Praying To God With Humility | Daily Bible Devotioanl

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” —EPHESIANS 3:14-15

For many of us, prayer sometimes feels as though we’re talking to ourselves, or, for our own benefit, rehearsing some sort of meaningful rhetoric. We reason that we are only one of about 6 billion people in the world, so God’s pretty busy, and our issues are too miniscule compared to much greater needs in the world. But every person is extremely precious to God and though He already knows, He wants to hear from us what is in our hearts. So how do we do this effectively?

Prayer is the talking part of our relationship with God and relationships are two-way. It is actually a response to the initiative of God in that it is by His Holy Spirit we are first drawn into relationship with Him. Relationships can only exist when there is two-way communication. Paul begins his prayer by saying, “For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”

There are two things we need to notice here that are important to effective praying – Paul’s posture of humility and God’s position of supremacy. We don’t come to God carrying a set of rights on the basis of which we are going to insist on certain things. We come before God in humility, not demanding, but submitting. If we demand, we are not trusting God. We need to come with an approach that says, “Lord, for me this looks like the answer, but if it isn’t, I am trusting You.” Our posture in prayer needs to be one of humility, acknowledging God’s sovereignty and His total sufficiency in all things.

It is good and valid to bring our list of wants before God, but we need to think about the end result of that list. Is it that through them we will come to know God better, because there are times we’ll ask Him for the very opposite. We’ll say things like, “Lord, make this easier for me”, or “take this off my shoulders,” and the reality is that the very thing we find difficult is often what God uses to drive us to dependence upon Him, which brings us into a deeper knowledge of Him. It is His will in all things we need to seek.

Paul’s praying, like his teaching, always takes us back to dependence upon Jesus. There is no lack in the God we are coming to, and whatever we ask for He is capable of immeasurably more. The lack is in us, and effective praying begins by coming from a position of humility, and recognizing the sovereignty of God.

I am confident that whatever concerns and requests I have will be answered by your will for me, but I ask that You always keep me humbled before You. Thank You, Lord.

Is my prayer life from a position of humility before God?