Prayer is the conversation of love between God and God's saved children. Psalm 37:4 reads, "Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart." If the aroma of our prayer pleases God and moves His heart, we can receive answers to not only what we ask but also our heart's desires that we did not ask.
Prayer in goodness
To please God, who is goodness itself, our prayer has to be a profession of goodness coming from a good heart.
People with goodness in heart speak only beautiful words of goodness. Their voices and posture during prayer give out fragrance of goodness. But if one has evil in his hearts, he will pray with evil to that same extent.
Suppose there is a person who prays saying, "God, let my husband repent and receive salvation, even if it means he has to break his leg." She is praying for the salvation of a soul. But in the light of the truth, this prayer is evil and foolish.
Say you pray, "God, bless my shop, and send me all the next-door shop's customers and I will give You a lot more money for church construction offering and increase charitable offerings." If you pray like this, it is very difficult for the blessing to come because it cannot be stored as a pleasant aroma before God. Also, prayers in despair, complaining, and in sorrow are not prayers of goodness.
Some may pray to God, "Other people easily receive blessings and testify, but I always live in hardships." Such prayer is never of goodness and it is a faulty profession.
But the fact is that they are praying impatiently. They are praying with envy and jealousy and with their selfish desire to be recognized and blessed quickly. They are praying out of sorrow and resentment without having any faith, due to the evil in their heart.
If you see 'other people' receive God's blessing, you can learn from them. And you should know that they do not 'easily receive blessings' but they try hard to act in Light and thereby receive the blessings. And, if you 'always live in hardships', it shows that you have not obeyed God's Word. So, you should look back on your Christian life.
Some of you may think you don't have a good heart-field. Then, you just should patiently try your best to change your heart-field into good soil. If you think you are being renewed too slowly, it is not because your heart-field is bad but because you do not practice God's Word.
If we do not have evil in our hearts, we can profess with thanks and joy in any circumstance and we will not say anything that displeases God. We will offer up prayers of thanks all the time and prayers of faith for answers to our heart's desires. When we pray in goodness according to God's will, God will receive the aroma of prayer and answer it.
Prayer relying on the Lord
If you rely on your thoughts and your strength you will run out of things to pray about and you will become physically tired after a period of time. But if you pray by the help of the Holy Spirit and in the Lord-given grace and strength, you can pray as much as you want.
If you have had faith for some time, when the prayer point is given, you know what to pray and how to pray for it. If you habitually pray repetitively reciting things you know in prayer, it might be as if you were playing a recording of your voice. Such prayer will not become the aroma of prayer and this kind of prayer cannot be accepted by God.
God's children should make a habit of relying on the Holy Spirit while praying. They should pray in the Holy Spirit's help. Prayer must be offered from an earnest heart, with the contents that God needs to hear by the works of the Holy Spirit from moment to moment.
For example, when you cook rice in an electric rice cooker, you can just put a certain amount of rice and water and press the button. But if you are cooking rice in a pot, you have to expend more effort and heart. You have to measure the rice amount and the water level. During cooking you must also manage the heat. In the same manner, saying the same thing habitually and praying in the Holy Spirit are so different.
You will be inspired by the Holy Spirit if you listen to His voice and try to seek the will of God. God will manage the contents and flow of your prayer, so the contents of the prayer will spring up from you. For example, when you pray for the church construction, the Holy Spirit will let you know what kind of focus you should have each time you pray. Then, you can also receive the inspiration on the details about what to pray for in that focused area. When we rely on the Lord and pray for things that are necessary at the time in the Spirit's inspiration, then God is pleased with the prayer.
Prayer in love
If you love God, the church, the shepherd, and souls, you shed tears thinking of God's love in prayer. You also become fervent when you think of the Lord who tearfully prays for us in Heaven without consuming anything.
Also, when you pray fervently for the church and the shepherd with love, you should have a burning fire in you. When you think of the souls who commit sins and are dying without knowing the gospel, your heart should be torn apart.
It stands that if you have such a heart, you must also have spiritual love. I urge you to check as to whether you are faithful in all God's house, whether you seek others' benefit first, and whether you sacrifice yourself to serve others. When others see you, they should be saying, "She is really like 'the one who prays'. She has generosity and love. She is humble and meek and lovable."
Only then can you be recognized that your profession of love for God, the church, and the shepherd is true. Only the tearful prayers and earnest crying out with love can be offered up to God as thick aroma. We should pray with love for souls who commit sins and are on the way to death as if they are our children.
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