Prayer can sometimes resemble a one-way conversation or placing an order at Burger King. You place an order for healing, deliverance, family members’ salvation or blessings, and you instruct Yehovah on how and when He should deliver. In mainstream Christianity, Yehovah has turned into this genie in a bottle where we get to make three wishes if we rub the lamp the correct way. Other times, Yehovah has become this mafia boss who is more than willing to do what we ask of Him as long as we give Him enough protection money. It is not supposed to be like this; we need to repent and return to the way the Bible says we are to pray.
The Bible says there are some conditions we have to meet for Yehovah to hear and answer our prayers. In Matt 6:25-34, 21:22, Phil 4:6-7, John 14:14, John 9:31, the Bible says we have to obey the Mosaic covenant for our prayers to be heard. If we reject the law of Moses, He will not listen to us. A considerable part of obeying the Mosaic covenant is the cross of Christ. The Mosaic covenant calls for an atoning sacrifice for sins, and it even says it can not atone for intentional sins. The temple is gone, so right now, we cant atone for unintentional sins, and we could never have atoned for deliberate sins. The only solution to all of this is the cross of Christ, which atones for intentional AND unintentional sins. But as we have learned so often, the offer for atonement for intended sins is a 1-time offer only. Suppose we keep sinning intentionally after having repented and accepted the cross. In that case, we will lose our salvation and never get it back because then we will have blasphemed the Holy Spirit.
The second condition is how we word our prayers. The Bible does not permit us to place “Burger King” orders when we pray.
The Bible says in Phil 4:6-7 we are to pray about everything, and Luke 11:1-4 Yeshua (Jesus) taught us how to pray about everything.
Yeshua told us never to pray to Him; we are to pray to Yehovah so Yehovahs name can be sanctified in our life (Luke 11:2). We are to make sure we obey Yehovahs laws (the Mosaic covenant) (Luke 11:2). Then we are to tell Yehovah what we need and then ask for forgiveness and forgive those who have hurt us. (Luke 11:3-4)
When Yeshua, in Luke 11:3, teaches us to ask for our daily bread, we usually understand this only as food and sustenance. But if you read Luke 11:3 and Matt 6:11 in Hebrew, you will see how Yeshua is telling us to ask for Shalom. What is Shalom? We usually understand Shalom to mean peace. Shalom is so much more than just peace; Shalom is restoration and completeness in every area of our lives. Yeshua is saying here that after we have made sure we obey the Mosaic covenant, we are to ask Yehovah to restore what is broken in our lives, rebuild what is broken in our lives, and make us complete in every area of our lives. And then we are to ask for forgiveness and forgive others who have hurt us.
Is this not interesting to see how Yeshua prioritizes prayer? You get to ask for your needs before you have to forgive others and ask for forgiveness yourself. So in prayer, Yehovah comes first, then your needs, then your forgiveness followed by forgiving others.
- Focus on Yehovah and make sure you obey the Mosaic covenant.
- Ask Yehovah to rebuild what is broken in your life
- Ask for forgiveness, and forgive.
But what is also interesting is to see how Yeshua never teaches us to instruct Yehovah on how He should answer our prayers. Instead, He teaches us to ask Yehovah to rebuild every area of our lives, but we do not get to tell Him how to do it or when to do it.
Do you see the difference between praying “Burger-King” prayers and the way Yeshua teaches us to pray?
When you pray Burger-King prayers, you instruct Yehovah what to do and when to do it. When you pray the way Yeshua taught us to pray, you give Yehovah complete control on how to answer your prayer, what to do and when to do it. When we pray Burger-King prayers, we get upset if we dont get it our way in our time. When we pray like Yeshua, we will have faith and trust that He has heard our prayer, and He is working on rebuilding us.
So the difference is that when you give Yehovah complete control and authority to answer your prayers, you will begin praying with faith. When you pray with faith, even what you perceive as an adverse event in your life will be positive because you will know this is Yehovah answering your prayer. Then you will indeed be grateful for everything, knowing for sure everything in your life will turn out for the best because you obey Moses. (Rom 8:28)
Before I learned to pray the way Yeshua prayed, I used to pray what I call “Burger-King” prayers. I used to tell Yehovah what I needed when I needed it and how I believed He should give it to me. If it did not happen my way, I would get anxious, upset, and trying to rebuke the devil, believing he was hindering my prayers.
When I started praying the way Yeshua taught us to pray, I stopped telling Yehovah what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Instead, I prayed for Shalom for my life, body, soul, family, and ministry. I still tell Him what I need, but I dont ask Him to heal me or deliver me of a specific thing. I tell Him my needs, and then I ask Him for Shalom.
Yesterday I had a specific need, so I told Yehovah my need, but I did not ask Him to fix it for me. Instead, I asked for Shalom for myself. Yehovah did not immediately meet my need; instead, He brought to my attention a buried memory from my childhood and showed me how this memory affected me today and had caused this need in my life. Instead of asking Him to heal me of this childhood trauma, I asked for Shalom. And then He answered that prayer by healing me there and then from that childhood trauma, which led to my need being met.
In the past, when I prayed “burger-king” prayers, I would have perceived this as the devil trying to hinder my prayers. So I would have rebuked that memory in the name of Jesus, not knowing how my childhood trauma caused my present need. This, in turn, would have hindered Yehovahs healing because if He had not been able to heal me of my childhood trauma first, then He could not have met my current need.
Now, when I ask only for Shalom, Yehovah is free to do what He needs to do to heal me and meet my needs. Now I am grateful for whatever it might be He has to do to answer my prayer for Shalom, even if it means taking me through something negative to get to the positive.
Make a decision today to stop praying “Burger-King” prayers and instead pray the way Yeshua taught us to pray.
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