Prayer: Drawing Near the Heartbeat of God

Making God's Heartbeat Our Own

Studying and meditating upon the Word of God is how we learn about those things that are near the heart of God. Prayer is the way we make God's heartbeat our own.

If we attempt to pray without Scripture, we will not fully comprehend God's heart. If we attempt to study Scripture without prayer, we will never be changed into the servants of God we were destined to be. The best way to pray, then, is to pray Scripture - the heart of God.

Stop reading and think about the implications of those two statements for a moment.

In his book The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson described a way to pray Scripture - God's heart - so that our lives and our world are changed to more closely conform to God's purposes. He used the illustration of the Israelites circling Jericho which resulted in God moving in a powerful way. Batterson makes it clear making prayer circles is nothing magical, but it is powerful because it increases our intensity, focus and perseverance as we pray God's heart.

God's Heart: A Quick Look

A quick look at some key passages in the Bible will reveal God's heart has not changed over the millennium.
God chose to make promises on several specific occasions. These promises reveal God's heart over time.

1. Genesis 3:15 - Right after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised to send a Savior who would redeem the entire human race.
2. Genesis 12:1-3 - God promised to bless Abram and make him a great nation so that through him all the nations on earth might be blessed.
3. Exodus 19:3-6 - God promised to make Israel a kingdom of priests. The role of a priest is to represent people before God. It was always God's intention to bring the world to himself through Israel (Jer. 4:1-2).
4. 2 Samuel 7:12-16 - God promised to make David's kingdom last forever. This promise was ultimately to bring the nations to God (Is. 55:3-5).
5. Jeremiah 31:31-34 - Israel had failed her God-given mission to be a light to the world, but now God promised he would change them so they could fulfill their mission (Is. 49:6). This promise is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus (Heb. 8:9-13).
6. Matthew 28:18-20 - Jesus came to show us and enable us to complete the original mission of humans: to point the world to God. Jesus entrusted the completion of God's plan to redeem the world to us and He will not return until we have completed our mission (Rev. 7:9-10)!

Prayer does not only change our heart, it also changes the world around us. We are co-laborers with Christ in bringing all of the world into God's kingdom (1 Cor. 3:9). The Bible implies that until we pray, God chooses not to act! Francis Chan noted in his book Multiply that the Church is God's plan for reaching the world for Christ, and he does not have a plan B. Until we move in prayer and in action, God waits. John Wesley said, "God does nothing but in answer to prayer."

A Plan of Action

We know reaching the world for Christ is the heartbeat of God. Let that truth transform us, you, and all the world so that we accurately reflect the image of God - just as we were created to do. Let it transform us through prayer.

We want you to join us in praying Scripture in circles around our family and the assignment God has given us to serve him at ICSB in Hungary. To facilitate those prayers - and so we are all joining together as a body to pray in a united mind (Mt. 18:20) - we have created a prayer circle that we would like you to print and pray through with us every day. It can be found on our website here.

If you choose to join us in this critical work, please reply to this email and tell us you want to be a part of our prayer team, or you can go here to sign up to receive specific prayer updates as a part of our prayer team. Let us join together as one and change the world through prayer and action as God intended us to do!.