On prayer and our place in God’s Creation

Out of all of the gifts God has given His children,
those He has Saved, prayer must be one of the greatest.  To understand this, we need a clearer view of
what prayer is and what it is capable of. 
When we have a good grasp of the reality of a gift, we can also have a
good appreciation of its value and how to use it.

In order to see prayer’s value, we must first
consider what has taken place on a spiritual level as far as God is
concerned.  Prayer is about access to God
and His willingness to hear and answer us. 
This is not to be centered on our own purposes, but for God’s.  God’s desire and His intent for all things –
be it an issue outside of us or one on our own heart – is to have them come
under the alignment of His perfect Will. 
God is perfect and in full, purposeful harmony, and anything that comes
into alignment with Him becomes harmonious as well.  In the end when Jesus returns and all sin and
its effects are destroyed, He will replace everything with a blessed
perfection, which knows no strife.  This
new Creation will truly be centered on God and be not only a reflection but an
extension of Him.  And as God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit are in total, peaceful balance, so too will everything
brought to replace this world once it is destroyed.  Prayer is about seeing and seeking and
requesting this perfection of God’s Will to be upon us now, piece by
piece.  God’s Will upon us is for the
advancement of the Kingdom and the provision of His children – and all for the
glory to Him that He deserves.  His Will
upon us relies on His provision for all needs, and we have the highest
privilege to stand before Him in Spirit and make our requests.

A good question to ask is – why does God wait on us
to ask Him in issues of prayer? 
Certainly, He does not need us for this – and this is a good attitude to
have.  After all, just as He told Job,
who else was even present when He created all things seen?  Yet we believe the claim that we, in our
Salvation, stand directly before the God of the Universe with our
requests?  And further, that those
requests, He answers??  The explanation
lies first in the question of what is it that God desires of us and of our
Saved lives.  Or simply put, why has He
Saved us, and so made us able and responsible for standing before Him in
petition?

God’s affairs with everything under Him, and that
literally being everything, are carried on continually.  Even as for us, God carries each breath we
take through the thing we call life.  The
atoms and the planets and the universe all keep spinning in order under the
direction of God.  God is God
because He is the sole Provider, and all things rely upon His provision.  Seeing the issue with any less scope of God’s
contribution would deny God of the truth and the recognition of what He is
responsible for.

And so, here we are, participating in this portion
of His Creation.  And if Saved, we have
the special standing before Him – in a very real, tangible way which is central
to our membership in His Family, as brothers with Christ.  So again, why has He Saved us, and so make us
able and responsible for standing before Him in petition?  He clearly does not need our help, and in contrast
with all that He is responsible for, this is very easy to see.  The same God Who is spinning the atoms in
this piece of paper is also very interested and concerned for the plight of
that one person on your prayer list who is in some sort of need.  Will God see to that person’s needs?  The more appropriate question is, has God
given you this person’s needs as an opportunity to exercise your relationship
with Him – which by Christ’s Sacrifice, He has blotted out your offensiveness
and made this relationship possible – and has He given you the means to appeal
to Him and see Him answer your intercession for this person?

If you are Saved, then you would do well to realize
the arena that God has created for us to dwell in, (here, this world around
us), while at the same time see the value and purpose in the rights He has
given you to stand before Him. The introduction of sin to the world was no
surprise to God, nor was it a mistake He is scrambling to correct.  The fact that God is staying His Wrath and
Judgment on sin is not because He is somehow indecisive, but instead that it is
serving His Sovereign purpose for the End Goal. 
The new Heaven and the new Earth He sees laying ahead is a place of that
perfect harmony of the Triune God, inhabited by creatures truly in His image –
again, in that same perfect harmony. 
This begins with our Resurrected soul, and will be embellished by love,
obedience, and existing in the enjoyment of God’s perfect Will.

The purpose of this fallen world, and the priceless
gift of standing before God, is in our gathering and preparation for this New
Jerusalem.  This existence here, now, for
the child of God is a working camp, a training ground, for the citizens of
God’s Holy City.  Here opportunity
abounds, and there is hardly a shortage of sin and it’s consequences – nor is
there any shortage in the greater provision God has granted to his children for
attacking the blight of this world by our faithful distribution of God’s
blessings – brought down through diligent intercession before the Throne of God
Almighty.  Here, we learn how to rely
upon and interact with God.

No one else but the Saved children of God possess
the right to go before Him and be heard. 
No one else can hope to have Him answer their prayers than those who
know Him and pray in His Will.  No one
else has been selected, then commanded, to take all of these issues
before God in prayer as good stewards of the most precious gifts they have been
charged with.  It is for all of these
issues we have been Saved, made to march on towards our appointment in the Holy
City as His Royal Priests.  Why did the
world fall to sin?  Why did God allow
this to happen and to continue?  Why did
He choose to Save a sinner like me?  Why
does He endow all of His children with His most precious Gifts?  Why has He commanded us, and then enabled us,
for these good works?  Look to the End
Goal, as He does.  See the means made
available to you now, child of God, and set about to learning how to make good
use of them.  Then follow through, and
serve and please the Creator of all, the Creator of you.