Thursday, March 7, 2013

DANIEL'S PRAYER


It has been a long time since I have been able to have some quiet time to sit down and post on this blog.  I have many, many things to share but before I do that I want to use this post exclusively for a lesson on prayer. 

I have an army of friends praying for me continually and I certainly feel the presence of those prayer warriors going with me everywhere that I go.  I am most grateful for those whom the Lord has praying for me.  As a missionary in Juarez, Mexico it is wonderful to have the confidence to come and go with that army of warriors covering me in prayer. But I must have a strong prayer life of my own to be able to accomplish the tasks that the Lord sets before me.  I want to share with you a prayer that I have been using for a long time that has been a great blessing to God's Kingdom and to myself.  

Many years ago Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book called, THE PRAYER OF JABEZ.  The prayer of Jabez is found in 1 Chronicles 4:10, and it is hardly one verse long.  The book blessed many people and it became a New York Times bestseller. 

But prayer that I want to share with you was uttered by a man simply know as Abraham's chief servant.  As far as I can see there is no name given to the man.  But since it is a prayer that I use very frequently I will call it  DANIEL'S PRAYER.

Before we get into the prayer I want to first say that a prayer that is repeated as if it had magical powers is of no value.  That is just religion.  The prayer must come from the heart and the spirit of man, and it must be fueled with faith.  I want to share the idea of the prayer only.

The story of Abraham's chief servant is found in the Book of Genesis, chapter 24.  (I encourage you to read the entire chapter.)  Apparently Abraham knew of his upcoming death and he wanted his son Isaac to have a wife before he passed away.  Abraham calls his chief servant and makes him promise that he will go to his old country to get a wife for Isaac.  Abraham promised his chief servant that God will send an angel before him (verse 7) to lead him on his mission.  The chief servant immediately loads up ten camels and heads out on his journey to Nahor.  And now here is the chief servant's prayer when he arrives:


                            Oh, Lord  God of my master Abraham, give me
                            success today, and show kindness to my master
                            Abraham.  See, I am standing beside this spring,
                            and the daughters of the townspeople are coming
                            out to draw water.  May it be that when I say to a
                            girl, 'Please lay down your jar that I may have a
                            drink,' and she says,' Drink, and I'll water your
                            camels too'---let her be the one you have chosen
                            for your servant Isaac. By this will I know that
                            you have shown kindness to my servant."


The very next verse states that before the chief servant had finished praying that Rebekah came out with a jar on her shoulders.  He asked her for a drink and she immediately gave him some water.  Then she offered to water the camels, too.  Verse 20 states that she ran from the well to the trough.  She had to have done this many times.  I've never owned any camels but probably few land animals drink as much water as camels do...and there were ten of them.  The important thing is that we know that the chief servant was blessed of God and he completely and successfully accomplished the mission that he was sent on.  Rebekah was to be Isaac's wife.

I'm sure that there are different ways to look at this prayer but I want to share with you how I see it.  I see the chief servant as anyone of God's servants.  God (here seen as Abraham) sends us out on a mission.  He promises that His angel(s) will always accompany us as we seek to do His will.  But we need to always pray that He will give us success in everything that we do for Him.  The success is not for our sake, but that we will be successful in accomplishing His will and purposes.  In other words, we do not want success so that we accomplish our will, but we want success in accomplishing His will and that the end result will be that He, and only He, will get the Glory and Honor.  We are seeking God's success, not ours.  Sometimes we define success as accomplishing the task that we had in mind, but as His servants the success comes when we accomplish what God had in mind.  After the success of the mission the servant bowed down and worshiped the Lord for His kindness, faithfulness, and for leading him on his journey (verse 26).  It is very important that we are grateful for the success that we experience in bringing Him success and that we testify to it as the servant does later on. 

For months my prayer has been that the Lord will give me success in bringing Him success, which means bringing Him Glory in everything that I do.  I recognize that my mission is to have His will accomplished through me.  I desire none of the Glory nor do I seek it. I just want to be a vessel through which His name is Glorified as His will is successfully completed.  In prayer I even remind the enemy that he will not steal God's success.  He has no right to it because I have united myself to my Master and His success is a sure thing.  I have seen the Lord's hands move mightily as I surrender myself to accomplish nothing but to bring Him Glory and honor as His will is successfully accomplished through me. 

Now my prayer is that many others will join in and ask God to give them success in accomplishing His will so that only He will be Glorified and honored.  I believe that this prayer surrenders us to be used for His purposes and for His Glory.  Seeking our own glory is a very dangerous thing and God's plan will fail if we try to do so.  God will not share His Glory with anyone (Isaiah 42:8).  Jesus tells us to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and Glorify our Father in Heaven (we take none of the Glory).  We are instruments through which God receives Glory.  When we pray and ask God to give us the honor to bring Him Glory He will give our journey success.  God will hear and answer that prayer!!!  Glory and honor to His name.
 
 
Daniel
 
 
 
P.S.  Please note that I have an address change.  I will no longer be using the Post Office Box in El Paso, but I will be using the Spanish American Evangelistic Ministries (S.A.E.M.) address to receive mail on the U.S. side.  Blessings to all...and keep praying. 
 
 
Daniel Torres
650 Linwood Drive
El Paso, Texas 79928
1-501-827-7679
 
 
For tax-credit:
Covenant Fellowship
P.O. Box 8126
Searcy, Ar 72145