I have found myself thinking recently about the disproportional amount of adoration in my prayer life vs. the amount of supplication. What I mean by that is, I tend to “ask” things of God more than I praise God for the things that He has already done. I shared this with a group of pastors recently, and they offered a word of encouragement that I was not alone in this. They too found themselves asking more than praising, and more than that, they noticed the same prayer practice among their congregations.
So, what does this mean? We can choose to look at this one of two ways. First, I believe it does show a dependence on God and a recognition that there are things in life that we cannot do on our own. Therefore, we need God’s help, and we pray with supplication. Second, and far more negatively, it can mean that at the core of our lives we are ungrateful for what we do have and envious of what we do not have. Which is more likely, and where do we go from here?
As Easter approaches, this is the perfect time to try and create a better balance of our adoration for God and our supplication to God. He wants to hear what His children need, but He also wants our praise for what has been done. Will you join me in the coming weeks, and especially at our two opportunities for prayer on April 15th & 16th to balance our prayer lives in a better way?
A very practical way to do this is to divide our prayer life into four different parts. These parts would be (1) Adoration (2) Confession (3) Intercession (4) Supplication.
Start with words of adoration. This is praise of who God is and what He has done. Starting our prayer time off with the goodness of God will help keep our prayer life from revolving around what we want. You can look to the Psalms for examples on how to do this. Many of these writings start out with a declaration of who God is and what He has done.
Next, move your prayer to confession. What do we need to ask God’s forgiveness for. This is an important part of prayer because it reminds us that we are sinful and are actually not deserving of anything that the Lord would give. The gift of Jesus Christ is far more than we deserve, or we are worth, but the Lord in His grace has provided that gift to us. Confession allows us to humbly come before God as imperfect sinners who are still in need of His grace.
Third, intercede on behalf of others. Who needs healing, if it be the will of God. Who needs comfort, if it be the will of God. Who needs deliverance from trouble, if it be the will of God. All of these things we lift up for others. It does not matter if they are petitioning God themselves, we can intercede for them in the hopes of God’s provision.
And lastly, we finally get to supplication. Supplication is a humble request, often times described as begging. This is what we are when we ask something of God. We are beggars at the feet of an all-powerful King. The good news is that this King loves us and cares for us. We can make our request known to God with the confidence that even if our supplication is not affirmatively answered, it will be answered with whatever is in accordance with the perfect will of God.
I encourage you to practice this in your prayer life leading up to Easter. If you do it for just a week it may change the way that you talk with God, and therefore change your relationship for the better.
It is a blessing to serve with you,
Pastor Lance
