Free grace and our ineptitude during prayer

Just a thought that has been growing.

I often worry about how I pray and what I pray for. I sometimes ask myself questions like: Am I doing this right? Are my intentions in the right place? Should I be asking for this or talking about that? I ask these questions because I look back on prayers I have prayed in the past and know for a fact that my heart/mind were not in the right place as I earnestly sought after something for which I shouldn't have been seeking. It is easy for a guy like me to worry about this, but I have a few thoughts that have been brewing lately that have been of some encouragement to me.

First, the caveat:

I will never excuse the sin that perpetuates my prayers. That sin must be dealt with. It must be obliterated completely. It is never acceptable that my thoughts and desires during my petitions to the Lord are anything but perfect in his sight. I say this because nothing that I am about to say in the paragraphs below negate or nullify this vital truth.

Now, the encouragement:

1. Christ has dismantled the power of my sin - he forgave my trespasses, canceled my record of debt, nailed it to the cross, and proceeded to disarm the demonic powers and authorities and put them to open shame. Of this, we can be absolutely certain.
2. A realization that we must understand about God and his relation to us is that he is only perfectly pleased with his one and only Son. No one in all of creation brings him more joy than he who is the radiance of his image and the exact imprint of his nature. This is why we must be conformed into the image of Christ - the Father loves us because he first loves the Son. The Father's love for his people becomes manifest when he looks at us through the beauty of his glorious Son. This idea brings new meaning to "abiding in Christ," doesn't it?
3. Lastly, knowing that we must pass through the medium of Christ as we approach the Father, it is only appropriate to understand our prayers to the Father in the same light. This is why Paul encourages us with his word on prayer to the Romans, saying:

• "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." - Romans 8:26-27
• And also, "Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us." - Romans 8:34

Our complete ineptitude to pray as we ought is evident. But God's free grace is put on full display in the fact that both the Spirit and the Son take our inadequate thoughts, our lustful desires, and our malicious intentions, pass them through a kind of holy fire, purge them of the self-centeredness that plagues each word, and then send up pleas of intercession to the Father on our behalf. My only thought after deeply considering the mystery of such grace is: I have no words but "thank you." I do not deserve such unrequited, unconditional love.

I will leave you with a favorite of mine - Bebo Norman, "The Only Hope":

I want a crumb, but You are a feast
And I want a song, but You are a symphony
I want a star, but You are a galaxy...
And I have resolved that I'm much better off
In what You have for me

SDG