Prayer Is More Than Asking

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Imagine having a friend who only calls when she needs money. You love her, so of course you want to help whenever you can. But after a while, you begin recognising the pattern. Her name appears on your phone and, before you even answer, a little question has already formed somewhere in your mind: How much is it this time? She may begin beautifully with, “Hello, my dear, how have you been?” and perhaps even ask about the family, but both of you know there is probably a request somewhere in the conversation waiting for its turn.

That picture is amusing until I turn it around and examine some of my own conversations with God. It is surprisingly easy for prayer to become crowded with everything we need Him to do. We bring the children, the marriage, the bills, the business, the ministry, the healing, the decision, the breakthrough, the person who needs to change and, if we are particularly organised that morning, perhaps even a suggested timetable for when God should sort everything out.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking God for what we need. Jesus Himself said, “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matthew 7:7), and Philippians 4:6 tells us, “in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Our Father cares deeply about what concerns us. He is not irritated by our needs, and He never asks us to pretend that we have none.

The issue is not asking. The deeper question is whether asking has quietly become almost the entire relationship.

David introduces us to another dimension of prayer when he says:

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.”
Psalm 27:4 KJV

One Thing In The Middle Of Many Things

What makes Psalm 27:4 so powerful is the context in which David speaks these words. This is not the prayer of a man with nothing troubling him. If you read the rest of the Psalm, you find enemies, adversaries, armies and trouble. David had enough happening around him to fill several pages of prayer requests.

Yet in the middle of all those legitimate concerns, he says, “One thing have I desired of the LORD.”

That sentence makes me examine my own heart because David had many things to pray about, but underneath them all there was one desire that went deeper. He certainly wanted God to protect him. He believed God for deliverance and trusted Him for intervention. David was not pretending that his enemies did not exist. Yet beneath his desire for what God could do was a deeper longing for God Himself.

He wanted to dwell. He wanted to behold. He wanted to inquire.

His relationship with God was not merely a strategy for surviving difficult seasons.

That challenges us because when many things are demanding our attention, it is easy for the urgent to become more important than the eternal. The bills speak loudly. Family responsibilities pull at us. Decisions need answers. Problems have an irritating habit of refusing to wait politely until we have more time. Before long, prayer can become almost entirely about managing life.

But David shows us another way. In the middle of everything demanding his attention, he still wanted God.

This is where our Prayer Awakening journey begins moving deeper. During the first seven days, we awakened the altar. We returned to the secret place, tended the fire, shut the door, rediscovered the Father, became students of prayer, cried out for renewed hunger and learned to depend upon the help of the Holy Spirit. Now we begin to discover that the altar exists for more than bringing needs before God.

It exists for communion.

What if God Himself became the desire?

David says that he wanted “to behold the beauty of the LORD.” There is something striking about that request because he could have asked for so many other things. He could have asked for immediate deliverance, greater security or the removal of every enemy. Instead, he speaks about beholding.

We often come into prayer asking God to look at our circumstances. David reminds us that prayer is also a place where we look at God. Not His physical appearance, of course, but His character, His goodness, His holiness, His faithfulness, His mercy, His wisdom, His patience and His glory.

There have been occasions when I have caught myself moving through worship rather efficiently because somewhere in the back of my mind I was trying to reach the part where I could finally tell God what I really wanted to discuss. The worship was sincere, but the request was standing behind it tapping its foot.

“Father, You are wonderful. You are faithful. You are glorious. Now, concerning that situation we spoke about yesterday…”

Perhaps you recognise that too.

Psalm 27:4 invites us into something deeper because David was not trying to hurry through God’s presence so that he could reach God’s provision. The presence itself was what he wanted.

What would happen if we sometimes entered prayer without immediately opening the list of requests? What if we opened Scripture simply because we wanted to see more of who God is? What if we spent time thanking Him for His character before discussing the circumstances we want Him to change?

Prayer becomes richer when God Himself becomes our pursuit.

Seeking His Face

A few verses later, David writes:

“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.”
Psalm 27:8 KJV

Scripture gives us this beautiful language of seeking God’s face. His hand reminds us of what He does, while His face speaks of knowing Him. We need His hand, and there is no shame in that. We need provision, healing, protection, wisdom, favour, direction and intervention. There are situations in which we genuinely need God to move.

But imagine a relationship in which someone continually reached for your hand while rarely looking into your face. Imagine spending time with someone who was always interested in what you could give but showed very little interest in simply knowing you. Something important would be missing.

God is inviting us beyond merely seeking what He can do.

One question has a way of exposing the heart here: if God answered everything currently on my prayer list, but I knew Him no more deeply afterward, would I still consider my prayer life successful?

That question is uncomfortable in the best possible way.

We have sometimes measured prayer almost entirely by outcomes. We prayed and the door opened, so prayer worked. We prayed and the money came, so prayer worked. We prayed and the situation changed, so prayer worked. Thank God for answered prayer. We should celebrate His goodness and testify when He intervenes.

But what if another evidence that prayer is working is that we are becoming different because we have been with Him?

What if the greatest testimony of the secret place is not always that the circumstances around us changed, but that something inside us changed while we waited?

We Become Affected By What We Behold

Paul writes:

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory…”
2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV

There is transformation in beholding. That means prayer is not merely an environment where we try to change circumstances. It is one of the places where God changes us.

As we behold His holiness, compromise begins becoming uncomfortable. As we behold His faithfulness, anxiety starts losing its grip. As we behold His mercy, something in us becomes more willing to extend mercy to others. As we behold His greatness, some of the things that appeared enormous begin returning to their proper size.

Have you ever walked into prayer overwhelmed by something and come out knowing that the situation has not changed, yet somehow it no longer feels quite as large as it did before?

The phone call has not come. The money has not appeared. The answer has not arrived. The person may still be behaving exactly the same way, and perhaps with remarkable dedication to the behaviour that has been testing your patience.

Yet something in you is different.

That is one of the quiet works of the secret place. God’s presence begins correcting our perspective.

We live in a world constantly competing for our gaze. Phones want our attention. Social media wants our attention. Advertisements, personalities, opinions, lifestyles, bad news and endless information are all asking us to behold something. Attention matters because what we continually look at eventually begins shaping our inner world.

Spend enough time comparing yourself with other people’s lives and dissatisfaction can begin growing without permission. Spend enough time staring at frightening possibilities and fear starts making itself comfortable in your thoughts. Spend enough time feeding on outrage and eventually almost everything starts irritating you.

David made another choice.

He wanted to behold the beauty of the Lord.

Perhaps deepening communion begins partly by deciding again what deserves our attention.

Prayer Is Also A Place To Inquire

Psalm 27:4 does not end with beholding. David also says that he desired “to inquire in his temple.” I appreciate that balance because communion with God is not merely sitting quietly. There is beholding, but there is also inquiry. There is worship, but there are questions. There are moments when we simply enjoy God’s presence, and there are moments when we seek His wisdom concerning what is happening in our lives.

Prayer is neither talking all the time nor remaining silent all the time. It is relationship.

You can come before God and ask, “Father, what are You teaching me in this season?” You can ask, “Lord, what does Your Word say about the way I am responding to this situation?” There may be times when the prayer needs to become, “Is there something in my heart that You want to correct?” At other times, it may simply be, “Give me wisdom concerning this decision because I do not want to move ahead of You.”

Those prayers are very different from simply asking God to carry out our plans.

Sometimes we arrive in prayer having already worked everything out. We know what should happen, who should do it and which door should open. All that seems to remain is for heaven to approve the proposal.

I know that posture more than I would like to admit.

But communion teaches us to inquire before we assume.

There are moments when wisdom looks like stopping long enough to ask God what He sees rather than repeatedly telling Him what we think He should do. That change of posture may look small, but it goes deep. We become interested in His mind, His ways and His purposes, not merely His ability to produce the outcome we prefer.

Your Needs Still Matter

Please do not walk away from this thinking that mature prayer means never asking God for anything. Jesus taught us to pray:

“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Matthew 6:11 KJV

Your Father cares about your needs. He cares about your health, your family, your children, your studies, your career, your business, your ministry, your finances, your decisions and the things that keep you awake at night. Bring them to Him. Tell Him where it hurts. Ask for provision. Ask for wisdom. Ask for healing. Ask Him to intervene.

You do not become more spiritual by pretending that you have no needs.

But while you bring those needs, do not allow the gifts of God to become more precious than the God who gives them.

There are answers you need, but there is also a Father to know. There are doors you want opened, but there is also beauty to behold. There are circumstances you desperately want changed, but there is also a heart within you that God is transforming.

Prayer becomes much deeper when God’s presence stops becoming the waiting room where we sit until our answer is ready. His presence is not merely the place where we wait for treasure.

His presence is the treasure.

Today, Stay A Little Longer

During part of today’s prayer time, try something slightly different. Spend a portion of that time asking for nothing. Not because asking is wrong, and certainly not because God is uninterested in your needs, but because you are intentionally teaching your heart to seek His face and not only His hand.

Open one of the Psalms and let it lead you into worship. Thank God for who He is. Remember specific moments when He has been faithful to you. Speak to Him about His goodness, His mercy, His patience and the ways He has carried you through seasons you were not sure you would survive.

Then remain there for a little while.

Your mind may decide that this is the perfect moment to remind you of everything else you need to do. It is amazing how you can spend half the morning forgetting important things, then become quiet before God and suddenly remember the shopping list, an unanswered message, an appointment next week and a conversation from three Thursdays ago.

Do not become frustrated with yourself. Simply bring your attention back.

There will be time to make your requests known to God. For these few moments, allow your soul to rediscover something David understood deeply: sometimes the greatest thing you can seek from God is God Himself.

As we move into this second phase of Prayer Awakening, I want you to begin expecting something deeper from the secret place. Prayer does not have to remain somewhere you visit only when something has gone wrong. It can become the place you return to because Someone is there.

May you begin longing not only for answers from God, but for the knowledge of God. May the desire to know Him start becoming stronger than the desire simply to receive something from Him. This does not make your needs less important. It simply puts them in their proper place.

David had enemies around him and still said, “One thing have I desired.” Somehow, in the middle of danger and uncertainty, he had discovered a treasure trouble could not take from him.

He had discovered the beauty of the Lord.

Declarations

◆ The presence of God is becoming the greatest treasure of my secret place.

◆ I seek God’s face and not only what His hand can provide.

◆ My prayer life is growing beyond requests into deep and living communion with God.

◆ I delight in beholding the goodness, holiness, faithfulness and beauty of the Lord.

◆ As I behold the Lord through His Word, my life is being transformed into the image of Christ.

◆ I refuse to allow my needs to become greater in my attention than the God who cares for me.

◆ My heart is learning to worship, listen, inquire and remain in God’s presence.

◆ I receive wisdom as I seek God’s mind rather than merely asking Him to approve my plans.

◆ My attention belongs to God, and my soul is learning to delight in His presence.

◆ Above every answer, breakthrough and blessing, I desire to know the living God more deeply.

My Prayer For You

My prayer for you today is that the Holy Spirit will draw you beyond merely seeking answers and awaken in you a deeper desire for God Himself. May the beauty of the Lord begin capturing your attention in a fresh way, and may His presence become increasingly precious to you, even while you are still waiting for some of the things you have asked Him to do.

May your secret place become more than somewhere you bring problems. May it become the place where you know Him, behold Him, listen to Him and enjoy being with Him. I pray that you will continue bringing every need before your Father with confidence, but that something deeper will begin growing beneath those requests, a heart that can genuinely say, “Lord, even above the answer I am waiting for, I want to know You.”

And as that desire grows, may you discover what David discovered: there is a satisfaction in the presence of God that no answered prayer, open door, breakthrough or earthly blessing can ever replace.