THY WILL BE DONE: PRAYER - "BE POSITIVE"

God loves the Christian who appears to have swallowed a dozen lemons as much as He loves the Joyful happy warrior who approaches the Throne enthusiastically, day after day!  The former’s approach to prayer is often filled with fear and trepidation to the point where the prayer life is stunted,  fellowship stymied and active relationship with the Father, stayed. The joyful happy warrior however sees his/her waking up in the morning as an opportunity to jump at, in order to meet and greet the Lord daily!

Both conditions define Christians who pursue and those who pout. Who is God more prone to respond to? Both, because He looks at the heart and the request which the Holy Spirit reconfigures, according to Scripture. The edge that the joyful person has is abundance….joy unspeakable, joy unfathomable…and why? Because the Joy of the Lord is your Strength (Nehemiah 8:10b). The latter is the domain of the praying Christian who approaches our Maker with faith, gratitude, humility, love and respect. In other words, a combination of all of these attributes and a willingness to be in His Presence in proactive intercession brings forth fruit and fuel which are both priceless and without comparison. A positive attitude in prayer becomes the Christian as it simply glows off the countenance!  

Consider this: Moses’ brother Aaron was the first official High Priest of the Faith (Melchizedek is the first ever on earth). Aaron’s famous Aaron blessing is direct from God and the portion which pertains here is  “The Lord bless you and keep you…..the Lord make His Face to shine upon you, and give you shalom (peace): Numbers 6:26. There is no more powerfully positive blessing and prayer than this. You can’t teach “positive” we just have to come to a full realization of how great a salvation we have, what that salvation cost Jesus Christ and how incredibly blessed we are to the point that we cannot help but fall at His Feet and even at the mention of His Name. There are many who reject the Lordship of Jesus Christ and simply call Him Savior. Savior, He is. However, if Jesus is NOT the Lord of your life, then something/somebody else is and there is no way there can be a complete relationship with God.

As always, Scripture is our road map. How we pray and stay positive is to start from the foundational truths of the Word, remain in the Word, pray the Word and thereby become fully reliant on the Word.  There is something to acknowledging and praising God in prayer as soon as you set yourself to pray in His Holy Name. “Bless the Lord oh my soul, all that is within me, bless His Holy Name” (Psalm 103:1) Think of the power that underlies this statement which the Holy Spirit placed there for our instruction!

Let us begin to work from the very heart of this verse for a minute, which is “all that is within me” (Psalm 103:1a). This is pro-active sacrificial worship straight from the very depths of who we, as 100% committed followers of Christ, is foundational in having a positive attitude of prayer. When you and I approach the Lord, with expectation and when you approach Abba Father with total surrender, you and I are operating under the Scriptural Definition of Faith. This is right out of Hebrews 11:1 “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for (expectation), the evidence of things not seen”!

Now about this “evidence” – those who are saved, redeemed, rejuvenated, born-again – we HAVE the evidence! He is the Holy Spirit! He is the SAME, the VERY SAME Holy Spirit Who raised Christ from the dead. He, Holy Spirit, IS the evidence! If this is not understand, we have more work to do to teach Him. So back to Psalm 103:a “ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME”? Well, all that is within you and I - is the Holy Spirit! 

With that in mind, how can we NOT be positive in our Prayer Life?! Impossible. The equation is simple: Holy Spirit (the Evidence within) and the Expectation equals dynamic fuel. This powers us to the state of being positive in prayer!

Next: "Be Practical"