I need to give props to my good friend Clay Gentry for this tool in prayer. I had not seriously thought about this until a conversation we had last week. Thanks, Clay. I think this is a great tool for our praying. (By the way, go to his blog and tell him to post more. He has great thoughts and we need to read them.)
Lay Something Out Before God with Your Prayer
Even though we are taking a break from learning about prayer from the psalmists, we have still been lingering on prayer. There’s a good reason for that. If we are going to survive each day, we need to be in constant contact with God. Prayer is one of the number one ways to maintain that contact.
Hezekiah gives us a great example of a practical tool we can use with our praying. In Isaiah 36-37, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, wanted to attack Judah but he was being attacked by Tirhakah of Cush. He decided to send Hezekiah the following letter letting him no Judah wasn’t off the hook.
Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?”
Here is the tool for our prayer. Isaiah 37:14-15 says, “Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD.”
Hezekiah didn’t just reference the letter in his prayer. He actually laid it out before God and then prayed. Of course, during the days of the temple, this meant going to the presence of God at the temple and laying out the letter. It was almost like he was letting God read it. Although, we know that isn’t the case. God knew what was in the letter before Hezekiah did.
What a great tool. Have you ever thought about laying something out before God and then praying about it? Maybe you want to pray for your marriage. What about laying out your wedding ring, some wedding pictures, or even your marriage license before God and then praying about your marriage. Maybe you want to pray for your kids or grandkids. How about laying out some pictures of them or some items that represent them. You might even sneak into their bedroom while they are asleep and pray over them, laying them out before God in your prayer. Maybe you are struggling to make ends meet or are working hard to get out of debt. You could take your bills and spread them out before God and pray over them.
The most extreme case of this I’ve heard about was a brother whose wife was cheating on him. This man drove to the motel where she was meeting her sin partner, parked outside the door, and prayed for his wife’s soul and repentance. Certainly, he could have prayed from home, but he laid the whole thing out before God and prayed. WOW!
Certainly, I don’t think laying these items out makes our prayers more effective as far as God is concerned. God doesn’t need to see a picture of our children to know which children we are praying for. However, this may help the efficacy of our prayers as far as we are concerned. Too often, prayer is just an activity of the mind for us and we move from praying to just thinking. Anything we can do to help make our prayers concrete is beneficial I think.
Maybe you think this is a bit odd. That’s okay. Why not try it and see if it doesn’t deepen your praying?
When you have tried it, come back and let us know if it helped or made an impact on your praying at all.