“Fill My Cup, Lord”
The subject upon which we will dwell this morning, is no doubt one that Satan would rather we not explore. Why? because today it is my intention to make known to you an unbeatable weapon provided to us by God. Now this particular weapon is included in the spiritual arsenal that every Christian receives when he or she reports for duty, but yet you may not
even realize that you have it. Not only is this weapon both offensive and defensive in nature, but it carries with it more than enough power to completely defeat our enemy. But unfortunately, like most of our VCRs that are always blinking 12:00, few people have a clue as to how to get the most out of it. And, because of our inability to fully understand and utilize this weapon, we easily become bored with it--in fact, chances are good that many of you routinely fall asleep while trying to use it.
If you haven’t guessed it already, our message this morning is all about prayer. Prayer is something that is absolutely vital to our spiritual well-being, in fact, aside from being a spiritual weapon, it has been rightly described as ‘breathing for the soul.’ That’s how important it is; so this morning, open your ears and your hearts, tune out any and every distraction as we explore together this powerful yet often under-estimated phenomenon.
The best way that I can think to describe prayer is that prayer for the faithful believer can become ‘spiritual wings’ by which we can potentially ascend into the very midst of heaven. But as I said earlier, far too many Christians today have yet to truly test these magnificent wings. And that’s a shame because these particular wings were designed for soaring upon the warm currents of God’s love, enabling the believing soul to rise high above any and every obstacle that we face here on this earth--that’s exactly what prayer can do!
But just as baby birds, who are not born ready to fly above the highest tree tops-- neither are we born knowing how to pray in the most effective and spiritually uplifting ways. You see, there is a process or a series of stages by which God Himself teaches us to use our prayer wings. And as we go along this morning you’ll realize that each stage of prayer seems to prepare us for--if not lead us directly into the next stage.
Today we will talk about four main stages or types of prayer. The first one that we want to consider is the most common type by far and amazingly enough, this prayer is sometimes uttered by people who don’t even profess to believe in God-- in fact it’s almost involuntary at times. We’ll call this prayer the ‘prayer of desperation.’
It would be safe to say that out of all the prayers made to Jesus in the bible, nine out of ten were of this very type. Prayers not offered in a calm spiritual manner--but abruptly wrung out of some distraught soul by a terrible affliction or pressing emergency. In fact, what these prayers lack in spirituality, they more than make up for in sheer desperation.
Now, many religious people will tell you that God will not hear unspiritual prayers from unspiritual people....but I for one will have to disagree on the basis of biblical history. Ask the blind man who had his sight restored to Him, ask the paralytic who was let down through the roof but walked out the door, ask the lepers who were made clean, or the demon
possessed who was delivered. Or ask the woman healed of her severe bleeding who prayed only in her heart as she reached out and touched the edge of the Lord’s cloak. And let’s not forget the desperate plea of the Syrophonecian mother who’s persistent plea brought her daughter back from the brink of death. Spiritual prayers? Hardly. But yet notice that they were all
mercifully answered by the Lord.
You see, in this is revealed the true goodness of God because He doesn’t wait until we’re ‘good enough’ or spiritual enough before He honors our prayers with His attention--no matter how void of spirituality they may initially be, rather He meets us where we are with what we need. In fact, I believe that as we face tragedies and trial, when we find
ourselves or our loved ones in desperate situations, there is a natural tendency placed in our hearts by God Himself that urges us to cry out to Him for help. And often it is by cries such as these that a prayer life is born and a relationship with the Lord first begins.
And, many times, out of these prayers of desperation another type of prayer is conceived. When we find ourselves coming back to God again and again, praying that He would deliver us once more from these periless predicaments that we seem to stumble into again and again, we begin to realize through the working of the Holy Spirit that many of those
situations are caused by our own weaknesses. And so is born the second stage of prayer that we’ll talk about; the prayer of confession. Through this particular prayer we are essentially telling God that He is right and just and we realize that we of ourselves leave much to be desired when it comes to righteousness. Now the prayer of confession is one that is prayed not only by “fledgling Christians”, but it is also uttered quite often by those who are growing in their walk with the Lord because the closer we walk with Him, the more clearly we see in ourselves our unworthiness and unrighteousness.
Perhaps one of the most famous prayers of confession is the prayer of David recorded in Psalm 51. After His adulterous affair with Bathsheba was revealed to him for what it really was by the prophet Nathan, David turned to the only One he knew who could cleanse him of his great guilt. Let’s turn to Psalm 51 and read this prayer that puts into words what many people have in their heart as they pray the prayer of confession. Psalm 51:1-9 reads:
"Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom
in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity."
As David most definitely understood; along with confession must come repentance because without repentance, confession is virtually meaningless. That’s why the prayer of confession is absolutely vital for salvation-- because it leads to repentance and reveals to us our desperate need of a Savior.
1John 1:9 says; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” And to the person who has never seen a need in his life to pray the prayer of confession, verse 10 says this; “If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.”
Believe it or not, but confession comes almost naturally. In fact, many criminals, even many ‘hardened’ criminals who had pretty much eluded the long arm of the law have turned themselves in and confessed their crime because they could not bear the feeling of guilt for what they had done. If only true repentance came just as easily as confession, our prisons would be half empty.
And so, after we have recognized ourselves as sinners--as being powerless to attain righteousness of our own, we naturally begin the third stage of prayer which we will call the prayer of supplication of God’s grace. This prayer encompasses a wide range of needs because ‘grace’ by definition is ‘unmerited favor or gifts from God.’ To put it in it’s most simple
form; this stage of prayer is where we ask God for things. Things like; our next breath, our daily bread, gifts of the Holy Spirit, faith to overcome and strength to persevere--things like that.
In fact, everything we ask of God falls under this category of Grace.. Why? because we of ourselves deserve absolutely nothing and it is only by His infinite grace that we receive His blessings.
Now if our analogy of our prayer life being like wings holds true, then at this stage of prayer we have progressed somewhat from our original state of flightlessness. In this third stage of prayer we are making short low-altitude flights -- maybe fluttering from limb to limb .. but not yet spiritually soaring amidst the heavens. But sadly, this is as far as many
Christians get in their prayer life. Miraculously they have flapped and fluttered their way to the tip top of the tree but for some reason, they don’t take the next step. Maybe they don’t fully trust their wings or perhaps they don’t know what they are capable of accomplishing. But brothers and sisters, not taking our prayer life to that next stage is to forfeit something truly amazing. It’s like owning a Ferari and not taking it our of first gear! All that power is right there just waiting for us to unleash it.....but we never do. What a waste! Yet so many of us are riding around in with our prayer lives stuck in first gear--not realizing the power we are holding back.
Now if you look back on the first three stages of prayer that we’ve talked about so far; the ‘prayer of desperation’, the prayer of confession’, and the prayer of supplication.. you’ll see that each one up to this point has been ‘self’ oriented. Not to say that they are ‘selfish’ but self is very involved in those prayers. And this is not a bad thing, after all, Jesus Himself tells us to ‘ask and it will be given’ and He tells us that if an earthly father knows how to give good gifts to his children, how much more does your Father in heaven know how to give
good gifts to His children who ask Him? So again, all three stages of prayer that we’ve talked about so far are not merely disposable steps that we use to get to the next stage... we continue to offer these prayers through out our Christian walk. But the fourth and highest stage of prayer that we can aspire to is by far the most spiritually enriching. The sincere offering of this prayer will not only comfort you in times of grief, it will not only give you hope in times of distress, but it will enable you to experience an awesome inner peace even when all others around you faint with fear and uncertainty.
Now before we get into this stage of prayer we need to realize that in every aspect of a healthy prayer life, faith is always the determining factor. And our faith has to be progressively strengthened as we advance to each stage. James 1:2-8 has this to say:
“2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”
And in Mark 11:24 Jesus tells us; “whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have it and it will be yours.” Again, FAITH IS THE KEY to a victorious prayer life!
Finally, the stage of prayer that many Christians fail to fully reach; the prayer of submission. Total and unconditional submission to the will of God. It is only as we reach this point in our spiritual journey do we truly experience that joy and peace that transcends all human understanding. To reach this stage of prayer is to be soaring in the very midst of heaven so focused on the will of God that self is utterly and completely lost.
If you look throughout the scriptures, all the great men of faith had obviously achieved this, the highest stage of prayer. Paul and Silas, for example, who were severely flogged and imprisoned because of the gospel that they preached... prayed this prayer. Acts chapter sixteen tells us that as these two apostles were chained in this cold smelly dungeon,
bruised and bleeding.... they didn’t lay there in self pity worried about if they were going to ever make it out alive. The bible tells us that at around midnight, they began praying and singing hymns of praise to the Lord! You see, they were so focused on God.....their will and their lives were so wrapped up in His will, that they lost sight of themselves, entrusting their fate to the God they so loved.
And Steven, the first martyr for the gospel was another example. Even as he was being stoned to death, the bible tells us that he actually prayed for those stoning him--he was genuinely concerned about the salvation of those men who were murdering him! How could He do such a thing? If you read Acts chapter seven you’ll see that it was because he was
totally focused on Jesus. He saw beyond his present circumstances and found absolute peace with God. This is what the prayer of total submission is all about.
And finally, lets look at the prayer life of Jesus Himself. The bible tells us that, even though He is the Son of God, while physically on this earth, He spent an amazing amount of time in prayer with His Father. It has been recorded that He spent entire nights in secluded communion. Why? Because prayer brings power. And if the sinless Son of God needed that much time in prayer to sustain Him spiritually....how much more do we need?
In the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus felt the weight of the sin of the world begin to weigh heavy upon His shoulders, then more than ever, He sought to draw strength from His Father through prayer. And this prayer that is included in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, is a prayer that every Christian should learn from. Looking forward to the cross but more than that to the pain of separation from the Father; Jesus fell with His face to the ground and prayed these words; “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be
done.”
We are told in Matthew 26 that Jesus repeated this prayer three times. And He repeated it three times because it was heavy on His heart-- that’s why we shouldn’t feel like God gets tired of hearing some of our prayers that we find ourselves praying again and again. Sincere repetition only reinforces our deep need or concern. And no human being could ever
even begin to feel the deep agony that was enveloping Jesus at this time, because even then, He was beginning to pay the penalty for the sin of the entire human race.
At that point, Jesus could easily have abandoned His mission and returned to heaven, leaving us to face the penalty for our own sin.....and that’s what the human part of Him wanted to do. It was His human nature that prayed; “if it be possible, take this cup from me.” It was His human nature that thought about Himself and the agony that He knew He would experience---not the mere agony of the cross but of being separated from His Father. But through countless hours of prayerful submission to the will of His Father, He found the spiritual fortitude to end His prayer with; “not my will but thine be done.
Immediately after this prayer of submission, Jesus placed Himself in the custody of those whom He knew would carry out the unthinkable. But if you read how Jesus conducted Himself from this point on, you’ll realize that He wasn’t carried kicking and screaming to the cross.....
..He didn’t fight back or even talk back to those who were seeking not only His life but also His dignity.....”but as a lamb being led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the sheerer is silent,
so He did not open His mouth.” He was totally submissive to the will of His Father--Sure, He expressed His desire not to drink the cup but again He ended His prayer with; “not my will but
Thine be done.”
Brothers and sisters,can we, as mere human beings, be so submissive to God’s will? A God that we’ve never even seen before? Could we leave the hospital after just being diagnosed with terminal cancer or kneel at the bedside of our dying child and pray; “not my will but Thine be done.”? The simple answer is no..... we can’t. Not without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives can we fully submit to God’s will.
Let’s turn to Romans 8:5-11:
“5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”
As I said earlier, faith is the key to prayer. But did you know that prayer is itself a key to faith? Friends, prayer is so important-- not because our prayers bend God’s will to
our will, but because prayer bends our will to God’s will. In other words, prayer strengthens our faith and allows us to trust God, and His love for us, enough to know that He will always act in
our best interest. And no matter what situation we find ourselves in, we can always sincerely pray; not my will but Thine be done.”
Has your personal prayer life reached this stage? Is your will lost in the will of your Father in heaven? If not, chances are good that it’s because you don’t INVEST enough TIME in your prayer closet. People complain that they can’t think of anything to say that would take up more than five minutes. Is that a proble with you? Well, you can greatly improve your prayer life and subsequently your spiritual life by following these simple suggestions when approaching the Lord in prayer:
1. Find your prayer closet. Hint: Avoid using your bed as your prayer closet! If we do this, we will be like Peter, James and John who fell asleep in
the garden after Jesus told them to ‘keep watch and pray’. Chose a time when you are not sleepy or likely to be interrupted.
2. Prepare your heart to pray.
A. listen to spiritual music or read a selected prayer fromthe book of Psalms.
B. remember that you are approaching the Throne of God and that He is very interested in hearing what you have to tell Him.
3. Start with thanksgiving and praise for what He has done for you lately--even if they may seem like little things.
4. Confess your sins and weaknesses that you are aware of and repent asking for His power to overcome. And remember that Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 that if at any time during prayer,we remember that we have not forgiven someone who has sinned
against us, that we should forgive them so that God may forgive us.
5. Make your requests and intercessions
6. Submit your will to God’s will by reflecting on how He’s blessedyou in the past and totally trust Him with the future
7. End with praise and thanksgiving for the peace that you have knowing that all of your prayers have just been answered in your best interest.
And even when you leave your prayer closet, don’t leave God in there. Paul tells us to pray “continually” or as the KJ version puts it; “pray without ceasing.” Philippians 4:4 says; “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice! Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding , will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus.”
In John 14:27 Jesus tells us; “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.” Brothers and sisters this peace can truly be found only through a healthy relationship with the Lord by means of the study of His word and prayer. It is through earnest prayer that God draws closer to us than at any other time, and His presence brings not only peace, but also power. And what many people don’t realize is that He also even helps us to pray! Romans 8:26-27:
“26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
One of my favorite prayer hymns is "Fill My Cup, Lord"-- but as the song indicates; in order for Him to fill it, we need to "lift it up."
May God richly bless you as you seek His face in prayer.
