My Abundant Source of Lack

Unsought blessing is a definite component of God's program of grace.  Do unrepentant sinners continue to draw breath, often for a lifetime, untroubled for a time by the fetters of eternal, divine fury?  Are such as these sometimes granted an inexplicable understanding and acceptance of the need for Christ's salvation, such that they seek it with earnest repentance?  Does God preserve His children in salvation, even when they foray deep into sin?  Unsought blessing is all around us - without it, we would not last for even a moment in this world, much less taste the joy of salvation.

There is also, however, such a thing as sought blessing - those articles of grace which God chooses to withhold until we ask Him for them.  If we know something of the priority God places upon the demonstration of His glory (and we really should), this only makes sense; we perceive a lack of some sort, and our pervasive inability to satiate it compels us toward the throne.  By making us active participants in the communion of grace, God helps us to see more fully just how we need Him (in a quiet piece of irony).

This certainly places a high premium on prayer, does it not?  James says to the scattered Jewish elements of the church, "You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask." (James 4:2) Let us approach this from the opposite direction:  because I do not ask, I do not have, and the vacuum created by my prayerlessness draws in temptation - a sad substitute. 

It is tempting to fool ourselves into the notion that a period of prayerlessness does not truly affect our spiritual state - we feel that just as a healthy eater can eat the occasional Crunchwrap Supreme without adverse corollary, the spiritual believer can coast along for a day or two without prayer.  What blessings, though, are we missing on these off days?  The gifts of the Lord that fall upon us are not optional graces sent for our amusement; they are blessings intended to equip us for godly worship and kingdom work.  Similarly, the gifts of the Lord that befall others when we pray are for God's purposes of good and glory.  Do we, as children of the Most High, truly desire to ignore these opportunities from our kind and powerful Father?  Pray, friend.  Pray often, and pray for the kingdom; dress your prayers in quality and quantity alike.

We must go further than supplication, of course.  James certainly does:  "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." (James 4:3) He maintains, with divinely-supported clarity, that we lack because we ask with wrong motives; that is, our hearts are not right in prayer.  For this reason, the other elements of prayer - praise of God, confession of sin, and thanksgiving for past blessings - take a crucial role in shaping our hearts into what God desires.  In this frame, we find contentedness in the work and character of God.  We ask with a different attitude, and for (sometimes very) different things in this state, but indeed this is vital work whether we open our mouths to ask for anything or not. 

We are led, then, to two simple questions we might ask if we find ourselves in a state of dissatisfaction or want:  Am I in prayer?  Is my heart in line with the Lord?  Perhaps the answer is that I have not brought my cares to my loving Father, or maybe I have been selfish in my supplications, and am thus unfitted for His answer or undeserving of a present resolution.  God does not always remove the thorns from our flesh, but He always stands ready to give us the grace to persevere - a powerful answer to prayer indeed, if we are exhibiting steadfastness of prayer and unity of purpose with Him.

There is always, always an answer to our present lack to be found in prayer.  He is faithful, and He is sufficient!  How then do we not pray, brothers and sisters?  How is it that I can muddle through a day apart from my Father, whom I know in my very bones to be gracious and sovereign and near?  He stands by with grace in His keeping, and He desires for us to embrace our utter need for Him (remember this?).  May prayer be to the soul even as breathing is to the body.

Partial Partiality: A Hindrance for Powerful Prayer

You pray.  You pray often, and you pray for those things fitting for the kingdom.  You earnestly ask for salvation for those around you.  You seek the spiritual growth of your church in your prayers - just let more disciples come, Father, and help us all to grow in our zeal.   Morning, noon, and night, you pray.  Sleep robs the final thought of your whispered prayer into the dark quiet.  As you awaken, prayer begins afresh - Lord, this is Your day.  You pray.

And yet, for all this, you seem to miss out on these big-ticket items that saturate your prayers.  The people around you remain unsaved.  Your church continues in its - you almost say "rut," but you quickly change it to "present trajectory."  Everything remains status quo ante votum.  Does this sound at all familiar?  I cannot pretend this is not well-traced territory for myself; I have trodden it before, and perhaps you have as well.  What do we do in such instances?

The oft-quoted recourse to "unanswered prayer" (a misnomer if ever there was one) points to a lack of faith as the chief culprit:  "Had you more faith," proclaim the head-shakers, "the Lord would respond more faithfully to your prayers."  What they mean is that you must get it through your head that the Lord can truly do the very thing for which you are asking.  Indeed, there is something unsavory about a prayer laced with the poison of insincerity and doubt, but many times, it seems as though this comment misses the mark.  We ask of the Lord with every faithfulness of understanding:  "Of course You can do these things, omnipotent Lord.  It would profit me nothing to ask it, otherwise."

I would like to propose another reason, then.  Sometimes, I think, my faith in the Lord is sufficient to believe His omnipotence, but my heart is not prepared to be gladdened by His glory.  Christ could work tremendous wonders, both in and for His church, such that my every prayer were brought into rapturous bloom, and still I would manage to mar its effect on my own joy, with a quiet application of indifference or impatience.  "Of course you can do these things, omnipotent Lord.  What else would You do?" 

2 Chronicles 16:9a teaches, "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."  Divine and powerful aid is the gift to the ones who are devoted wholly to the all-seeing God.  This devotion brushes aside the sort of indifference that would ignore or even scoff His glory, and the reward for that devotion is the "strong support" of God Himself.  Where God gives strong support, there is sure to be glory in it.  And a blameless devotion to the Lord on our part will surely contain obedient work and fervent prayer for Christ's kingdom, so the end result is that the kind support of the Lord will be gloriously directed toward these righteous endeavors - which are the focus of our effort and prayer. 

It makes sense, then - if we desire to see God work through prayers, it is indispensible that we prepare ourselves to desire and value His glory (and thus His established, steadfast kingdom).  It is a sobering thought to suppose that God does not move powerfully to respond to our prayers, in part, because our hunger for Him is too small - that God withholds the strong manifestations of His glory because that glory would be wasted on us.  May these things not be so, brothers and sisters.

Rejecting this sort of partial partiality toward God demonstrates an earnest, intent sort of focus upon the Lord.  Now, here is the truly marvelous part - not only does this sort of righteous longing for God invite Him to respond to our prayers, but it also poises us to revel in the glory that we are able to see, even when God's longstanding counsel prompts Him to do something other than that for which we have prayed.  If we hunger for God's glory and yearn to see it unleashed in this world, then we will certainly not fail to notice that He radiates glory in the contradiction of our prayers, as He accords with His perfect will, just as much as He demonstrates glory in the affirmation of our prayers.  In the light of such revelation, how could we then be choosy about which glory we see and enjoy?  So our joy remains whole, and our devotion intact, even in those occasions when our prayers are confounded by the far, far greater plans of the Lord. 

Be not unmoved, unfeeling heart of mine.  Find your joy in the Lord's glory, and He will never disappoint.  The more we seek it, the more we will desire it, and the more we will see it.

The Ruthlessness of Prayer

On November 15, 1864, some 62,000 Federal troops departed the still-smoldering city of Atlanta under the brilliant and collected generalship of W.T. Sherman.  Year's end would see this force having won to Savannah, leaving in its wake a scene of immeasurable devastation some 300 miles long and 40 miles wide.  Their mission was complete - they had driven to the ocean, effectively taking or destroying anything which the South might employ in its rebellion against the North.  The railroads were smashed, the cattle harnessed, the field pieces taken, the cotton burned.  Many miles behind its tenacious soldiers and exceptional generals, the Confederate war effort lay in ruins.

In a way, we are all of us Sherman in Atlanta - everyone who has been saved by the precious blood of Christ is engrossed in a brutal conflict, albeit one that is won or lost in the human heart.  We are consumed in a constant clash between the godliness which our Lord is actively creating within us, and the sinful impulses that foray sharply from the quiet corners of our hearts (Rom. 7:22-23).  This is a battle that must be accorded our fullest measure of sobriety and perseverance, for though a hundred grim specters of temptation may fall upon the Sword of the Spirit, yet there are untold thousands behind them.  The press of battle is always upon us in this world.

It is an irony that the most seasoned and mature Christians you will meet are at once accustomed both to the most gracious gentleness and patience with the rest of humanity, and yet to the quickest and strongest violence against the incursions of temptation and pride within themselves.  In this respect, the gift of prayer becomes either a formidable ally or an exercise in wanton futility. 

Prayer is formidable only if pride is stamped out while the prayer is being made; otherwise, it is pure futility.  Elihu wisely instructed Job, "[God] does not answer [prayers] because of the pride of evil men." (Job 35:12b) The psalmist explains that this is so because the prideful are not actually interested in God at all:  "The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him.  All his thoughts are, 'There is no God.'" (Psalm 10:4)

In other words, pride serves to remove any true regard we have for the Lord in a given moment.  Prayer, then, must be effected in such a way that our pride is devastated to the utmost.  Any tool that pride might grasp in a bid to dominate our hearts must be broken, or else wrested away for the worship that is owed only to the Lord.  We must sift through our hearts as Sherman sifted through the South, not hesitating to smash what merits destruction, and to take back whatever we in our pride have stolen.

Consider the elements of prayer for a moment.  We are called, for instance, to reverent praise of our sovereign Maker, Sustainer, and Savior.  The barest tinge of pride blights our praise by introducing falseness and sin.  This is especially sad, given that prayerful praise is calculated to draw our adoration to its rightful divine recipient - recalling the excellencies of the One to whom we pray should serve to shape the course the entire prayer.  Remember, His character is our lifeline, but we must achieve a purity of heart in our pursuit of His glory!

Another crucial feature of prayer is repentance.  Of course, pride is the bane of true repentance, but we must take care, lest we suppose that the simple desire for repentance indicates an absence of pride.  We can always muddle through repentance simply because we know we should, or we can congratulate ourselves that we so humbly desire repentance that, ironically, the repentance itself is spoiled with pride.  It is also sometimes the case that we freely confess some sins, but not others - pride restrains us from acknowledging certain sins. 

Finally, there is the matter of supplication in prayer.  Pride can certainly spoil this activity, and if such is the case, we must not expect the Lord to respond with pleasure.  If we can unshackle ourselves from pride (say, through humble confession of sin and genuine worship of our Lord), then our requests will be made for His sake, and not ours, and so will work toward His enduring kingdom and glory.  Think a moment, and I am certain that you, like me, will be able to recall certain requests you once made of the Lord that now only induce cringing for their selfishness.  What waste, no? 

It is not unwise to patently assume the presence of pride in our lives - we will usually be correct - and prayer life can serve as good gage of pride.  Do you hesitate to repent to your God?  Do your prayers themselves die in your throat?  Are your praises brief and skin deep?  Then you have but one recourse:  you must go before your worthy God and admit of your prideful indifference, and beg His help once more as you move through your heart with an attitude of ruthless impatience, seeking to stamp out every instance of pride - identify it, confess it, and set yourself against it!  Do this again and yet again until every spark of pride is devastated and the Lord crowds your heart!  This absolute ruthlessness against ourselves must be an indispensible feature of our prayers.

Powerful Answers to Prayer in Judah - A Monumental Request

See 2 Kings 17-19, 2 Chronicles 32, & Isaiah 36-37.


The northern kingdom has fallen.  The Assyria armies have taken Samaria. 

Something like these words no doubt reached the ears of King Hezekiah of Judah, and their reception would excite a definite measure of concern for his tiny kingdom.  Hoshea, king of Israel, had defied Assyria years before, and quickly found himself imprisoned and his kingdom besieged.  Three gaunt and bleak years passed before Israel succumbed and was carried into distant exile - such was the strong and settled resolve of the Assyrian host.

Hezekiah, a king rare and conspicuous in his humble servitude of the one true God, a man blessed with manifold successes by the Lord, had also defied Assyrian rule and refused to pay tribute.  For three tenuous years, Israel had absorbed Assyria's martial energies - for three fleeting years, Hezekiah's defiance was suffered by the Assyrians as Israel's resistance wore away.  Now this buffer was dashed to pieces and swept away.  What would come now?  We gather from Isaiah 28 that, against the wishes of the Lord, the rulers of Judah treated with Egypt in a bid for greater military strength, but the next eight years were met with an ominous silence from Assyria.

We have received reports, my lord, that Sennacherib has fielded a vast army and they are moving along southward along the coast.¹  It is impossible to discern their objective at this point.
 
The Assyrian host has shifted its advance eastward.  Even now they are crossing into Judah.

It is as we feared.  Our fortified cities are being overrun.

Lachish has been sacked.

Mareshah cannot hold.

Adullum is under attack.

We have lost Hebron.

There are no free strongholds left in Judah, except Jerusalem.

The southwestern region of Judah was by no means the soft underbelly of the country, militarily speaking.  It had been strengthened extensively by Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:5-12) and others, but it may as well have been shored up with straw as King Sennacherib gobbled up city after city.  If there was an alliance with Egypt during this time, Egypt did not stir.  Hezekiah stood alone in a shrinking territory.  He could not fight Sennacherib on equal terms, and Judah's weakness was showing day by day - she was dying.  The noose was tightening.  The Assyrians could push to Jerusalem in mere days, and there was nowhere to retreat.  The councillors stood silent; the generals were grim.  What can we do?  What remains to be done?  Send to Sennacherib; tell him we have erred in defying him.  Offer him anything, anything, and beg that he might desist in his bloody campaign. 

Sennacherib demanded 30 talents of gold, and 300 of silver.  Alas that Hezekiah's forebears had trodden this same dolorous path several times before (2 Kings 12:18, 16:8), and Judah's treasuries lay emaciated.  This total could not be extracted from them.  Hezekiah conceded to empty the house of his Lord of its silver articles, but even then, he wanted for gold.  There is gold on the doors and doorposts of the temple.  Let it be stripped off.  How his heart must have grieved to make this pronouncement, as he himself had clad the temple in such splendor!  The gold that he had dedicated to his holy, precious God, he now freely took back in order to fearfully deliver it to a pagan king who lived in utter defiance of God.

Twice Hezekiah had conceived plans to save his land apart from faith in the intervening hand of the Lord, and the first, his alliance with Egypt, had come to nothing.  His hope in the second would also prove disastrous as an envoy of Sennacherib came to Jerusalem, demanding Hezekiah's surrender, in spite of the painful tribute that had been proffered.  There is nothing to save you.  Other nations have beseeched their gods, and their gods have all utterly failed them.  So it will be with Judah. 

No earthly recourse lay at hand - no alliance, no armies, no wealth, no negotiations could intervene.  Hezekiah's hands were finally emptied.  Such times are often used by the Lord, are they not?  In the face of our faithless acts, He will at times systematically remove all options until we are obliged in helplessness to remember Him and to look to Him.  For Hezekiah, the temple of the Lord (which now stood stripped bare - not by Judah's enemies, but sadly by his own decree) became his place of refuge, and he prayed earnestly and humbly to his Lord.  O Lord, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.  Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.  Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God. (2 Kings 19:15-19)

This is a very comely prayer indeed, and we must note several features in passing.  First, it does not reproach the Lord with any note of sourness, as in "Why have You not labored with me in the plans I have made?"  Where it could be accusatory, it is instead worshipful:  it acknowledges wholeheartedly God's unique and independent sovereignty over all things.  Neither is it presumptuous; its requests are not demands.  Finally, it transcends the immediate circumstances and looks ultimately not at the plight of God's people, but at the glory of God's name.  Hezekiah words righteously importune, "Vindicate Your holy name, O Lord," and not "Vindicate Your obviously deserving people, O Lord."

This is not a formula by which we unlock the power of God to work on our behalf, of course.  Our omniscient God cannot be coerced by any means.  Rather, this is a mindset whereby we submit ourselves to the perfect will of the living God.  If His mighty hand moves on our behalf, we are glad; if, for reasons all His own, it does not stir, we are not offended.  We wait confidently on His good pleasure. 

The Lord did not hesitate to send His answer through Isaiah:  God had purposed from before time to give Assyria its strength for toppling cities and kings; however, their rebellion against Him had made them worthy of defeat, and the time had come.  The Lord declared that He would lead Sennacherib back to his own land, and furthermore, that he would neither set foot in Jerusalem, nor lay siege to it, nor fire arrows into it, nor assault it.

To put it more bluntly, after Hezekiah had exhausted his own paltry options, to absolutely no avail, he humbled himself before the Lord, and the Lord responded that He would surely deal with Assyria, and in such a way that Judah would not by any stretch be able to claim any part in that victory.  Assyria would be turned aside even before it could move upon Jerusalem.  Assyria's strength and Judah's helplessness would both contribute to God's amazing glory in this matter.

Hezekiah's prayer to God prompted Him to unveil yet another brilliant gem of glory as well.  God raised up the Assyrians and allowed them to perpetrate their massive conquests.  In so doing, he used them to show the falseness of local idols throughout the region as city after city was overthrown, despite the prayers offered to gods of man's handiwork.  How incredible, then, that God should bring these overwhelming conquerors, these idol-killers, against Himself, and use their efforts to demonstrate beyond doubt that He is very real, and insurmountably powerful, and always sovereign!  Hezekiah's prayer brought an incredibly glorious answer from the Lord of glory Himself!

Most are familiar with the particular form that this glorious response took - in the span of a single night, the Lord Himself, the pre-incarnate Christ, came and simply killed 185,000 from Sennacherib's army - specifically all the valiant men and all the leaders.  This constitutes more soldiers than the entire Allied force that invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944.  It is more soldiers than those who fought at Gettysburg - on both sides.  Our search, and indeed, Sennacherib's search, for an explanation apart from divine intervention, is definitively confounded.  This was an act of God - pure, divine, and simple.  Judah was saved by the Almighty on that day, and Sennacherib quickly withdrew, never to return.

How wondrous it is that such a response should come after a prayer given by an imperfect man who had acted faithlessly not so long before!  I need hardly mention the incredible trove of grace, patience, power, and authority that this event reveals within our God, but I would urge you to consider this wonder, to rejoice at it, and to marvel at how strongly our God responds to prayers from people not unlike ourselves.  We will, I think, find both glad adoration and steadfast prayer close at hand as we do so.



¹ So says the Beitzel's New Moody Atlas of the Bible in its various maps of this campaign.