Prayer is so important. I don’t think the world has ever collectively felt the need to pray as we do now. Perhaps in past war times, depressions, or other pandemics, but not in recent decades.
So many need our prayers. Governing authorities from our local and state governments to our federal lawmakers need prayer. Our neighbors, friends, and coworkers need our prayers. It’s all around us.
Some of us wonder what we can do to make a difference right now. If that is one of your questions, something aching in your heart, then you have been chosen to pray. But I know many of us feel our prayers bounce back from heaven. We’re not sure if they are doing any good. Please don’t believe this lie from the enemy. Of course, he wants us to doubt God’s goodness and power. Sure, he is determined to discourage us in the one major thing we are called to do! Satan does not want us to pray.
We are in the middle of a battle.
I’m here to tell you not to give up.
I’m writing to strengthen your prayer muscles.
Find New Ways to Petition God
Even though prayer seems passive, we must recognize it’s power and resist the doubts that our prayers don’t matter. If your prayer life could use a face-lift, start praying the Hebrew names of God and Jesus.
Why would this help us? Because names are important to us and to God. For example, have you ever had someone recognize you and say your name when you didn’t expect it?
One day I walked into a hotel exhausted from an eight hour solo drive.
“Name?” asked the friendly front desk clerk.
“Lee,” I responded while fumbling with my bags.
Without missing a beat he said, “Oh! Andy Lee?”
It always awakens my senses when someone I don’t know somehow knows my name–not that it happens very often, but when it does, I’m taken aback. My face must have given away my thoughts and he explained he’d just spoken with the head of the conference and gone through the list of names. Even though the list was fresh on his mind, I liked him. He knew my name.
Our names are important to us. Whenever someone calls us by name–especially someone we don’t know, it gets our attention.
I’m not good at remembering names. I always feel awful when I know someone but her name won’t retrieve itself from the cobwebs in my brain. Don’t you hate it when the name comes to you two hours after the encounter?
We know it’s important. If it blesses us for people to know our name, wouldn’t it bless God too? We are made in His image.
The Promises of Praying God’s Name
Jeremiah prophesied God’s promise:
“….Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”
– Jeremiah 29:12
It blesses me to think of attaining the favor of God’s ear.
This verse makes it personal like pouring your heart out to an attentive friend over a cup of Starbucks.
“I will listen to you,” whispers the Ancient of Days looking straight into my eyes.
Though I know this verse was first penned for the Israelites, the promise demonstrates the character of God, and how He works in our lives.
But according to this verse something must happen before God hears us.
We must call upon Him and pray to Him. What does it mean to “call upon” God?
I’m so glad you asked. (Smile.)
It’s more than saying, “Help!” or “Hey, you!” The Hebrew word translated in the NIV is Qara. According to the Key Word Study Bible, Qara rarely refers to a random outcry.
Qara is used to signify the act of naming. . . . Naming a person may specify that individual’s primary characteristic, be an evaluation, or recognize an eternal truth in the sense of summoning for a specific task. Another prominent usage has to do with calling on the name of God; that is to summon His aid…. (Key Word NIV p. 1549)
GOD HAS MANY NAMES.
God’s names reveal His attributes and how people experience His power and goodness. When Moses asked His name, God replied, “I AM.” This name signifies the One who encompasses all things and can do all things, the One who lives forever, the covenant God YHWH.
Other names of God:
- Elohim, God, Mighty Creator,
- EL Shadday, God Almighty,
- Yaweh Yireh, God Will Provide,
- Yaweh Rophe, God Who Heals.
- Abba, Father
- EL Roi, God Who Sees Me
Just to name a few.
Names of Jesus:
- Immanuel, God With Us
- Sar Shalom, Prince of Peace
- Ga’al, Redeemer
- Yeshua, Jesus the Savior
Something stirs within me when I begin my petitions to my EL Roi, The God Who Sees Me or to Abba, my heavenly Daddy, or Sar Shalom, my Prince of Peace in the midst of the battle.
THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD, BUT . . .
The battle does belong to the Lord, but we are His soldiers. When we become passive to the destruction ravaging the moral framework of our country and the world, we give the enemy the upper hand. Though God gave the Israelites the Promised Land, they had to fight. He helped them, but they still had to do their part. We must do ours.
When God called Gideon, he was oppressed and hopeless, threshing wheat in a winepress where there was no wind to blow away the chaff. Where he was trying to do his job, hiding in fear, was an almost impossible place to thresh the wheat. How many of us have resigned to hiding? Are you trying to do what you need to do in a difficult place for fear of being seen? Do you feel God has left the building? Gideon did.
But the angel of the Lord met him in the midst of his fear and striving. Despite Gideon’s view of himself and his predicament, God called him a warrior. His salutation to Gideon was, “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior” (Judges 6:12).
It’s time for us to climb out of our hiding places and fight! You are a mighty warrior.
PRAY
I know many who need to call on the specific names of their God and His attributes as Healer, Provider, Peace-maker, Creator, Almighty Strength, and my favorite, El Roi, the God who sees me.
He sees you right where you are. He knows your name. Now you know His.
Call on Him specifically. Why wouldn’t God cherish that we call His name? We’re made just like Him–in His image. If someone knowing our names perks our ears, why wouldn’t it His?
Other Articles on Prayer:
16 Years Praying for My Atheist Father
Prayers to Unleash Supernatural Power
Amen!