Selfless Prayer

I've been noticing lately a correlation between my joy, and how I pray. I know that this may seem elementary, but stick with me on this one.

Yesterday was good for me, as I continued to read through Piper's book: I was able to understand more about how to find joy in God. Yet I still went to bed last night with the anxieties of my life swarming through my head and divebombing me as I entered the throne room of the Almighty to pray. Then something quite amazing happened. Here's how it went...

I started my prayers as I often do with giving praise and ascribing glory to the One whose holy presence we are in when we engage in the wonderful act of prayer. I recommend to you to start your prayers this way if you do not currently do so; it will help you keep a Kingdom perspective, and will aid the Spirit in aligning your will with the will of the Holy Trinity.

I then started to pray for myself. I began by saying, basically, "Here I am once again, Lord. I come to you with this problem once more, to hand it over to You today."

Then I stopped...

I spoke to myself. I said, "Self, your life is not all about you."

So I changed gears and started making intercession for others first, before I came with my own requests. I prayed for our city, I prayed for missionaries from our church, I prayed for my friends, and I prayed for the other people who are involved with my current problem, that God would draw them to Himself, and that they would see His glory above all else, and would find ultimate, breathtakingly beautiful joy in that glory.

Only after I had done this did I pray for my own wants (O how I so often forget this! A brief review of the Lord's Prayer will reveal that this how we are to pray). And you know what? The anxiety had left...

I remembered to do this because of something that my pastor had said about the anxieties of our life: when we are anxious, we are self-absorbed. He recommended that we spend more time giving to others to get our thoughts off of ourselves, to draw our gaze from our own navels, as a way of combating anxiety.

Intercessional prayer was a way for me to serve others, to give to others, to show others love.

Long story short: I entered the presence of my Lord last night full of worry and possessing a disquieted spirit...

I left His presence full of peace.

And it was a most restful sleep.