Bible Reading: Romans 11
Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
The plans of God come from God and work out through God’s working and return to him for his glory. This passage comes at the end of a section discussing the plan of God for the Israelites. However, it says that this applies to ‘all things’. When it says all things the Bible is talking about all things spiritual that are a part of God’s plan for man. Let’s apply this to prayer and see how prayer plays into God’s plan.
First, prayer must be of him. This means that when we pray, we must receive the topics and desires of prayer from God. This will spare us of wrong motives. The Bible says if we pray with wrong motives we will not receive answers to our prayers.
James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
So how do we receive our prayers from God? We start with the Word of God. The Bible tells us:
James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
We need faith to pray rightly and faith comes from hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). When we diligently study God’ Word, we learn what God wants and we begin to have our will line up with God’s. When we do this, our prayers will reflect God’s heart and they will be ‘of him’.
Second, all things go ‘through him’. This means that we must prayer through God. How do we do this? We must pray in the name of Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
When we pray in the Spirit, we are praying in the name of Jesus or according to what Jesus would ask the Father for. We are also filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This means that God in us is helping us to pray (Romans 8:26-27).
Third, all things are ‘to him’. Our payers are directed toward the Father who hears and answers prayer. Prayer is asking God for anything according to his will. These prayers are powerful prayers that God answers.
1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Prayer is God’s idea. Let us take full advantage of his invitation to come before his throne of grace! (Hebrews 4:16)
In Christ,
Rody
