When God Answers Prayer: Prayers in Bowls 6

How do you respond when God answers prayer?

God answers prayer every day. In big ways and small ones he is constantly moving at our request. We know this because scriptures tell us repetitively. Christ, himself, told us that “whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith (Matthew 21:22).” So we can, without doubt, know that God answers prayers. It is usually not on our time or in the way we except but He absolutely does answer.

Prayers in Bowls

We have been talking about Revelations 5:5 and God storing our prayers in bowls. We’ve looked at prayer equity and how we need to pray without ceasing in order to fill our bowls. We’ve also discussed what we can do to stay busy while we’re waiting and how to wait well. These are all important concepts and if you’ve missed any, I would encourage you to go back and check them out!

God Answers Prayer

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 34.png — Scripture assured us that whatever we ask of the father, through Jesus Christ, we will receive

Today, we’re looking at ways we can respond when God answers prayer. The Old Testament is filled with ways people responded to answered prayers.

Gratitude

It almost goes without saying that we are to give thanks when God answers prayer. Our response when God answers prayer is gratitude. We know this and it’s usually easy to say thank you but there is so much more to gratitude and gratefulness than merely expressing our thanks to God.

Everything God does, including the blessings He pours out upon us, are a testament to His love for us. And while He loves to lavish good gifts on us purely to bless us, He also uses those blessing to help reach others.

It’s easy for us to look at our blessings selfishly and to forget that we are commissioned to be His agents on Earth, spreading the good news of how much He loves us and others. How better to share his love than to share what He has and is doing for you?

Other than saying thank you to God directly, how do we express our gratitude when God answers prayer?

The Old Testament is filled with ways the people gave thanks. There are two main categories for how people gave thanks: praise and worship. The Psalms, especially, are filled with examples of people’s responses to God answering prayers. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Praise and Worship

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 26.png

Praise and worship are classic responses when God answers prayer. The Psalms are filled with dozens of verses where the Psalmist tells of praising and worshiping God for what He has done. Praise and worship often get lumped together though and many don’t actually know the difference. But there is a difference between the two!

There are two ways we can praise and worship the Lord. Publicly and privately.

Praise

Public praise is a collective experiences that acknowledges how God is working in the community – whether a family, church, ministry, or something else. While both praise and worship can be done alone or in community, the difference is that one is meant to be an outward confession of faith and thanks while the other is an inward adoration. Often, the two go hand in hand which is where I believe the confusion lies.

Psalm 9: 1-2 gives us a great look at what praise is meant to be.

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart and (I will) tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you and will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

Praise can be word, song or thought. It is being glad and rejoicing in who God is and what He has done. To praise is to tell of or confess what God has done.

I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. Psalm 22:22

Testify

Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long. Psalm 35:28

When God answered prayer, the Psalmists often would express their desire to testify to His goodness. Our witness is meant to encourage and bolster others.

God exists in relationship and relationship is important to him. He is one in three and in perpetual relationship. Additionally, He likens the relationship between Christ and the church to that of a marriage. Likewise, we are not meant to exist alone. As we’ve looked at before, community is an important part of our walk with God because we find strength in others.

Just like praising God for the answer to other’s prayers bolsters our own strength and reminds us that God is active, our answered prayers are the encouragement others need to give them hope and strengthen their faith. There is great encouragement found sharing our testimony with others.

Feast

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 27.png — the Bible is full of references to feasting as a way of praise God when He answers prayer.

While perhaps not mentioned in the Psalms, feasting is a strong Old Testament Tradition for giving thanks when God answers prayer and is an act of praise. After a victory in battle or God saving someone, there was often a feast. Passover is a celebration of God rescuing his people and a celebration of freedom.

In modern times, while many have moved away from Biblical feasts, we still feast to give thanks. Thanksgiving is great example of how, even with God removed from the situation, we have an innate desire to collectively count our blessings and share with those we care about.

Worship

Privately, worship is done exclusively for ourselves. It is us, in our hearts and minds, giving glory and thanks to God for who He is and what He has done for us. Publicly, praise is about joining together as a community to praise God.

Worship is an inward act from our hearts to God. Isaiah 29:13 gives us a good look at the difference between praise and worship.

These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Isaiah 29:13

While the first people in this passage were outwardly praising God, they hearts were wrong and they were not worshiping. John gives us another look at this saying that true worshipers will worship in the Spirit because it comes from the heart.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. John 4:23-24 (NIV)

While praise and worship absolutely can be done through song, it isn’t necessary for either. Simple prayer can be praise and worship, as can be sharing a testimony.

Sacrifice

He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it of peace offerings and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. 2 Chronicles 33:16

Let’s be clear. God isn’t asking us to go out and kill the fatted calf or the unblemished lamb as in the days of the Old Testament. However, when God gives us to us and blesses us, we are to give back.

Donations and Tithes

God blesses us regularly with provision. We have jobs that pay bills and are asked to return a portion of this to do God’s work on Earth. This tithe is one way we sacrifice to give back and thank God for what he has graciously blessed us with. But it goes beyond our tithe.

Donations to churches, charities, etc. can stretch us out of our comfort zones. Often times families will ask for donations in lieu of flowers at funerals. It is becoming common for my generation to ask for donations to a charity of personal significance instead of birthday/wedding/graduation gifts.

Time and Energy

Outside of financial gifts, there are other ways we can make personal sacrifices for God’s glory. We can offer up our time and energy, volunteering.

Sometimes volunteering is a major commitment. It can be working in a ministry at church or going on a mission’s trip. But often our volunteering is in much smaller, every day ways. It can be taking a meal to someone to offer support, running an extra errand for an elderly neighbor who can’t do it themself, or taking someone out for coffee just to listen.

Whether for an organization, a ministry or even to help do something for someone in need (I recently heard a story of a friend committing to mow a neighbor’s grass for the entire summer while they were recuperate from knee surgery), there are ways we can all carve some time into our busy lives to give back in some way, big or small.

Sacrifice as Worship

Sacrifice can be an act of worship as it is something done between us and the Lord. While it opens to doors to acts of praise by allowing us to share our testimony with others, the sacrifice its self is not an act of praise. It is not meant to be something we do publicly. In Luke 18, Christ warns about the state of our hearts when tithing. Christ specifically warns against giving to be self-righteous and says that anyone who exalts himself will be humbled. It is important to note that we don’t give anything, time, money or any other resource, for the sake of attention. We are to give because God gave to us.

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Bless the Lord

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. Psalm 16:7

Another way we can show gratitude when God answers prayer, is to follow the Psalmists’ example of blessing the Lord. Blessing the Lord is pure worship.a

What does it mean to bless the Lord?

This one confused me for a long time. I understand that we are to bless our enemies, to pray fo them to receive blessings and to speak well of them instead of evil. But how do we bless God? Why does God need our blessings?

In the Scripture when God “blesses” men they are thereby helped and strengthened and made better off than they were before, but when men “bless” God he is not helped or strengthened or made better off. Rather (with C. A. Keller in THAT, I, 361) man’s blessing God is an “expression of praising Thankfulness”, when the OT speaks of blessing God it does not “designate a process that aims at the increase of God’s strength” (THAT, I, 361). It is an “exclamation of gratitude and admiration” (THAT, I, 357). What Does It Mean to Bless God by John Piper

Why should we bless the Lord?

To bless God is simply to express our gratitude and admiration. We’ve looked at how gratitude is an attitude earlier in this series and how practicing gratitude changes us. Again, in blessing God, our blessings are not for his benefit. Our blessing God is for our benefit. It is to recount and remember all of the ways that he has helped us, giving testimony to him as in order to remind us.

What does it mean that we can bless God? If God is perfect, how can we bless Him? To bless God simply means to praise Him or to honor His name. The Hebrew word translated “bless” in the Old Testament literally means to kneel, indicating the idea of honoring the Lord. We do not add anything to Him when we bless Him, yet we worship Him as our appropriate response to His greatness and His love for us. How Can We Bless God? What Does it Mean to Bless God? by Compelling Ministries

My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the Lord. Psalm 26: 12

Meditate

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 28.png — Meditation can be a form of worship.

Christians often fall into two thoughts when it comes to meditation. On one hand, some believe it is totally fine and adopt dangerous practices of mediation that are unbiblical. On the other, I have heard arguments that meditation isn’t Christian and that Christians shouldn’t participate under any circumstances. The truth, as it often is, is in the middle. It isn’t the practice that is inherently bad. The danger comes when we take our focus off of the Lord.

Meditation, however, is another way to give thanks and show our worship when God answers prayers that can be found in scripture.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight,O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Meditation how good God is and what he has done is one way we can show gratitude. We are told to hid God’s word in our hearts and to think on what is right and just and true. This is meditation. Prayer is meditation. And meditation can become another an act of worship.

Songs of Praise and Worship

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 33.png — Music can be both praise and worship and is often an integral part of both.

Songs can be a part of praise and worship and something we can do to give thanks to God as seen throughout the Old Testament. The people sang and rejoiced and offered their praise and worship to God through music. Singing, is interestingly, an act of both praise and worship and why it is often included in church events.

Music has a way of reaching our hearts like nothing else. I have often heard people say that they either loved or hated a Sunday service based solely on the songs played and whether or not they were able to enter into a worshipful state of mind. Music can reach our soul and express things that we may not be able to put into words. For this reason, song is a fantastic way of honoring God when he pours out his blessings and answers.

and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,
“For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,”
the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. 2 Chronicles 5:12-13

I love the imagery of this passage especially. The praise and worship music, specifically the songs of praise and thanksgiving, brought the full glory of God into the place and filled it with a cloud of God’s physical presence.

Giving Thanks When God Answers Prayer

There are many biblical examples of people thanking God for answered prayers. From praise and worship to public testimony, singing to feasting, there are so many ways we can express our gratitude when God answers prayer.

While we have some opportunities for these methods of giving thanks that arise through out the year in the form of holidays and occasions, I would challenge you not to wait for a special occasion. Create your own. The next time God answers prayer, give thanks in a mighty way!

Prayer

Psalm 8 is a great testimony to the works of God. The entire Psalm is a praise report where David recounts the works of the Lord and how He moved on David’s behalf. We are still reading David’s remembrance, his testimony, today and sharing in David’s praise and worship.

Psalm 8

How Majestic Is Your Name.
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.

O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth

Prayers In Bowls Series

If you missed any of the posts in this series, check them out here!

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Thanks,

BREA