Prayer and the Trinity

I heard something this week that I want to share with you to encourage you in prayer and, it is the following...

Ultimately the power that there is in our prayers comes from God's generous heart in wanting to answer them and in the work of Jesus on the cross that makes them acceptable to the Father, and in the ministry of the Holy Spirit on earth and in heaven throughout the process of our praying.

I want to comment on each of these wonderful realities.

First, if you pause long enough to ponder the fact that God the Creator would even hear us, it's mind-boggling. But when the revelation hits you that He not only hears but He bends down to listen and accept our prayers (Psalm 40:1; 6:9; 66:19,20), the proper response is worship and wonder! What amazing condescension and humility of heart! What a great and generous heart to want to hear and to answer our weak prayers! He actually looks for intercessors to whom He will listen and whose prayers He will answer (Ez. 22:30). When someone who is a known public figure gives us even a little attention, we love it and it gives us a sense of importance and confidence; how much more should the fact that the living and eternal God is attentive to our every cry fill us with confidence and joy! And so we have power in prayer by virtue of the fact that God is a God who wants to hear our prayers and wants to answer them...His disposition to want to hear us and answer us is what we trust in rather than in our own ability or desire to pray.

Second, the work of Jesus on the cross has removed the hindrance and barrier between God and humans, thereby making our prayers acceptable to the Father. Without this work on our behalf, the generous disposition of God would not be enough for our prayers to be effective because of the insurmountable wall between Him and humans as a result of our sin; but because of this eternal and all-sufficient Sacrifice, we can not only pray to the Father, but we pray with confidence! (Heb. 4:14-16) The price that the Father and Son were willing to make in order to remove the hindrance to prayer leaves no doubt about how much God wants us to draw near to Him in worship and intercession.

Finally, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is necessary for our prayers to be effective. Without the third Person of the Trinity actively engaged in assisting us to pray, the disposition of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son would not be enough. The Scriptures tell us that we don't know how to pray, but the Spirit helps us in prayer (Romans 8:26,27). He is our "ever-present Help". We cannot pray without His continual assistance; while Jesus is at the right hand of the Father forever interceding, His Spirit is present with us, interceding in and for us according to the will of God.

Dear Father, thank You for such a heart as You have! There is no god like You Who cares deeply for each of Your children and Who wants to hear and answer our prayers; help us grasp the wonder of this truth. Lord Jesus, thank You that You obeyed Your Father and did what had to be done to remove the hindrance that was between the Father and humans so that we can approach Him and find that we are accepted in You and can pray in confidence to Him. Holy Spirit, thank You that You are the Helper, ever present to aid us in our weakness in prayer, always praying in and for us according to the Father's will. Make this real to us, Lord, so that we pray increasingly with confidence and joy and faith. Thank You! In Jesus' name, Amen.