“Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.” — 2 Samuel 10:12
In the middle of 2 Samuel, here is a section covering yet another relatively unremarkable battle (or so it seems to me amongst a long stream of such). Joab, the general of the Israelite army, notes that he’s surrounded. He has the Syrians at his front and the Ammonites at his rear. He arrays his army and the verse above is the sum of the recorded pep-talk and prayer for the oncoming battle. I believe this prayer is a good contrast against which to look at how most people pray (myself included). It is a good example, I think, of how we ought to pray.
Typically, my prayers go like this: “Thank you Lord for saving me from my sin. Thank you for my family, my wife and son. Thank you for all of our blessings that we do not have to worry about what we will eat or wear or where we will live. Please be with my family that is traveling. Please keep us healthy. Please help us follow your will. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” Other than that last bit about following God’s will and possibly the first bit about salvation, I’d argue that most of that prayer was vain. There’s nothing particularly wrong with any of the things I asked for, but that was all easy. So often, what is easy is not what is best.
Joab, on the other hand, sets up his strategy for the coming battle as best as he can and then says to God, “I don’t know what You want to come out of this, but let be according to Your will.” That’s quite a contrast to a prayer that asks God to give me what I think I need or want.
It is easy to thank God for good things. Yet, there are many Christians in Africa or the Middle East or India or China or Indonesia where jail, torture, and death is the reward for belief in Jesus Christ. Can they thank God for these blessings? I know of a church in Russia where the pastor and members pray explicitly for poverty rather than prosperity because they do not want to become soft in their beliefs in exchange for wealth and comfort that doesn’t last. The question is, am I praying as well as I can? Am I being the most faithful Christian in my prayers? I’m not sure I’m even close.
Here’s another superb example of good prayer:
“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” — Luke 22:42
Jesus prays this prayer in preparation for the torture and crucifixion that would begin that very morning. He knows he’s soon to die and take upon himself the sins of the entire world. The weight of the anxiety made him physically ill. Yet, he still prays for the Father to take it forward even against his own human desire to avoid what was coming. That’s a prayer.
Of course, one can go too far and say that we should never pray for prosperity, but we also know that there are cases where such prayers are proven right. I am primarily cautioning against this kind of selfish prayer since this is sometimes what seems like the only kind of prayer that people around me (and myself) engage in.
Rather, I think the point is summed up in 1 John 5:14-15, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
Before we even ask, we have to know God’s will. Once we know that, everything we ask for according to that knowledge will always be answered. John says that that is our “confidence.” This is not some faint hope or wishful thinking, but something we can know.
Then, the question becomes, how do we know? The first answer is to learn more about God’s will as revealed in the Bible. Study of this book will get you a good deal closer to God and knowledge of His will. The second answer, ironically, is prayer itself. The more one studies his Bible and prays, the more he will know God’s will and the more fruitful will his prayers become.
Unfortunately, I’m not very good at either of these. I pray that God will help me become better and more diligent at both study and especially in prayer. Amen.
Cheers.
