(Read 2 Sam 7:18-29)
Today I will continue with “Faith and Patience Volume 5 – Greater is Coming!” There are different types of prayers. I have taught on prayer over the years. If you go to https://todaysword.org and search for prayer, you will find lots of teaching on the subject.
In today’s passage, after David heard everything the Lord spoke to him through the prophet Nathan, David performed two types of prayers in one. He prayed a “Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving,” and a “Prayer of Agreement.” Let’s read David’s prayer:
King David sat before the LORD and prayed, “Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And now, Sovereign LORD, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving your servant a lasting dynasty! Do you deal with everyone this way, O Sovereign LORD? “What more can I say to you? You know what your servant is really like, Sovereign LORD. Because of your promise and according to your will, you have done all these great things and have made them known to your servant. “How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you! What other nation on earth is like your people Israel? What other nation, O God, have you redeemed from slavery to be your own people? You made a great name for yourself when you redeemed your people from Egypt. You performed awesome miracles and drove out the nations and gods that stood in their way. You made Israel your very own people forever, and you, O LORD, became their God.
And now, O LORD God, I am your servant; do as you have promised concerning me and my family. Confirm it as a promise that will last forever. And may your name be honored forever so that everyone will say, ‘The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is God over Israel!’ And may the house of your servant David continue before you forever.
O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, I have been bold enough to pray this prayer to you because you have revealed all this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you—a dynasty of kings!’ For you are God, O Sovereign LORD. Your words are truth, and you have promised these good things to your servant. And now, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you have spoken, and when you grant a blessing to your servant, O Sovereign LORD, it is an eternal blessing!” We will stop here.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things:
1. The Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving thanks God for what He has done.
In his prayer, David said, “You performed awesome miracles and drove out the nations and gods that stood in their way. You made Israel your very own people forever, and you, O LORD, became their God.”
— While David was praying, He thanked God for what He had done. When we pray, we can have an entire prayer session where all we do is pray a Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving. During this type of prayer, we really don’t ask God for anything. We simply thank God for what He has done in our lives.
— If you don’t want to make your entire prayer session a Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving, you can open your prayer with it. When you do, when you mix in PRAISE in your PRAYER, you quickly get God’s attention, because He inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). Not only that but when you PRAISE inside of your PRAYER, it puts you in a mindset to pray. Because your heart will be set on God and His goodness.
— When you pray, incorporate the Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving. God loves it and it will help you get in a position and posture to pray in earnest.
2. During a Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving you can praise God for WHO He is!
In his prayer, David said, “How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you!”
— When we praise God for who He is, in the middle of our prayer session, we set the atmosphere to truly ‘tap into’ our secret place of prayer.
— Praising God for who He is welcomes God to inhabit your space and it shifts your focus to the enormity of God. Thinking about the immeasurable nature of God helps you to pray prayers on His level and not from your perspective.
— When you shift from praising God for WHAT He has done to simply praising Him for WHO He is, your prayer becomes praise and worship! Something special happens when you shift from thinking about God to actually speaking directly TO HIM! At that moment, you realize how small you are, how great God is, and how insignificant the challenge you are bringing to Him is.
3. During a Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving You Can Thank God for His grace.
In his prayer, David said, “What more can I say to you? You know what your servant is really like, Sovereign LORD.”
— No one knows you like God knows you. You might be able to fool others some of the time, but you will never be able to fool God any of the time. With that in mind, you might as well be honest with God in prayer.
— David knew he was not perfect and when he thought about the fact that God was promising to bless his household forever, establishing a dynasty of kings to come after him, he knew that it was only by grace.
— David knew he had not earned God’s blessing and He expressed his gratitude in prayer. When we give God the Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving, from our heart, we acknowledge the fact that He has been much better to us than we deserve. This way we are able to thank God for His amazing and immeasurable grace!
4. The Prayer of Agreement agrees with God’s revealed will.
In his prayer, David said, “You speak of giving your servant a lasting dynasty… do as you have promised concerning me and my family… may the house of your servant David continue before you forever… For you have spoken.”
— Prayer is not about you telling God what to do, nor it is about you giving God your Christmas list. In many ways, prayer is about you lining up your will with the will of the Father.
— In David’s case, God’s will had been revealed to the king through the prophet Nathan. So David did the right thing and he prayed a Prayer of Agreement. In his prayer, David was not telling God what to do, but rather agreeing with what God already said.
— This prayer is a prayer of submission and acceptance. You are accepting the will of God and coming in agreement with it in your heart.
— When you pray the Prayer of Agreement, in earnest, you align your will with the will of the Father.
— Powerful things happen when you provide a human alignment with your divine assignment. This type of prayer is about that alignment.
Today we will close with a prayer that lines up with what we just learned.
Closing Prayer: A Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving!
Father, I will never cease to praise Your name! From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, Your name is worthy to be praised. I thank You for all You have done in my life. You have kept me from seen and unseen dangers. You have shielded me from the hand of the enemy. You have comforted me when I truly needed it and when I could not find comfort in anyone else. You have given me peace when my heart was restless. You have encouraged me when I was at the point of giving up. You have been better to me than I have been to myself.
You are God alone. You alone sit on the circle of the earth. You alone have all things in and under control. You alone exercise sovereign rule. You alone are God and there is none besides You. I acknowledge no other deity, I call on no other name, and I look to no other God. You are my God, You are my Lord, You are my King and I worship You!
You have blessed me richly by Your immeasurable grace. On many occasions when I have done wrong and I deserved to be punished, You have NOT given me what I deserved, and I thank You for Your mercy. And Father, on many occasions You HAVE given me exactly what I did NOT deserve, blessing despite my performance, and I thank You for Your grace.
I am fully committed to fulfilling Your Kingdom plans and purposes for my life. As You reveal Your will to me, I quickly agree and I bring my will into submission to Yours. I make an alignment with Your assignment for my life and I experience Your best every day and in every way. This is why I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ Name! Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
