One Case
Win your case in prayer
We often think of prayer as a matter of just asking God for a favor, which is indeed an important component of prayer. The natural relationship with God is that we should be longing in prayer for these favors. After all, we believe that everything about God dwarfs us, and we are looking for any help we can get. However there is a linkage with God thru real abilities he gave us, including the ability to think and contemplate upon his loving presence, as He is not far from us.
The Bible makes clear that God wants us to approach him in prayer, but how exactly to make this approach has been the subject of interpretation. We do know that God wants us to approach him on an individual basis, as well as collectively. There is a rightful humility and even a rightful fear in the presence of God.
It is interesting that we find God listening in on the conversations between Job and his friends and then coming in later to state his position on what had been said on this case and making his own case. God has his say but refers to the preciseness of these conversations indicating omnificence.
At some point God wants us to move past the façade and make our case. This can be done with humble reverence, but what qualifies as humble is still God’s read and holding back on details of your case or sides of it that do really matter to you might actually involve pride as a form of false humility.
We can look at making your case with God, and then first look at who and what is lacking when you don’t make your case in prayer and whether not doing this represents as something missing from your prayers. God says his angels with move with us and if they aren’t around then something is missing from our walk right there. If you are trying to make a case for something, you do your best not only in that I might be asking the Lord for something, but stating my case is discussing the proposal, the length and breadth of it, the reasons and how these reasons can be followed thru on. There is a lot of that what if aspect to prayer and you can carry this” what if “into prayer, saying what you will do if the case proceeds forward. If I get this situation, this is what I’ll do with it as time goes on. You can discuss in prayer what you will do if the case proceeds as you hope it will.
There is no need to play dumb with God, and the point of playing dumb could be just not framing your situation to God in truth to how it really is when you do know how it really is and you do know what you intend to do if the case proceeds in a certain way. If I really want to pitch in the major leagues, if I make a major league roster I’m not going to go off and fly kites. I do have an idea that I really want to do this and I will stay the course if the course can be established. Your intentions do matter in a case. Two people might want just go to the same place, but their intentions differ. Two people both want a ticket to a tropical island, one person wants to swim, hike, and explore the outdoor sights and relax by the water, another wants to party in the nightclubs. Each person has a different case even though they want to go to the same tropical island. It is not only how a case is formulated right now, but how it might proceed going forward and your intentions are a part of this and should be part of the discussion in prayer.
This is what I want and if the case precedes in this direction this is what I will do. However, in another case I might only have a thread of information left to go on with regards to what I want to do but this is still enough to bring to God in prayer because God can take the smallest hope and bringing it to a full fruition. However, even the thread contains something that still matters to me that is important to me. And this is the case of hidden or partially hidden hopes. If I can find my way through this thread or remaining vestige of hope, then the other threads that matter can be brought in. If I can make my case, there are other factors relating to my case. The other threads include more factors as to why I want this in the first place, if not this, then something like this, but indeed this if I can still connect on this last thread that is left. What I have either specifically or in theory to possible practice that matters to this, is part of this case. Because as I make or plead my case, I’m still operating in the realm of conjecture.. I’m hoping for God’s confirmation not only on final outcomes, but on the reasons for all the related threads that come into play and really do matter to further fruition of the case. As God is starting to address different sides of the case, you can relate it to the case as a whole and to how the case is proceeding as a whole. Like a court case, different pieces of evidence come in and you not only look at the evidence individually but what the body of evidence as a whole is saying as well. This is where discernment is part of the process of presenting your case to God.
I can raise the bar rather quickly in prayer as I make my case and all the stakes are made known to God. All this doesn’t contradict the scriptures, which say; let your requests be made known to God.
I might be rather silent about some things that are bothering me in prayer such as say financial shortfalls. You really don’t want to make this a constant subject of prayer, as you have been taught not to desire riches, or at least not to have excessive desire for riches. But the subject itself becomes an issue in that you really do prefer things that involve the greater use of money, and even if you get on that side of things, you believe you will retain your fastidiousness towards prayer for the Kingdom.
The lack of funds encroaches on real things you want in terms of lifestyle and what you want to do and what you want to focus your thinking on.
So you do want to knock on that door in prayer that the Lord will open up ways in that area. But you don’t really want to be just knocking on one door in prayer, but if it is a door that directly involves you, its part of your case whether you like it or not and you should be bringing your case in full before God. It is not just a matter of being seemingly selfish but it is just a matter of realistically being part of a case you have. It might be you have no complaints about your business on the work itself, but you want God to steer you to the money making aspects of this business at least a little bit or at certain points.
For example, I might be perfectly content, in being on the river and fishing in the mid morning sun and really that is what it is mostly about for me, and whether I find a fish on my fishing pole or not is for the most part secondary. Then at a certain point, it doesn’t have to be always or even most of the time or mostly this way, I might want to actually catch a fish for myself for any number of reasons. In the case of the disciples when Jesus met them initially, they were fishing and actually did want to catch fish, and that was their case in the moment and then the Lord first discussed and helped them with their case and then brought another case before them, indicating while God will listen to your case, he may bring in another case.
By stating your case, you are asking, God to visit every side of your issue. There are sides present that we are taking for granted, and even these need to be brought into the case and maybe legitimized in my own mind and in practical ways. If I am traveling to another country, there might be a number of sides to the case that need the okay. My passport needs to be okayed, my credit at a lodge needs to be okayed, my transportation while away needs to be okayed. An example might be reminding God as you ask for a good day for jogging at the beach, that at least you can do this without being ambushed by marauders, that there is relative peace in the land that enables you to go to the beach, and that you are doing this as a matter of health, that you anticipate enjoying this as you have previously due to the good grace of God that has been there for you previously.
Think of someone who has gotten a brand new shining car, make it bright blue, and is absent of just the special key needed to actually drive it or even start it at all. You might plead your case by asking for the key, but you already know the presence of the car as part of the reality of that case. The reality is, I do have a car, I just need the keys for it. My case would be different, if I didn’t have both the keys and the new shiny blue car just waiting to be used. However I am only lacking one of the two above mentioned items. So anything that can make the case different, is something that matters to the case and should be brought in.
You also don’t want to define the case so narrowly. Getting back to money, maybe I want money, but some of the known common means such as hawking stocks on Wall Street aren’t appealing to me as intrinsically as a pursuit right now for long term development and I can leave the means rather open on the case rather than narrowly defining the means that must be there. I want a certain range, flow, or sums of money, but I don’t need the means or requirement for getting there to be so exacting that I must follow this branch of this thought only.
What you might want to do then, is have the case opened in prayer, and you might ask God for something additional you can put into play without it being dominant or fully thematic to your life, but where you can still honestly secure lucre.
The case is opened up before God on a number of levels, for authenticity and light. God can come back on his verdict as he pleases. By bringing your case you are opening up to God’s leading with the case. No matter what part you play, God will also have to play a part if things are to proceed. In the parable in the gospel, the persistent widow brought her case with persistence and the theme of persistence is emphasized in the review and analysis of this parable and the emphasis has be on the theme of persistence as the major lesson. But the other lesson is that she did bring her case, and since this parable is about prayer, the judge is God in the parable and she did then bring her individual case to God, again the call on the individual to bring their own individual case before the great judge who is God. Her case goes all the way forward to the judge himself, but again this scripture does refer to her case, meaning that she had an individual case to be discussed and addressed individually with the judge, and the metaphor is coming into the presence with the specifics of your case which might even be changing by the minute if you don’t hurry up and coming boldly e while even hammering the case before the judge. The model of persistence should also include honing in on all sides of the case, and not holding back on the presentation with partial truths or even hidden falsehoods. As indeed there are several sides to the case that need to be addressed for what they are and therefore need to be uncovered and brought into God’s light in the discussion of prayer. You can also make your case fully and precisely and bring in all relevant sides as you understand them as you continue to seek in prayer with greater openness to what God has to say on this and remember how grateful we should be that this reach of prayer can and does go all the way to the Lord himself which is as far as we can and would ever want to go.
The presence of the judge in the parable of the persistent widow is the judge who has the power to render redress and a verdict where you can win your case.
There is hope and there is a way, if you approach the right judge with your case, whatever it might be and whatever it might consist of. And the right judge is the Lord himself, who can provide the right answer to the case, your case as the Supreme Judge of all who grants access even to the widow who has no other place to bring her case.
About the Author
CID – The Case of 6:48 – P 1/2 – Episode 171
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