God Initiates All Our Prayers

Prayer is initiated by God, not by us. Many may think that we initiate prayer for God to work. No, it’s just exactly opposite. God draws us first to pray and we respond to His drawing and begin to pray. It is true from the beginning. It is shown in Genesis Chapter 3. God initiated the first conversation with the fallen Adam and Eve by making the visitation to them. This is called the prayer of Adam and Eve, just talking with God honestly. Adam and Even hid themselves from God. But God initiated the conversation and led them to pray. What our God wants us to pray is to say the same thing what He said with Him. That’s real prayer, talking to God honestly and openly.

Prophet Daniel started prayer for his people to return to the holy land based on what he learned from the prophecy of Jeremiah (Daniel 9:1-3). The prophecy was for the people of Israel that they would return to their own land after the seventy years of captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:1-14). God must have moved the heart of Daniel when he read the scriptures regarding the return of his people. Then Daniel began to pray to God that He would answer what He had promised through the Prophet Jeremiah. Daniel’s prayer is recorded in the Book of Daniel Chapter 9. More than that, when Daniel prayed God revealed the remarkable revelation of seventy weeks in which God would do beyond the return of his people till the coming the Messiah for the first time and the Day of the Lord, the second coming.

Patriarch Abraham was told that God would destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God’s judgment plan caught Abraham’s attention to start praying for his nephew Lot. Abraham was so touched by the Lord’s revelation that he earnestly pleaded to save the cities if God found ten righteous people. Why did he stop at ten? Well, he was drawn by the Spirit of God to stop praying at ten. This is a remarkable account after the conversation between the Lord and Abraham. It says, “As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.” (Genesis 18:33 NASB) Wasn’t it that Abraham spoke to God, pleading for mercy? No, the Scripture said that God was speaking to Abraham. That’s true prayer. We listen what God is saying to us, not telling Him what he needs to do.

Our Lord Jesus Christ lived such a prayerful life all the time. He said so, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19 NASB) Jesus Christ was always listening to the Father through prayer and obeyed what the Father wanted Him to do. When some Greeks wished to see Jesus at the feast in Jerusalem, Jesus Christ said the remarkable words, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” (John 12:23 NASB) Our Lord Jesus Christ was always in prayer though which He communicated with the Father in spirit. By this, He knew exactly when He must have died.

Is it not encouraging by the fact that God draws us to pray in order to fulfill His promises? Some believers must pray for God to start His promised works to be done. One prayer which has yet unanswered we are drawn to pray is “Your kingdom come, your will be done as it is in heaven!” We are called and privileged to pray for that. Won’t you be thankful and join in that prayer which many saints and believers have been praying for centuries over centuries? God initiates all our prayers and will answer them all in due time.