The Prayer of Supplication

1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.

Prayer is the expression of man's dependence upon God for all things. Therefore we come as supplicants asking God to act on our behalf. The supplicant’s prayer then is a request to a personal Lord who answers according to His good will and pleasure.

Remembering that we live in the here and the not yet of the Kingdom of God there are several factors that influence how prayers are heard.

Several hindrances to answered prayer are mentioned in the Bible: iniquity in the heart (Ps 66:18), refusal to hear God's law (Prov 28:9), an estranged heart (Isa 29:13), sinful separation from God (Isa 59:2), waywardness (Jer 14:10-12), praying to be seen of men (Matt 6:5-6), pride in fasting and tithing (Luke 18:11-14), lack of faith (Heb 11:6), and doubting or double-mindedness (James 4:3) to name a few.

On the other hand, God has promised to answer our requests when we start helping the hungry and afflicted (Isa 58:9-10), when we believe that we will receive what we ask (Mark 11:22-24), when we forgive others (Mark 11:25-26), when we ask in Christ's name (John 14:13-14), and when we abide in Christ and His words (John 15:7), pray in the Spirit (Eph 6:8), obey the Lord's commandments (1 John 3:22), and ask according to His will (1 John 5:14-15).

The larger question is why pray at all if God is immutable (unchanging) and omniscient (all knowing)? What is the point of praying if God already knows what I am going to pray for?

Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

1 Thess 5:17 “pray continually”

First of all, we pray as a matter of obedience. We are commanded to pray. By praying we put ourselves in a subordinate role to God and that submission then becomes an act of faith.

Second, we do it because we saw Jesus model it countless times in the New Testament. If He who was God made flesh found it necessary and beneficial to do, how much more should we who are completely dependent on His grace and mercy follow in His footsteps?

Finally, because while He knows our need and may have already decided how to act, the release or enactment of His will may be dependent on our asking.

I remember the story that Daisy Buby, a missionary to the Philippines, told me about an incident that happened to her in the field. There was a young girl who was very dirty and when she asked her why, the girl told her it was because she did not have any soap. Her first instinct was to go inside her hut and get one of her bars of soap and give it to her. The Lord stopped her and told her to have the little girl pray for soap. She did so out of obedience. The next day some care packages arrived from the states and in the package for that little girl there was some soap. The little girl beamed with excitement at the fact that God had answered her prayer. The soap was obviously already on the way when she prayed the prayer. God had already set things in motion. Obedience by the missionary and the child would not have changed the outcome, but their appreciation of the outcome was certainly different having prayed for it.

John 16:24 Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

The asking is not so much about Him, it is about the joy that it works in us when we receive.

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