize ourselves by focusing on God's attributes (characteristics), our prayer life gets sick and self-centered.

            Praising God first simply copies how wise believers prayed in the Bible and for centuries since. Knowing God better motivates us, especially to pray. Carl Hargrove agrees: “I am convinced that all our life decisions are bound to our understanding of God and His word. That is, if we have a proper view of the Savior and His sufficient word, it will properly motivate us in every life choice. This is particularly true when it comes to prayer. An expansive view of God gained by meditation on His word should motivate the believer to spend more time with Him.”1

 

An Example of Praying from Just One Attribute!          

How do I pick just one? I love the attributes of God that Christy and I use to start daily prayer times. Last time, I gave you the complete list that I have adapted from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. I picked a “unusual” attribute, but the one that completely resets my heart on the timely 1st day of every month: God’s self-existence (also called independence or aseity).  Taken from my own prayer notes that I keep close at hand, notice my comments for you, the reader, in italics. Taking definitions and Scripture references from Grudem, I have included these reflections on what God has taught me in prayer over the last decade. I read aloud the statements about God and supporting Scriptures.

Definition

“Self-existence - You do not need us or the rest of creation for anything,

yet we and the rest of creation can glorify You and bring You joy.”2

Scriptures

I read 3-5 supporting Scriptures for each characteristic. An unexpected extra benefit of this reading is that I have memorized many verses about God’s character, without any extra effort. By just reading them aloud 12 times a year for 10 years, the Holy Spirit has planted them in my heart!3

Job 41:11 Who has given to Me that I should repay him?  Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.

Acts 7:49-50 quoting Isaiah 66:1 Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet; What kind of house will you build for Me? says the Lord, Or what place is there for My repose? Was it not My hand which made all these things?

Acts 17:24-25 - The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.

Meditations

These are reflections I have written for myself over time as I have prayed from this trait.

They are things I say (pray) that help me start praying. The best pattern is always Bible intake leading

to meditation that launches prayer.

1.  Father, may I not attempt to bargain with you! I have nothing to offer you that you need. It would be insulting even to think that I can strike a deal with you for something you do not want to give me freely, but that I might weasel out of you.

 

2.  Father, may I not think I can badger you either! While it is fine to ask others close to me to pray for my needs, you will not give me more if more people pray. You need nothing, and so we cannot pressure you with more people to do that which is not best for your glory and my ultimate joy.

 

3.  Father, forbid, also that I try to beguile you. You know everything, including the depths of my heart, even better than I do. So, it is futile and dishonoring to you to ask for things with wrong motives. Thank you, that you have never cursed me by granting my foolish prayers that I “ask wrongly” based on my “passions” (James 4:3).

 4. Father, thank you for the death of the “debtor’s ethic.”4 I cannot and should not even try to “repay” you for grace, so my responses to your grace can be free and joyful.

Your Turn!

How can this characteristic of God’s self-sufficiency ignite your prayer time? Or how do other attributes of God help you begin to pray? Let me know in the comments section or email me: Studypracticeteach@gmail.com

1Carl Hargrove, "How to Revive Lifeless Prayer Time," 6 Nov., 2017 https://blog.tms.edu/how-to-revive-lifeless-prayer-time

2Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Second Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 190.

3These verses are from the NASB 1977 and NASB 1995 because those are the translations from which I have memorized. I just started to memorize my first book in the ESV, the translation that I now recommend for memorization, and from which I have begun to pray.

4I am “indebted” to John Piper for this insight that God does not intend for his grace to be “an impulse to return favors… Subtly, the gift is no longer a gift but a business transaction. And what was offered as free grace is nullified by distorted gratitude. “John Piper, Future Grace (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1995), 32. God has no needs, so I can respond to him with joy but not in terms of repayment.