Learn How To Pray Like A SPIRITUAL GIANT (Video)

Coffee With God: 6/14/2023 | 1 Kings 3:9

"Give your servant therefore a listening heart to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

One of the ultimate signs of Christian maturity can be perceived in the way we pray. If you’re looking for evidence of God’s sanctifying work in your life, an excellent place to start might be by honestly evaluating the focus of your prayers.

Do you spend most of your time in prayer offering thanksgiving and praise to God? Do you spend it in intercession for others?

When was the last time you prayed for the salvation of another person? How about for the world? Do you regularly pray for God’s Kingdom to come and continue advancing?

When was the last time you set aside prayerful time to sit and listen to what God had to say?

If you want to get more specific, ask yourself this: what is the main focus of my personal prayers? The prayers that I pray for myself? Am I praying for God to give me that promotion I desperately want? Or for my heart to be humble and guarded against pride? Am I praying for more monetary blessings and a bigger house? Or for the Lord to teach me what it truly means to be content and satisfied in Him?

It is not wrong to pray for ourselves. Not by a long shot. But what and how we pray indicates whether or not the focus of our life is genuinely on His Kingdom or our own.

This leads us to a prominent and informative story from the First Testament.

It’s the story of a young King, early on in his reign, eager to uphold the Godly legacy and incredible success of his father… You’ve heard the story before, I’m sure.

King Solomon asked the Lord for something very specific in his zeal to honor God and walk in His blessing. Something that pleased the Lord immensely. Something that caused the Lord to pour out innumerable blessings, both temporal and spiritual, on his humble servant.

Contrary to what you may have heard, Solomon did not ask God for wisdom. What he asked for reveals that wisdom was something Solomon already possessed.

What Solomon asked for, literally and precisely, was a listening heart. A heart that would be able to discern and respond to all the instruction, direction, and guidance that the Lord would offer him in the ensuing years.

The words in the original language are lev shomeag (לֵ֤ב שֹׁמֵ֙עַ֙). The word sh(o)mag (from the Hebrew root שׁמע) means, in part, “to listen,” but it’s also more than that.

While the English language features separate words for “listening,” “hearing,” “comprehending,” and “obeying,” the Hebrew word sh(o)mag incorporates all these ideas into a single term. It is a word that describes truly listening; hearing to the point that one responds with obedience.

So, what does it mean to have a listening heart?

For starters, a listening heart is eager to hear and respond to what God has to say instead of only tossing problems and requests up to the Lord, hoping that He will handle them in the way we’d like.

A listening heart has also moved past making one’s own comfort, desires, and preferences the center of their communion and relationship with God.

To possess a listening heart means that one has reached the point in Christian maturity that their life has become fully and completely submitted to the Lord. His desires have become their desires. His agenda, their agenda.

Two things are bound to happen when you become the possessor of a listening heart. First, your life will become a fantastic adventure, the planning of which is entirely out of your hands. You might be shocked at where God takes you when you give up control, but you will certainly not be disappointed.

Second, all the provision, supply, and responsibility for “preserving” your life will become God’s responsibility, not your own. Why was God able to give Solomon such inordinate wealth? Why was the Lord able to honor him before people in such a profound way?

Because God knew that in Solomon, he had found a servant who could handle the immense responsibility that comes with being God’s representative on the earth. He had the King’s attention.

Remember, Solomon didn’t ask God for wealth and honor; God gave those to Solomon because of what he asked for; a listening heart. Wealth and honor were God’s ideas, not Solomon’s.

Above all, a listening heart is rooted in two of the most fundamental, foundational truths of the Christian life: the first is that God is God, and we are not; His ways are higher than ours. Living a life that is true to His intention in creating us means honoring Him, following Him, and trusting His plans above our own.

The second is that God is for us, always and no matter what. The God who put on flesh to redeem us from sin and preserve our lives for eternity always has our best intentions at heart. He can be trusted.

Seeing that we serve a God so good and trustworthy, who wouldn’t want to learn to listen, hear, and respond to all He has to share with us?

Learn How To Pray Like A SPIRITUAL GIANT