Teach Me to Pray - Week #14: Prayer Must be Specific

Speaking of the blind man in the story of Mark 10, Murray points out that he had been crying a general prayer for mercy from the Son of David, but Jesus pressed him to be specific by asking him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And until the man specifies what he is wanting from Jesus, he doesn't receive his sight.

Murray says, "It is not that Jesus' loving heart does not understand our cry or is not ready to hear, but He desires that we be specific for our own good. Prayer that is specific teaches us to know our own needs better. To find out what our greatest need is demands time, thought and self-scrutiny. To find out whether our desires are honest and real and whether we are ready to persevere in them, we are put to the test. It leads us also to discern whether our desires conform to God's Word and whether we really believe that we will receive the things we ask. It helps us to wait for a definite answer and to be aware of it when it comes...To all of us, the Lord asks, 'What is it you really want and expect me to do?'"

He goes on to say the Lord gives each of us our "own special field of labor in which he works, so his prayers encompass a particular group too. Each believer has his own circle, his family, his friends, and his neighbors. If he were to take one or more of these by name, he would find that this really brings him into the training school of faith and leads to personal and pointed dealing with God."

(He says that as we practice praying and receiving in specifics, then our general prayers will be believing and effective as well.)

A few years ago I was struck with the truth that Murray refers to here - that there are certain domains of life in which I carry God-given authority in prayer, such as my family and church and friends and co-workers, etc. This realization has grown steadily in my consciousness until I'm praying with much more faith now for these persons and situations. This faith comes from understanding the authority given to me and from gaining increasing spiritual insight into the jealous love and power of God related to those I'm praying for. I will be growing in this all my life, but it's a joy to walk at least in part in this grand partnership with God of believing prayer for particular areas. I'm regularly praying with prayer partners for particular people and needs, and we're growing in our faith as we pray according to what we know is the Lord's will for those we are interceeding for.

In this chapter Murray suggests a few questions we could ask ourselves as we wait before the Lord in prayer:
1. What do I really want?
2. Am I asking for it in faith, expecting to receive an answer?
3. Am I ready to place the thing in the Father's keeping and leave it there?
4. Is it settled between God and me that I will receive an answer?
5. Do I want this so much that there is no price too great to have it?

"It is sad that many prayers are merely wishes, sent up for a short time and then forgotten, or sent up year after year as a matter of duty, while we remain content without the answer. You may ask, 'But is it not best to make our wishes known to God and then let Him decide what is best, without seeking to assert our will?' By no means! This is the very essence of the prayer of faith to which Jesus sought to train His disciples: one does not only make known one's desire and then leave the decision to God. That would be a prayer of submission for those cases in which we cannot know God's will. But the prayer of faith, finding God's will in some promise of the Word, pleads for that until it is given...Faith is nothing but the purpose of the will resting on God's Word and saying, 'I must have this.'"

The chapter ends with this wonderful summary statement: "It is...when the child has yielded his own will in entire surrender to the Father that he receives from the Father liberty and power to will what he would have (wants)..." One caution about this is to not interpret "entire surrender" through the lens of perfectionism and religion but through the eyes of the Father Who is delighted with the wholehearted and childlike surrender of His child which is weak and filled at times with failing and stumbling steps, but is nevertheless genuinely sincere in looking to Jesus.

"Lord, I yield my will unreservedly to you as the power through which your Spirit is to rule my whole being. Let Him take possession of it, lead it into the truth of Your promises, and make it so strong in prayer that I may hear you say, 'Great is your faith. Be it unto you even as you will.'"

Teach me to pray just as You taught Your disciples. Thank You, Lord.