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Bible Study Prayer

Be A Prayer Warrior: Part 1

What I want to do is I want to arm you with some prayers that are not safe to pray. In fact, just know going into them, when you pray these prayers, you’re really asking God to do something that will often take you out of your comfort zone.

I am super excited to start this series of studies. What we’re going to do is we’re really going to start praying three new types prayers, and I want to warn you, these are not easy prayers. These are not safe prayers. These are not benign prayers. I’m calling them dangerous prayers, but they’re dangerous in a good way. In fact, if you ask my opinion, most people I know in this part of the world, most people’s prayers are way too safe. What do we often pray for? God bless us. Safe? God help us. Good, but safe?

What I want to do is I want to arm you with some prayers that are not safe to pray. In fact, just know going into them, when you pray these prayers, you’re really asking God to do something that will often take you out of your comfort zone.

Today, we’re going to start with dangerous prayer, and we’re going to look at a prayer that David prayed in Psalm 139. David prayed this after his enemies and God’s enemies were on the attack, and accusing David of having wrong motives. Instead of defending himself, he actually prayed a very dangerous prayer before God, when he asked God to search his heart. Psalm 139 will introduce our dangerous prayer for the day.

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is what David prayed, a very dangerous prayer. He prayed, “Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me, and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” A very dangerous prayer.

Think about how many times you have prayed this type of prayer. What I want to do is break the last part of this prayer down into four parts

“Search my heart.”

He says it very directly in verse twenty-three, “Search me, God, and know my heart.” For some of you, you may look at that and think, “Now, why would we ask God to search our heart. He knows it, we have a good heart, right?

 Actually, we need to understand that without Christ, we do not have a good heart. It’s a very common saying. “Well, she’s got a good heart.” Actually, she’s got a wicked heart, if you want to be completely accurate. Jeremiah 17:9 says this: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and it is desperately wicked.” Who really knows how bad it is?

We need to understand that without Christ, our heart is not a good heart, that we deceive others, we deceive ourselves. We lie to ourselves. The most common lie that most of us tell is to ourselves. The heart is deceitful. We deceive ourselves. We don’t even know how bad we are.

 The heart is deceitful above all things, and we need a really dangerous prayer when we go before God and say, “Search my heart, God. Show me what is in there. Search my heart, oh God.”

When you pray, “Search my heart,” it’s a dangerous prayer, because God is going to show you things in your heart that are not pure. Not to be cruel, but to bring you into deeper intimacy with Him as his Holy Spirit transforms you to be conformed to the image of Christ. It’s a dangerous prayer, you need to understand, but it’s one that can make you so much closer to God.

“Know my anxious thoughts”

  Show me my fears. He says this in verse twenty-three, “Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me,” and then know what? “And know my anxious thoughts.” What is it that makes you anxious? A lot of times, we don’t even acknowledge them. We just think, “Well, everybody has to worry about this.” What is it that makes you afraid? I’m not talking about snakes and spiders, and the man behind the shower curtain who is there in the dark waiting for you when you when you come into the bathroom. I’m not talking about that guy. He might be there. He’s never been there, but I check for him every time. If you ever think you’re going to be him, just understand, I’m cocked and ready every single time, every single time, every single time.

 What is it that internally makes you afraid? What is that makes you anxious? Afraid of losing your job? Afraid of not getting married by such and such age? Afraid of being stuck in the marriage that you’re in and it not getting any better? Afraid of the future, the unknown? Afraid of failing? Some people are afraid of succeeding. Afraid of loss? What if I lose somebody? What if I lose something that I value so dearly?

Why does this matter? Why would we say, “God, show me my anxious thoughts?” I would argue because of this … If you’re taking notes, you can jot this down. Because what we fear the most reveals where we trust God the least. Think about that. What we fear the most reveals where we trust God the least. If I’m scared to death that my marriage isn’t going to work, well, I’m not trusting God with my marriage. If I’m afraid that I’m not going to be able to pay the bills, I’m not trusting God to be my provider. If I’m afraid that … I got to keep my children safe. I’m not trusting my children to God. What you fear the most reveals where you trust God the least.

 “God, reveal my fears. Test me, God, and show me where my anxious thoughts fall.” I prayed this prayer this week. Every day I started the day praying this prayer, dangerous prayer, “Search me, God. Know my heart. Reveal my anxious thoughts,” and what God showed me about what I fear the most is not something I’m really proud of, but I am scared to death of failing. If I succeed, it’s often because I’m so driven by fear of failing, and I prayed through more of that, and I recognized actually what I fear is not just failing, but it’s letting people down, and then I got to the deeper level as I was praying through it, and I realize I just have a massive fear of being inadequate, of not being enough, not being good enough, not being righteous enough, not being wise enough, not being whatever enough. This is my fear.

This is a real issue, because in the church and in my role, I cannot be driven by fear. I have to be lead by faith. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God, and there are some things that I really believe God wants our church to do, but there’s no guarantees it’s always going to work. Often my fear will keep from being obedient. I’m just telling you maybe more than you want to know, but it’s really meaningful to me. As I was praying through it this week, what I really believe God showed me is that I have to love pleasing Him more than I fear failing, and that was really powerful to me. I have to love pleasing Him and being obedient to Him, more than I am afraid of failing.

In my own time of praying this, “God, test me. Know my anxious thoughts,” this comes to mind, and so what am I doing? I’m quoting scripture to renew my mind. “Perfect love, cast out all fear.” God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

I just dare you, double dog dare you, pray this prayer, “Search my heart, oh God. Test me, and know my anxious thoughts.” Why does what you fear matter? What you fear the most reveals where you trust God the least, and suddenly, you recognize in this one area, I’m really not trusting God, and, suddenly, as you start to do what I did, you get down to the root of it, and then God’s word can speak to the root of the problem, and that can become an anchor moment, when, suddenly, you say, “No, I will take that step of faith,” or, “I will do what God is calling me to do.” It’s a dangerous prayer.

When you pray this, God will reveal things to you about yourself that you may not have been willing to acknowledge for years and years and years, because the most common lie we tell is often to ourselves. That’s an issue for me. I’ve got this. I’m fine. Oh, yeah, I’m whatever. “Search my heart, God. Reveal my fears.”

See if there is any offensive way in me

Then number three, this is where it gets even a little more difficult, uncover my sins. Uncover my sins, God. This is what David prays. I love the courage it takes to pray this dangerous prayer. He prays, “God, see if there is any offensive way in me. Show me, God, anything about my life that is inconsistent with your truth. God, show me anything that I’m doing that’s displeasing to you. See if there is any offensive way in me,” because have you noticed, it’s really difficult to see our sins in the mirror? Oh, it’s so easy to find everybody else’s. Can you believe the way she walks, like she’s all hot stuff.

  Have you noticed that? We tend to accuse others, and what do we do with ourselves? Excuse ourselves. “I just have to do it. This is how I get through. It’s not that big a deal. It’s none of your business. Judge not least you be judged.”

The heart is deceitful above all things. The most common lies are the ones that we tell ourselves. That’s why it takes tremendous courage to say, “Search my heart, God. Test me. Know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me,” and this can be one of the most game changing prayers you ever pray, when you give God permission to point out any sin that’s dwelling within your heart.

 I want to give you three questions that are really helpful to ask yourself as you’re praying, “Uncover my sins.” Three questions that really help you with self-awareness.

What are others trying to tell me?

In other words, if you’ve had three or four people tell you they love you, “I think you might have a problem with this. This is an issue. I’m a little bit concerned about you here.” If you’ve got consistently people that love you tell you that, that might be something you want to pay a little close attention to. There is a common denominator here, and it is you. Pay attention to that.

What have I rationalized for some time?

In other words, “Yeah, this may not be right, but it’s not that big of a deal, and this is just how I deal with things. This is how I cope. It’s nobody else’s business anyway. This isn’t really hurting anybody. This is my one thing,” or whatever. What do you rationalize? “I’m going to quit. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Where am I most defensive?

“No, we’re not going there. No, we’re not talking about that. No, don’t you judge me. No, no. I don’t have a problem with that. No, back off. I told you we’re not talking about that.” Where are you most defensive?

  You see, when I see those three questions, it takes my mind right back to a significant issue that I had, and denied for quite some time, until I gave God permission to reveal my sinfulness.

When you have the courage to pray this prayer, “See if there is any offensive way in me,” let me make you a promise. God will point some things out. God will point some things out that you’ve been trying to explain away for a long time. God will point some things out that you’re trying to deny. Do not deny the truth. Denying the truth does not make truth false. Submit yourself to what God is trying to show you, and then what do we do, is we have the courage when God shows us something, to bring it to light.

This is a dangerous prayer. It takes courage to pray it, because when you pray it, He’ll show you some things about yourself that you’re not real proud of, but there’s always grace. There’s always grace.

“Lead me.”

Lead me.” When you show me what I don’t like about myself, and show me what needs to be changed, now you lead me in the way of everlasting. Verse twenty-four, he says this, “See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting. Lead me in the way of everlasting.”

When you have the courage to pray a very dangerous prayer, “Search me, God. You have permission to look deep into the depths of my deceitful heart, and show me, God, test me. Reveal to me my anxious thoughts. Show me the very places that I fear the most, because that shows me where I trust you the least. See if there’s any offensive way in me. No, I’m not pointing a finger at anybody, God. I’m letting you reveal to me what I need to hear.”

                                               

  When you pray this prayer, it will show you your need, and you take that need directly to Christ, and you let Christ meet that need and conform you to his image. It’s a dangerous prayer, but it’s a prayer that can transform your life.