A gospel-filled life: Part 5
Pray to know God better
Jeffrey D. Enderle
Someone was bound to invent an easy button. One office supply company has already used an “easy button” to advertise solutions to office headaches. But we could use simple solutions for all kinds of issues.
Enter prayer. It’s a tremendous comfort to know that God wants us to come to him (Matthew 11:28). When we are faced with problems outside of our ability to handle, it’s a relief to entrust them to the One who has limitless ability to effect real change in our chaotic world (Philippians 4:6). God wants to know what’s on our hearts and has the power to handle the burdens we are facing in life (1 Peter 5:7).
Not just an easy button
Yet it is healthy for us to pause and consider why we are praying. What are we hoping to get out of prayer? Our reasons for turning to God in prayer might be different than some of God’s reasons for inviting us to pray. Essentially, are we asking God to be our easy button for every problem area in life? While God invites us to come to him in prayer, God may desire something more personally beneficial and durable from prayer for his children than what we’re after.
Consider Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even as our Savior engaged in prayer, he expressed his own personal desires. He unloaded the deepest concerns troubling his heart. Yet in childlike humility, Jesus resolved to submit to his Father’s will (Matthew 26:39,42). Scripture was clear: “It was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” and finally make “his life an offering for sin.” The same Scripture promised “the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:10). Jesus accepted his cup of suffering and turned to the promise of his Father for strength.
That pattern reflects the way Paul often prays for fellow believers. He repeatedly prays that they grow to know God better (Ephesians 1:15-21; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:9-12; Philemon 6). Didn’t they have serious doctrinal issues in need of correction? Of course, they did. Weren’t there precarious situations around them threatening their spiritual and physical safety? Undeniably so. Weren’t there pressing practical matters to be resolved among fellow Christians? Absolutely. Could he have gotten right to the point of the urgent needs they faced? Certainly.
All of those issues were important. And their prayers were no doubt filled with requests for solutions. But Paul had told the new believers they would have many hardships (Acts 14:22). Yet he prays that God would send them the Spirit “so that you may know him better” (Ephesians 1:17).
A way to know God
Knowing God better isn’t simply about gaining information so you are the champion of Bible trivia. It’s about gaining a personal appreciation for who your Savior is and what he has done and still does for his children. Above all else, God desires the salvation of sinners (1 Timothy 2:4). Internal uncertainty swirls around our hearts. He has given us great promises that stand as monuments to divine truth (e.g. Romans 8:28).
The Spirit works through God’s promises. Knowing God through his revealed Word produces growth in faith. Prayer produced as a byproduct of Scripture study might not immediately change your circumstances or eliminate obstacles in your life. All your problems might not be resolved instantaneously by means of some divine easy button. Rediscovering God’s truth and realigning yourself to God’s will will fill you with the joy of the hope you have in Christ. Knowing God will allow you to become more confident in God’s actions being carried out in our world. Knowing God better will build appreciation of the blessings you already have in Christ.
Contributing editor Jeffrey Enderle is pastor at Christ the Rock, Farmington, New Mexico.
This is the fifth article in a ten-part series on ways to enrich your personal devotional life.
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Author: Jeffrey D. Enderle
Volume 106, Number 6
Issue: June 2019
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