Back to the Fundamentals
“The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised.” (Genesis 21:1)
The best athletes in the world are not those who master a small sliver of specialized techniques. Rather, the best athletes are those who master the fundamentals. The same is true of our Christian life. The most godly Christians are not those who excel in austerity or master the finer points of theology; the most godly are those who master the fundamentals of the faith. Today, let us take a moment to discuss the fundamentals of prayer.
Prayer is “the language of creaturely dependence,” according to Benjamin Morgan Palmer. Prayer is that hungering and thirsting after God and His provision. But what do you pray? What language do we use? On occasion, that language is a heart-wrenching groaning (Rom. 8:26). The normal means of praying is to “ask according to His will.” (1 John 5:14) Or, to put it simply, pray the promises. God’s gracious will for us is undergirded by promise whereby He preserves and provides for us according to His free mercy.
As we open our Bibles, we see two phrases emblazoned within her cover – Old Testament and New Testament. A testament is nothing less than a will or an inheritance of promises, provided and paid for by the death of our Testator – Jesus Christ (Heb. 9:16-17). Every page of Scripture contains promises grounded upon the free mercy of the Father and the perfect doing and dying of the Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3-5). There is not an area of our lives in which these promises do not cover – salvation, sanctification, provision, protection, perseverance, and countless other needs.
However, these promises lie useless on the page if we do not take them to God. Our forefathers called this “gripping the promises.” This is where we would take a promise in hand and pray, “Father, here is a promise You made to me, and I’m asking you to keep it for me.” Sometimes, the answer would come quickly; others, years and years later. Not once has God failed to keep His promises. We see that in Sarah, in Joshua, in Solomon, in Paul, in Christ. Have you seen that? If not, maybe you should begin praying the promises back to the Promise-Making and Promise-Keeping God.
