A Balanced Prayer Life

Balanced prayer life 

Romans 1:8-10

Have you ever had to walk on a balance beam for gymnastics?   Have you ever been asked to walk a straight line by an officer of the law?  I don’t know what your response is but learning how to have a balanced prayer life is essential in our relationship with God.  Let’s read, Romans 1:8-10 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.  For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.  In this passage of Scripture we learn about the balanced prayer life of Paul in this letter.  For each of us to have a balanced prayer life we need to be thankful for what the Lord has done.  When we acknowledge what God has done creating us for his pleasure and providing for us not just our physical needs but also our spiritual needs (including salvation from sin) we ought to express genuine gratitude from the bottom of our heart. He did not have to create us for his pleasure, nor provide a way to have all of our sins forgiven and to have a restart.  When was the last time we sat down and counted our blessings, naming them one by one?  Paul wrote to the Philippian believers that with thanksgiving they could let their request be known to God.  Making our request known to God is not the difficult part, I will readily admit I ask God some big prayer request, a lot of times however they are big in the sense that they are selfish.  For example, the other morning over coffee with a friend we were discussing church matters and I shared with him my dream, my prayer request.  My friend had the nerve to ask me the hard question, was that a selfish prayer.  I honestly had to say yes it was.  There is a lot that Jesus teaches us on prayer, everything from thanksgiving, ask whatever you desire.  I have done a lot of that in my life. Ask Jesus for just about everything, a lot of times the answer is no, for that I am thankful.  This brings us to the second part of our verse today, that somehow by God’s will, I must be submissive to God’s will in my prayer life.  Being submissive to God’s will is the key to a balanced prayer life.  James writes, Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Submitting to God is the best advice anyone has ever given.  When we submit to God we are coming up under his authority.  When we learn to pray with thanksgiving in our hearts for what the Lord has done, submit to his will, he will teach us what we should pray for.  When we learn to listen to the Lord and ask according to his will we will receive that for which we ask.  If you are a person who believes that just because you prayed and asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to save you without submitting to him, then your prayers where not heard for salvation.  But if you have genuinely submitted to the Lord, not matter what your sin is, your church affiliation, your lifestyle at the moment.  He will hear your prayer and answer accordingly and for that you will be thankful.