How Do You Pray?

“Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:19-20 HCSB)

     This was today's “verse of the day” this morning. Later in the day, I had the parts from a couple of songs running through my head. It is part of my prayer life. I sing to God. The first song is a hymn called “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” and is as follows:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

     The second is a more contemporary song called “Oceans”. The bridge says:

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

     These both kind of came together with a sermon that I was listening to. It was about how we often pray for God to deliver us from our troubles. I'm not saying that this is a wrong thing. God loves us and He is the only one capable of handling our struggles. What the preacher was suggesting is that we also pray that God would grow us through our struggles.        

     One way that struggles help us grow is by forcing us to fully rely on God. We recognize that we are not able to fix things on our own. But what do we focus on? Often, we tend to fixate on the problem. This doesn't help at all. God desires that we focus on Him, and His ability to work. It is like in Matthew 14:22-33.

     The disciples are traveling by boat across a lake. They are a good ways out, it is the middle of the night, waves are tossing them and the wind is against them. Not a good situation. In all of this, they see a figure walking on the water towards them. They are terrified. It is Jesus, and He tells them not to worry. Peter, the ever impulsive, tells Jesus that if it really is Him “command me to come out to You”. Really? Because a ghost would not lie to him?

     But Jesus calls Peter, and Peter actually gets out of the boat. AND he walks on water. He is fine, till he takes his eyes off Jesus and looks at the waves. When he does, he begins to sink. Let's not be too critical though. How quickly do we forget how often God has come through for us and get fixated on our problem.

     “Turn Your Eyes” tells us to focus on Jesus. It does not mean ignore your problem. It means trust that Jesus is infinitely greater than the problem, and that He deeply loves you. This helps us have a little perspective, something that our fear caused us to lack.

     And as with “Oceans”, being in the presence of our Savior will strengthen our faith. It will remind us that Jesus will never leave us. He will give us His strength.

     Another way that God desires to grow us is by making us His vehicle to comfort others in pain. On the other side of our struggle, we can better recognize others that are also hurting. We can follow the words of Paul:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

     Ultimately, God is requiring us to trust Him completely, that He is sovereign. Big word. It means that we trust Him to be in charge, that no event in our lives catches Him off guard, or touches us unless He allows it.

     There is a quote by a great bible scholar named Warren Wiersbe, that sums it all up. It says:

"When God puts us in the furnace, He always keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat."