A Lesson on Prayer

  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Psalm 20:7 

I can remember a time when I was teaching Bible Study Fellowship when I had taught that we need to be specific in prayer.  The next week I heard a lady give a testimony that she had learned that that was true.  She had been praying that her daughter would marry a Christian man.  That week her daughter had come home and said to her, “Mom, I met the nicest guy!”  To which, her mother replied, “That’s great honey, what’s his name?”  She said, “Christian.”  The lady said from that day on she began to pray that her daughter would marry a man that loves the Lord! 

 

As I was doing some studying today I realized that we often like to tell God how to fix our problems in our prayers.  Many mothers pray for a certain man to come into the lives of their daughters.  If they have a prodigal son they ask God to bring a faithful woman into his life so he will come back to the Lord.  We might even ask God to let us hit the lottery in order to solve our financial problems.  Essentially, we are telling God how to do His work.   

In 1 Samuel we find the people of Israel are a mess.  It is the time the book of Judges describes as, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  (Judges 21:25)  Israel got convicted about their idolatry and general sinfulness because God allowed the Philistines to defeat them in battle and take the Ark of the Covenant (which was their symbol of the presence of God).   

Samuel was the judge of the day and the people of Israel went to him looking for help in their helplessness against the Philistines.  Samuel called them to repentance and they responded so Samuel  prayed for them.  1 Samuel 7:8-9,  And the people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”  So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD.  And Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him.  

Later in the book Samuel has aged and his sons are described this way:  Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain.  They took bribes and perverted justice.  (1 Samuel 8:3).  The elders of Israel got together and decided they did not want these men to be their judges.  Rather, they asked for a king “like all the nations”.    

Communicating with Samuel, the Judge of Israel, in these days, was like communicating with God Himself.  He was God’s representative among His people.  Neither Samuel, whose sons were being ousted, nor God who said He was the One being rejected by His people, were happy with this request for a king.  

The contrast that I see here was that when Samuel cried out to God to deliver Israel from the Philistines he did not tell God how He should do it.  He relied on God’s infinite wisdom, strength, and love for His people to know how to respond to save them.  When the people came to Samuel because they thought his sons needed to be replaced, they had gotten together as a group of elders and decided what needed to be done.  “Give us a king to judge us.”  (1 Samuel 8:6)  These men were relying on their own wisdom and the wisdom of “all the nations” and asking God to do things their way.   

God, through Samuel, appointed a king but it was not pleasing to God to do so.  He and His plan for His people had been rejected.  God gave them what they wanted but it turned out to be more of a judgment than a gift.  

This has caused me to stop and think.  How do I pray when I want things to change in my life?  Am I telling God how to fix my problems or am I crying out to Him because I know that He is the only One who has any idea how to right wrongs, heal diseases, and reconcile relationships?    

Psalm 37:5 says, Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and He will act.