A Begging Prayer

Posted on by stevenlucht1

An incredible challenge came to me this evening. I was sitting in a Bible Study at the church doing an inductive study on Philippians 4:1-9. For the purposes of what I’m going to talk about are verses four through seven which states:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. and the peace of God. which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
~Philippians 4:4-7~

These verses completely blow my mind… First off, lets focus on the the rejoicing part. How often do we get up out of bed and rejoice? How often do I rejoice in the hard times not knowing whats the next turn? It’s so easy to rejoice in the good times of life. Those times when you know that God is all around you and taking care of you… quite frankly when life just seems plain simple. Recently, I’ve very much come to the more falling deeply in Love with God. It’s been an amazing journey becoming closer and closer to God, but do I truly rejoice ALWAYS?

That was my first mind blower and challenge in my own life.

Second, how often do I spend in genuine prayer? Now, I am very much of a person that likes to talk with God all throughout my day. It’s truly a wonderful feeling… To be constantly talking with God.

I was in my car the other day and I talked with God about something that has been on my mind a lot lately. So, I sit down in my car and start out with, “alright God you know what’s on my heart, but now I really want to talk to you and pray about this to you.” Within a minute I’m completely distracted and thinking about some random topic and lose track of my prayer. I started getting frustrated with myself because I know what I need to talk to God about is a serious matter yet I’m getting myself distracted from praying about it. This happened several times during that car ride until I finally got home and distracted myself again with other things.

Supplication. In verse six it says that we should be in prayer AND supplication. I’ve always partially known what supplication was but out of curiosity I looked on google what a definition of supplication was. This is what I found:

sup·pli·ca·tion
noun: supplication; plural noun: supplications
  1. the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly.
    “he fell to his knees in supplication”

(Google definition)

Typically when I think of begging I don’t usually think about me sitting there praying in my head. When I think of someone that is begging its usually in a kneeing form, or even on their hands and knees! When do I get on my knees, let alone my hands and knees, to pray to God? Now, in my own life I need to get on my knees more especially what’s been going on in life and my future.

Is there something in your own life that needs prayer. I’m not talking about the “praying while driving and get distracted” kind of prayer. I’m talking about the “It’s time to get on my hands and knees” kind of praying. I know I do.

“If life gets too hard to stand, kneel.”
~Tony Evans~

“Sometimes I think …
I just prayed …
and God just LISTENED to me …
and He just ANSWERED me!
Is there anything more amazing,
anything greater than that?!?”
~Francis Chan~
“We ought to see the face of God every morning before we see the face of man.”
~D. L. Moody~
Thirdly, in verse six it also talks about thanksgiving. God is teaching me so much about being in constant thanksgiving to Him. The little things in life I take way too much for granted. It’s been a great challenge in the past couple weeks to constantly be thankful for all the big things God has placed in my life all the way to the most minute thing in life.
I was watching a sermon with Francis Chan and when the video started there was cheering and clapping. Francis was praying and thanking God for a great worship time. He finished and told the congregation of a gentleman that was cured of cancer. At that moment I heard a shout, “THANK YOU GOD, PRAISE GOD!!!” I’ve really never heard someone genuinely cry out to God at the top of their lungs in praise like that before. When’s the last time that we truly cried out thanking God for all the things He as done in my life, not worrying about what other people think about us?
Finally, at the end of verse six it states:
“…let your requests be made known to God.”
Philippians 4:6
What was an amazing reminder that an all knowing God wants to know what we need and want. He already knows so why should be telling him what he already knows? The only reason that I could think of (and they’re might be others) is that He wants to hear us talk to Him. Now I may not be in a relationship here on earth with anyone, but I know that if I had an attraction for someone I would want them to talk to me. I would want to hear their voice. Taking that a step further… If someone was married and knew absolutely everything about their spouse and what they were thinking, yet still wanted their spouse to tell them what they need want could only be a picture of genuine love to their spouse.
This thought is nearly overwhelming to me. GOD, The Almighty, wants to know what’s on my heart and my requests even though He already knows them!! That is an amazing picture of His love for us!
Once again, I am completely overwhelmed by the love that God has for us and what He has in store for our lives. It shows more and more that we just need to trust Him and to invest our lives into this relationship that we have in Christ.
It’s time to get on our knees and truly be in prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving to God.

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