The Promise of Prayer (7)

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will bewith him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.” Psalm 91.14-16

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33.3

Mercy and grace
As we’ve seen, the writer of Hebrews promises that, as we come boldly before the throne of God in prayer, we may expect to find mercy and grace to help in our times of need. Mercy comes in the form of absolution from sin, bringing with it relief from guilt, assurance of salvation, and renewed confidence and rest in our relationship with the Lord. Whenever we come to the Lord in prayer, we need mercy; and whenever we seek mercy, though our pleas for mercy be neither as full nor as complete as our sins require, we may know assuredly that when we confess our sins, to the best of our ability, the Lord will forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1.8-10).

Renewed in the mercy of the Lord, we may likewise expect that we will find grace to help us in our times of need. God promises to answer our prayers, to be with us in trouble, to deliver and honor us, to increase our experience of His salvation, and to show us great and mighty things we have never known before. And all these come to us from out of the treasury of His riches in grace.

In these last days, as the Lord is unfolding His divine economy, and His Kingdom is advancing on earth as it is in heaven, it pleases the Lord to “show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2.7). As surely as we may expect to know the mercy of God through our prayers, we may expect to realize His grace for all our times of need.

Grace in prayer
We may realize God’s promise to answer our prayers with grace in two ways. The first is the grace we may know in prayer, that is, while we are actually communing in prayer with Him.

In simplest terms, the grace we may know in prayer comes from realizing the presence of the Lord, receiving us and taking us into Himself as we pray. In the presence of the Lord we may experience His grace in three ways. First, we experience the grace of the Lord as He makes His glory known to us (2 Cor. 3.12-18). The glory of the Lord is all the qualities and essence of the Lord, made manifest to us in unmistakable ways, so that we become aware of being in the presence of something weighty, fearsome, majestic, full of splendor, and radiant with beauty, goodness, and truth. This is a work of God’s Spirit, as He brings us through His Word into the presence of God Who is revealed there. When you experience this gracious presence of glory, you will say with Peter, “It is good for us to be here.”

Second, the grace we experience in the presence of the Lord in prayer takes the form of joy. In the Lord’s presence is fullness of joy (Ps. 16.11). When we are overcome by joy, we experience a sense of total wellbeing, complete freedom from fear, doubt, worry, or disappointment. We feel relieved of all burdens, content and at peace in the midst of any situation, and stretched beyond all our problems or nagging concerns into a realm of joy that no adversity can reach.

Finally, the glory and joy of the Lord, which we know by grace when we come to Him in prayer, produces an experience of pleasure – holy pleasure, delight unspeakable, a pleasure with which no other pleasure on earth can compare and of which we will never tire (Ps. 16.11). When we come to God in prayer, we may expect Him to answer us with grace – by showing us His glory, filling and surrounding us with joy, and enrapturing us in pleasure from beyond this world.

Grace through prayer
But the grace with which God answers our prayers does not end in prayer. That grace is but the preparation we need for the grace that comes through prayer, the grace by which we manifest in our everyday experience what we have gained from the Lord in our time of prayer. The riches of grace which God kindly shows us in prayer becomes a treasury of grace that we spend throughout the day, sharing by our words and deeds, in a wide variety of ways, the transforming reality of grace with the people around us.

The grace gained in prayer will flow through us like rivers of living water to touch others with life from beyond the veil (Jn. 7.37-39). This grace is sufficient for all our needs. If we are suffering, grace sustains us and enables us, like Jesus, to speak words of comfort to others. If we are confused, grace reminds us of the truth that is in Christ Jesus, Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When we are with others, whether they be friends or irritants, grace appears in our words and deeds to glorify Jesus and make Him known.

We are called to be agents of grace, spending this precious coin of the realm of Christ’s Kingdom, to purchase for others the blessings of God, and in so doing, to be blessed of God ourselves as we return in prayer for mercy and grace to help in our time of need.

God promises to answer our prayers. When we seek Him for mercy and grace, we may sometimes be surprised at how He answers such prayers, but we will never be disappointed.

For reflection
1.  How do you experience the grace of God in prayer?

2.  What opportunities do you have to show the grace of God through prayer in your daily life? How can you prepare in prayer to be an agent of grace?

3.  What do we mean when we confidently assert that God answers prayers?

Next steps – Transformation: Pray for God to show His grace through you in specific ways today. Wait on Him to know His grace in prayer, then listen as He prepares you to go forth and show His grace through you to others.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.