Praying the Heart of God

God wants us to pray His heart. I don’t think that means just TO His heart. I think He wants our hearts to beat as one with His. I think He wants us to love the things He loves; to care about the people He cares about; to hate the things He hates. He wants our prayers to resonate with His heart.
Pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done” Jesus taught us. The thing that most resonated with the Father’s heart is the Kingdom coming in power. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1) . When we pray for God’s kingdom to be realized on earth as it is in Heaven, we are praying the Father’s heart.
Pray for the harvest. Jesus said, “Pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth laborers into His harvest.” We pray the Father’s heart when we pray for workers to be sent out, to help the last days harvest that is now ripe and ready.
Pray for the hurting. Jesus looked with compassion on the people of Israel as “sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) Whenever we pray for the hurting, the lost, the broken, we have prayed the Father’s heart.
Pray for reconciliation to come. It is our Father’s heart that we find a way to healing in our relationships. Many have been wounded and hurt unjustly by others. While forgiveness in such cases is commanded, reconciliation is desired but not mandated. If you can find your way to reconciliation, however, it is pleasing to the Father’s heart.
You get the focus of this. When we pray things that don’t occupy a place in the Father’s heart, our prayers are dry and powerless . But when we pray His heart, I believe God “leans in” to hear us and delights to respond as we walk with Him and share that which is on His heart.
How do we find out what the Father’s heart it? He has shown us in His Word. We do the things He taught us, we pray for the things Jesus prayed for (see John 17) and then it is the Father’s delight to answer. We need to pray, believing we are praying the Father’s will and not seeking to impose ours on Him.
At the end of it all, prayer is about fellowship and communion with God. We become one heart with Him, and one voice crying out together. We are One. And ultimately our hearts, desires, and wants, needs and aspirations, are aligned with His.
And then REAL praying can begin!

“I would that all men everywhere lift up holy hands in prayer, without quarreling or anger.” (1 Tim2:8)

FOR REFLECTION: The next time you pray, pause for a moment to consider AM I PRAYING THE FATHER’S HEART OR MY OWN?
 

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