Page 18 - The Importance of Prayer Student Textbook

care who you are or how much you have grown in your faith, you must always, and on a daily basis, take
heed lest you fall. Hebrews 3:13 gives us this exhortation. But exhort each other daily, while it is called
“Today”; lest any of you are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. I do not believe the deceitfulness
of sin can be over emphasized no matter where we are at in our Christian walk.

Therefore, the Psalmist prayer; Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And
see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. The greatest tool God uses to
search us is His word. Therefore, along with this verse I would encourage you to begin to pray the supreme
prayer of the learned found in Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes to behold wonderous truths out of thy law. As God
turns the spotlight of his word onto our hearts. He begins to try us, and He begins to reveal areas of our life
that do not magnify the Father. He begins to search the area of our lives that no one knows about; our
thoughts. As we pray this dangerous prayer, He will reveal our motives. Proverbs 16:2 says, All a
person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD. We may look at our lives and
say wow all my ways are so pure, and God is being so glorified in my life. But God may need to take us
back to Philippians 2:13 and remind us that, it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. Pride is so deceitful and so deceptive that the only way to detect it is to ask our Lord to
search our hearts, try us, and see if there is any wicked way in us. As we do this the Holy Spirit may lead us to
begin praying Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

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2 Break Me or Try Me

Our Lord desperately wants to bring us to the end of our self-dependent lives and bring us to a God
dependency. To do this He will have to break us. But most of us thrive on praying the prayer of Jabez.
The Prayer of Jabez comes from the Bible. In 1 Chronicles 4:10, we read: And Jabez called on the God of
Israel, saying, Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might
be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him
that which he requested. This prayer is composed of four parts. First, Jabez asks God to bless him.
Second, he asks God to enlarge his territory or increase his responsibility. Third, he prays that God will
be with him and stay close. Lastly, Jabez asks that God keep him from harm so that he will be free from
pain.

As we closely look at this prayer it is a safe prayer filled with freedom from pain and suffering. But Psalm
139 is anything but a safe prayer as we move to the portion that says, try me and see if there be any
wicked way in me. Isaiah 48:10 tells us that God has a refining process. I have refined you, but not as
silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. James 1:2 words Gods refining this way, Consider it
pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. A child of God that is focused
on His will recognizes that God never uses a person greatly until He has tested them deeply. What are
we loosing when we want to cling to our comforts? It is impossible to study the scriptures in their
entirety and not recognize that every Biblical character that was used greatly went thru the furnace of
affliction. Job cried out in Job 23:10, He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth
as gold. Oh, that we would pray more dangerous prayers and we would cry out, bring forth the gold,
bring forth the gold, that you might be magnified. Before we move further, I am not saying that it is
wrong to pray the prayer of Jabez! However, everything I have found in the scriptures confirms to my
understanding that if we are going to be used greatly for God, He will have to test us greatly, so that we
can come forth as gold.

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