Prayer: Essay 2

Presence, Transformation, and Petition. Postures of prayer to change your life.

One of the biggest epiphanies I’ve ever had in prayer – and in all my faith, I suppose – was the realization that I ought to pray to be Transformed more than I should pray for God to transform my circumstances. Seems simple now, but many of us have labored for years petitioning God to remove all obstacles, problems, and difficult people from our lives – while still clinging to the comfortable darkness of fear, anxiety, anger, unforgiveness, and lust. We cannot ask for God to protect us in one hand while in the other we hold on so tightly to soul-deep sicknesses. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t petition God for tangible answers, but we have the order of our prayers all wrong, I think. 

When you face a difficult person in your life or a season of financial instability, the first prayer you may send up is probably something like: “God, please send Brenda to another department; I cannot stand working with her” or “God, please provide me with a raise to meet these financial needs, I can’t handle this anxiety much longer.” These aren’t necessarily bad prayers to pray, but if these characterize the majority of your prayers, there may be a common denominator to the problems: you. “Brenda” may be difficult, offensive, and miserable – but is she truly unbearable? Your financial instability may be very real and very scary (in this economy, especially) – but would your anxiety go away with more money, or would your capacity for fear just grow with your new budget? Again, I’m not belittling these problems – especially financial stress – but I want us to learn to face them with more faith and less fear. 

In Psalm 4:4-5, David says, “ponder your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.” I think that we need to do a lot more “pondering” of our own hearts these days. If we find the root of our anguish in various situations is a consistent heart problem, it doesn’t matter how many obstacles we avoid or escape, the fear and anger is still there, dorment, waiting for the next unavoidable situation. David also said, “O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart” (Psalm 10:17). This is the same kid who defeated Goliath with a slingshot. God didn’t remove Goliath from David; He empowered David with strength, courage, and trust. God didn’t remove the Egyptian army from the heels of the Israelites; He called his people to walk by faith through the parted Red Sea. God didn’t quench the fire or remove the lions; He gave Daniel, Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednego faith and courage to face persecution. 

I think one of the things holding us back from being transformed by God is our own guilt and shame. Deep down, we know sin has a hold on us and keeps us in places of darkness, pain, and oppression. We’re too afraid to face our fears. And believe me, I understand this feeling all too well. But in those moments when we come to the end of ourselves – that’s the desperation in which we call out to God. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). God doesn’t run from our broken spirit and heart; that’s where He does some of His most loving work, in my opinion. He wants to free us, to restore our joy, not break us beyond repair. One day, I believe you’re going to reach a point where you can either ask God to transform you into the kind of person who faces this fear, this sin, this uncertainty with courage and trust… or, you choose to remain the same, in the good times and in the bad. Your circumstances will get better, this too shall pass, but will you stay the same? Do you want to stay the same? 

In the end, I would rather be the kind of person who breaks free from the burden of stress, rather than the person who gets what I want today, only to face the same fear tomorrow. I know no amount of money, job-changes, houses, or relationships will cure what’s deeply rooted in my own heart; and isn’t that good news? God’s offering us transformation here and now, no resume or credit score or winning personality required. I say this from a place of hopeful aspiration rather than mastery; in other words, I’m still working on this myself. And finally, asking God to transform us to face our problems doesn’t replace asking Himfor help, too; it’s both/and, not one or the other. 

So, today, think of a few things you want to ask God for: a better paying job, a spouse, a new house, an obstacle removed, anything. But before you ask Him for those things (and by all means, you still should), ponder the root of the problem. Would a bigger paycheck really cure that financial stress? Or would you rather ask God to make your faith rest in His provision first? Would a spouse really cure your loneliness and insecurities? Or would you rather find your value in God and His presence? When David said, “Delight yourselves in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” in Psalm 37:4, I think he meant for us to delight in what God delights in, and desire what God desires – and how can we delight and desire what God does, without first being transformed into a godlier version of ourselves? You may find these transformation prayers will eventually change what you Petition God for, anyways

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