FORMED, CONFORMED, AND TRANSFORMED BY PRAYER
Kendra Intihar
Today's Scripture: “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” I Peter 2:17, ESV
Theme: Pray faithfully and allow prayer to change the way that you speak.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Before we sit together with this devotion, can I pray for us?
Lord, let us approach Your throne of grace today with tender, open, pliable hearts. Soften us to Your voice and set a guard over our mouths so that we speak only in ways that show radical love to our neighbors. Remind us that we are not a people called to sow division, but unity in the name of Jesus. Amen.
I am writing this devotion fully one week before election day. But friend, by the time you read it, it’s possible – even probable – that the race will be decided. If your candidate is the winner, I hope you are showing kindness and self-control when you interact with others. There are people you know who are metaphorically (or perhaps literally?) rending garments because they are so distraught at this outcome, and you, Christ-follower, can be the “salt of the earth” (see: Matthew 5:13) without being the salt in the wound.
Perhaps you’re the garment-render in this situation. If your candidate didn’t win, I hope you remember the sovereignty of God. God sees the end from the beginning – this outcome did not surprise Him, even if it surprised or disappointed you.
Regardless of the results of this election, the Lord offers us an eternal perspective that right-sizes our tiny place in history and reminds us that our greatest call is not to our temporary, earthly allegiances. And in fact, one of the most effective ways to right-size this minuscule American moment inside of the vast timeline of God’s grand story is through prayer.
THE PRINCIPAL PURPOSE OF PRAYER
When I was little, I imagined that prayer was the means by which we asked God to do what we wanted. Perhaps you, like me, spent a lot of your life feeling like God’s response to prayer was more of a coin flip than an answer. I remember praying for good grades in math, front row parking spaces at school, and that I’d be able to find long lost toys or trinkets. In hindsight, I see this as a precious effort from a faith-filled kid – something like baby steps. But 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 tells us that at some point, we must grow beyond babies-in-the-faith and begin to experience the “meat” of Christian living. A healthy prayer life is part of this “meat.”
Prayer is not a divine conversation we have with God in order to beg, cajole, or coerce Him into granting our particular requests, as I once thought. Prayers are not pennies cast into the God-fountain. Certainly, our prayers are opportunities to ask God to intercede in our broken world and to make an appeal to Him about the things that matter to us. But when we pray, something even bigger than “answered prayers” is catalyzed: the Holy Spirit does the important work of conforming us to the character of Christ. The Spirit moves our heart closer to the heart of God. The principal purpose of prayer is not to tell God our will, but to align our minds and hearts with His will. Prayer is for spiritual formation – not merely petition.
SPEAK WITH LOVE
Perhaps you prayed for the outcome of this election. I sure did. As of this writing, none of us – except God – knows how it all turned out. So as I sit here in the luxurious position of being “in the past,” I am able to say, perhaps even more confidently than I will be able to in a week: Pray for the person who has just been elected. As Pastor Will said several weeks ago, pray for their blessing. Pray for their family. Pray for them to act in Christlikeness: with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Pray sincerely for your neighbors, friends, and family members who voted differently from you. Allow prayer to form you and create in you a discipline of pursuing the heart of God. Allow prayer to conform you to the image of Christ. And allow prayer to transform your verbal ‘swords’ into ‘ploughshares’ so that you can, out of the abundance of God’s grace and goodness in your heart, speak with love to – and about – others.
Make it Personal: How can you shift your prayer life to focus more on aligning with the heart of God rather than merely presenting your requests? How does reflecting on God’s grand story change the way you view political outcomes? How can this perspective influence the way you speak to and about others?
Pray: If the principal purpose of prayer is to be formed into the likeness of Jesus, then join me in praying as He taught us today:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13, KJV).
Read: Psalm 141:3; Luke 17:20-21; Ephesians 4:29; Luke 6:45
Weekly Memory Verse: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Luke 6:45, ESV