ALREADY ON THE WAY?

 JULY 8, 2022

Isaiah 65:24

24 I will answer them before they even call to me.

    While they are still talking about their needs,

    I will go ahead and answer their prayers

This is one of those passages that I have found revolutionary in my thinking about prayer. A little backstory is in order I suppose. You see for much of my life I have lived with the misconception that prayer or praying is my idea, that a conversation with God in my prayers only occur if I initiated the prayer. 

In my defense, I think many of us have had this understanding thrust upon us about prayer with the messages of emphasizing the importance of prayer as a duty, “you must pray” and talk to God. Prayer and Bible Reading are a necessity if you are serious about getting to know God. There is something in such teaching that is accurate, but I will be honest this emphasis caused me to think I needed to get God’s attention in some way, and that my words had to be perfect, you know the right words. This made prayer a chore, a burden, and dev eloped in me a reluctance to engage in times of prayer. 

That is until one day, I read Isaiah 65:24 “before they call I will answer; while they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers.”  Thus a discovery, a different view of prayer emerged, Prayer starts with God!! Prayer is God’s idea. The desire to pray is the outcome of God’s desire to communicate with us. God is the initiator. 

What I discovered, maybe you have too, is that the desire to pray is actually a gift that God gives us. You see this discovery has changed my prayer life significantly and here is why. What if, those moments in life when I sense a need to pray, you know the times of crises, or worry about ourselves or our family, or times when we need strength, God’s strength, what if those moments of “need to pray” or have to pray, are actually a result of God’s desire to speak with us? What if these urges we have are initiated by God, because there are insights, or wisdom, or guidance that he wants to give to us as directions for where we are in that moment. 

I mean Isaiah 65:24 is saying that the answer to our prayers is prepared before we pray. That the desire to talk to God about our needs comes from him. That is grace to help us in our time of need. 

Well this thought has sure deepened my prayer life. What if?

Romans 8:26-30

26 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. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers[a] in harmony with God’s own will. 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[b] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn[c] among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.