Prayer is an element of spiritual worship. This devotional reading looks at how the Holy Spirit assists us in continually worshiping God through prayer.
Nuggets
- The Holy Spirit assists us in our spiritual worship.
- We should continually worship God in the Spirit.
Sometimes, it is easy to have a narrow view at what constitutes worship. We think it is only what happens on Sunday morning in the church building.
Worship is more than that. Spiritual worship includes prayer.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Finding Jesus through Spiritual Worship study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this series is Menander and Charnock’s Spiritual Worship.
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The first heading is Charnock’s words.
By the Influence of the Spirit of God
“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words” (Rom. 8: 26 NLT)
The Holy Spirit assists us in our spiritual worship.
I was looking at the Bible study guide from Adam’s church. Pastor Will had asked an interesting question. “Have you ever considered our weakness as a gift?”
Most of us would probably answer that with a big emphatic NO!
God knows we will be weak. He uses us despite our weaknesses.
No, God uses us because of our weaknesses.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (II Cor. 12: 9 ESV).
That is a kicker. We don’t have to be some wonderful, strong disciple. We just have to be obedient to God’s Will.
One of our weaknesses is our prayer lives. It seems like many people will say they have trouble in that area.
They don’t pray as often as they should. They don’t think they pray right.
Many of us think our prayer lives are a mess.
Isn’t it great? The Holy Spirit assists us in our prayers.
No, the Holy Spirit doesn’t say our prayers for us. We still have to take an active part in them.
The Holy Spirit is interceding for us. But Horton said He enables us to speak for ourselves.
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That makes sense. God is not a dictator. We need to do for ourselves.
Manton put it this way. He wrote,
“First, there is the spirit of a man, for the Holy Ghost makes use of our understandings for the actuating of our will and affections; He bloweth up the fire, though it be our hearts that burn within us. Secondly, the new nature in a Christian is more immediately and vigorously operative in prayer than in most other duties; and the exercise of faith, love, and hope in prayer doth flow from the renewed soul as the proper inward and vital principle of these actions; so that we, and not the Spirit of God, are said to repent, believe, and pray.”
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Let’s step through that.
- Our will and affections aren’t subjugated to God. He allows our personalities to stay intact.
- But we have a new nature, as we talked about in the last devotion.
- We grow in sanctification by prayer.
- Prayer helps us grow more than service activities do. Doing the Matthew 25: 35-36 good deeds help us, but prayer is the key to becoming more like God.
The problem is Paul said that we don’t know that for which we should pray. I would agree with that statement.
It seems like most of our prayers center around the physical health of us and others. We focus on earthly needs.
Worse than that, what we pray for isn’t always in God’s Will. We keep putting kinks in God’s plans.
In order to worship God, our prayers should focus on praising Him, following His Will, and expanding His kingdom.
Praying in the Spirit
“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere” (Eph. 6: 18 NLT)
We should continually worship God in the Spirit.
How we pray is important. We are to pray in the Spirit.
We’ve already said the Spirit helps us in our prayers but doesn’t pray them for us. So, what else is there?
Vincent talked about there being different approaches or techniques of prayer. We know about public and private prayers. Yes, we do need to do both.
Then there is what we say. We need acknowledgement, confession, thanksgiving, and petition/supplication (which includes intercession) to be a part of our prayers.
Ooo, baby! We’ve got the supplication down pat.
But Vincent said that isn’t all there is. He wrote,
“It is not all asking. Sometimes it is only interchange, without any petition at all – talking to God for the pleasure of communion; sometimes a sharp, short cry for help, like Peter’s ‘Lord, save me!’ when he felt himself sinking; sometimes merely the aspiration of the heart to God without a word; sometimes a half-conscious sympathy of thought with God; sometimes a formal, public petition; sometimes a struggle to climb over self to God.”
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How many times do we just talk to God? I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of conversations in my head.
I run through what I am going to tell my Springfield Mom. I get counseling from my BFF and my sister. I talk with my Insomnia Buddy.
But do we ever just talk to God? Rarely.
Too often, we just use prayer as a gum ball machine. We want something, so we put our quarter prayer in and expect our gum ball.
I sometimes think that we have a skewed notion of prayer. We think of spiritual worship as formal worship.
That isn’t necessarily so.
We think we have to pray in the King James Version. Or we have to set our clocks by when we pray.
No. We just have to sincerely talk to God.
We have to use the full range of prayer. True, at times they may just be sentence prayers. Those sentences can be packed when they are an at-the-end-of-our-rope desperate appeal.
But prayer is more than that. It is building a relationship with our Heavenly Father. That takes time and commitment.
It also takes giving of ourselves. We have to be honest and real. Vincent said we have to have habitual contact with God.
No pretense. No ulterior motive.
It has to be a desire to spend time with God. Prayer has to be a part of us.
Vincent called in the Spirit the element and atmosphere of prayer. The Holy Spirit has to be directing us.
- It comes from the heart.
- It is meaningful, not just routine, empty words.
- It shows our love for God.
To read a devotion in the Communication series in the Commit to Grow Our Habits study, click on the button below.
Go back to what Vincent said about crawling over self to get to God. Yes, the focus has to be on God, but isn’t it when we are crawling over self?
We are in a pickle of a situation, but we talk to God. We show Him we know He is in control.
We just have to take the focus off the crawling part and put it on the talking part.
A big part of prayer as spiritual worship is the faith in which we say them. Faith is a gift from God and a work of the Spirit that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others. God’s faithfulness is the constancy He displays in His interaction with mankind based on His character, name, and Word.
Glossary
Lip service prayers aren’t going to get past the ceiling. Why pray for healing if we really don’t believe God is going to heal us?
But praying like it is a done deal? That is powerful.
We just have to remember that God doesn’t always answer the prayers the way we pray them. Healing my lead to physical death so healing can take place in Heaven.
That is why we have to pray for God’s Will.
Wilmot-Buxton made a good point. Sometimes, people float a prayer just to see if God will answer it or not. Laying out a fleece is one thing (Jdg. 6).
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Trying to see if God is real or not isn’t. We can only approach the throne of God through faith. Thinking God really isn’t real isn’t faith.
Prayer as spiritual worship doesn’t expect God to answer the prayer the moment we pray it. We know that He will answer on His timetable.
Making the Connections
I love what Horton had to say. He wrote, “When the body is out of frame, it puts the soul out of frame also, and indisposes it to that which is good.
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It is even more meaningful when we hook it to what Vincent said. He wrote, “Prayer is the medium of communion with God, and without that communion there is no Christian living.”
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We are out of sorts when we aren’t in communication with God. We aren’t content. Things just don’t go right.
But there is a much more important reason to have a solid prayer life. We don’t want our soul getting out of sorts with God. That may mean we are a Matthew 7: 21 disciple — we really aren’t a disciple.
We want a strong relationship with God. That depends on prayer as spiritual worship.
How Do We Apply This?
- Pray when we can so we will be able to pray when we should.
- Pray with reverence for and in humility to God.
- Persistently pray to God.
- Take God with us everywhere.
- Always ask for God’s counsel.
- Evaluate our prayer lives and make a habit to spend more time in communication with God.
- Keep track of answered prayers.
- Don’t focus on ourselves — focus on God and others.
- Focus on our prayers, don’t let our thoughts run rampant, and fill our prayers with love for God.
- Don’t give up.
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Father God. We worship You. We want our prayers to be true worship. Help us to pray to give You the glory and honor You deserve. Amen.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What do you think?
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