M. Bounds has said, “It is the ardor created by desire that burns its way to the throne of mercy and gains its plea.” Again, Bounds said of desire, “This holy and fervid flame in the soul awakens the interests of heaven, attracts the attention of God, and places at the disposal of those who exercise it, the exhaustless riches of Divine grace.” Thus desire not only helps me pray, but it helps my prayers reach God.
But we must not think that what Bounds is suggesting is that we can manipulate God by our desire. No, God is in no way surprised by our desire or feels manipulated. In fact, He waits for us to come to Him with desire—that desire that He has already planted within our heart.
Moreover, when we come to Him with holy desire for certain things, we have the promises of God assuring…
When we desire and seek God, He brings us into a love relationship with Him—a relationship of a son or daughter to a father. As our Father He desires to give us all the things we need. As a son or daughter we naturally desire to receive from Him what He desires to give us. And this is the beginning of what we call prayer. It is reallythe basis of prayer.
Some Hebrew and Greek words can be translated as either desire,prayer, or request. For example, I looked up the word desire in my Vine’s Expository Dictionary and found that two Greek words, eratao and aiteo, are sometimes translated as desire, but most often as ask or request. We could also come from the other end. That is, if you look up all the Greek words for prayer, there are two words, deomi and deesis…
Our desire for God is the fruit of a renewed heart; it is a dynamic of the Spirit. I like what Tozer has said:
You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in large. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition.
Let me bring it to you in this way: we being in Christ, desire of God what Jesus desires of Him—His love, His fellowship, and His righteousness, etc.
Following Hard after God
With this desire, if indeed it is desire from God, we must pursue Him. That is, we must take our desire and put it into action. As Tozer has indicated in…
Here is a biblical study of the term desire. I thought it would be beneficial, in my study of prayer, to get a thorough understanding of this term desire, since prayer has so much to do with it. The biblical meaning of desire is quite broad. In my study I found sixteen Hebrew and Greek words translated as desire, and have put them in the following six categories:
To delight in: Hebrew – chapets, taavah.This term, as indicated by these two Hebrew words and their verses, convey the idea of delighting in, to be pleased with, satisfied with, and to incline toward. Thus the meaning here is that when we desire a thing it brings us pleasure and satisfaction, and we are drawn toward it. The desire could be for good or for evil. Most of the references I found in conjunction with these words…
The forms of prayer are simply the various expressions of our personal life toward God that agree with the various moods or attitudes we have or choose to have. Thus the many forms of prayer are quite endless, for there are as many forms of prayer as man has characteristics of personal life—as he has moods or attitudes. Here are ten forms of prayer, which I will describe briefly:
1. The prayer of adoration. We should adore God in all our praying, but generally, this is the way we should begin our prayers (and our day)—saying, “Hallowed be Thy name.”
2. The prayer of confession. This is the only form of prayer that should come out of our lips when we have sinned. For, it is the only form (or expression) that would be true and honest. Moreover, without confession fellowship with God would be impossible.
Prayer is so very basic, yet it is also so deep and boundless in it meaning. In my reading I have found nine different descriptions of prayer.
1. Prayer is asking and receiving. According to E.M. Bounds, “Prayer is the outstretched arms of the child for the Father’s help. Prayer is the child’s cry calling to the Father’s ear…Prayer is the seeking of God’s greatest good, which will not come if we do not pray.”
Matthew 7:7-8 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Again E. M. Bounds writes, “Prayer is asking, seeking and knocking at a door for something we have not, which we desire, and which God has promised to us…Prayer is the voice of need crying out to Him who is inexhaustible in resources. Prayer is helplessness reposing with childlike confidence on…
Changing the news channel is the solution to so many conservatives these days. I can see how that will reduce your stress and give you peace. But is that the real solution? Can you really go through life without knowing what’s going on in the world? Doesn’t God want you to be aware of things so you can pray intelligently? Isn’t it our Christian duty to try to make our country and our world a better place? If we are commanded by God to pray for our leaders, should we not also know what to pray for them (1 Tim. 2:2)?
I know that almost all of the news these days is slanted toward the left side. But there are things we can do. When I read the newspaper, I generally just read the title and only as much as I can stand. And I always talk to myself about it and ask questions. Here are four articles headlines I read—with my comments and questions.
Parents relieved as Pfizer seeks child vaccine approval
–But how many parents really want this?
Trump tried to pressure atty. General
—Yes, he was trying to do what’s right! He was trying to stop the election fraud! Is anyone tired of all the Trump bashing?
Senate Ok’s temporary debt limit extension
–Is that really good news? Do we really want more debt?
Biden makes case for vaccine requirements
—Is that good to take away our freedom?
I think it is important to ask questions. Also, I think it is important to have alternative news sources—other than the mainstream sources. Fox news is still fairly good. I know that they have tried to plug in those liberal voices to make it fair or something, but you have a brain and you can see what voices are the best.
Check your radio stations. Here in Minnesota, there are a number of channels that have more conservative voices. Here is a list of them that I think are fairly good.
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton program (they are replacements to Rush Limbaugh)
The following article is an excerpt from this book.
When we look at the Disciples Prayer (or The Lord’s Prayer), I believe we see three types of petitions that Jesus taught (Matthew 6:8-13).
1. Invocation
We get this idea from the first three requests: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name; Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
This first type of petition, according to Jennings, is the invocation of our prayer; it is the summoning of the Spirit of God that He would come to us and be God to us, to help us pray and do His will.5
Yes, it is asking Him to help us pray that His name be hallowed–let Your name be hallowed. And bring your kingdom to us; and bring your will to us.
Church change. I have been praying about this and churning it over in my mind for a few months. And I finely now have made the change. I feel a little sad about it—not to see certain folks regularly. But I feel I must move on to what I think is the right move. I’m not going to talk about the reasons, but there are doctrinal reasons. So, I feel that I am following the Lord, but yet I am sad. I feel a peace about it. Yet I know there will be struggles, and I must endure them and push on.
Working less. This last summer I worked much more that I figured I would. And I was suffering in the heat—90-degree heat for many days. I think I have to push myself to slow down. I have resolved to take more days off between jobs—I’m a house painter; semi-retired. And I will take only easy jobs. I will not quit working completely, because I really like what I do. But I also like days off and having time to write and read more, etc.
Health issues. I’m finding that I’m having more and more health issues—because of my age I suppose. But it is also a challenge to concentrate more on good eating habits and regular exercise, etc. Nobody wants to be sick—unless you have a death wish. I know that much sickness in people is because of heredity. But we can’t use that as an excuse. We all, especially us older folks, must work extra hard to keep ourselves healthy—watch our diet, exercise, and deal with any illnesses. And I find that daily prayer is very helpful. I follow the Jabez prayer. Why not? He prayed that God would bless him and keep him from harm (1 Chron. 4:10).
As I see it, from my study of this topic, there are two very basic natures or meanings of prayer: (1) petition, and (2) soul to soul communication with God (which really includes all parts of prayer). In this post we will focus on petition.
According to the original Biblical words translated for us as “prayer,” every Hebrew and Greek word I studied (three Hebrew words and eight Greek words) indicate that prayer is petition—asking God for something. It is an expression of a wish or a desire; Christian prayer is an expression of a wish or desire to God. We see this particularly in the following Greek words: euchomai (to pray to God, to wish for), deomai (to desire, to want, to ask, and to beg), and deesis (a wanting, a needing, then an asking, entreaty, and supplication).
Here we see in these words that desire comes first…
Stephen Nielsen 