How to Pray Great Prayers

Copyright 2011 by Bob Rogers

"Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know." -- Jeremiah 33:3, HCSB

Some say God's "phone number" is JER 33.3, referring to this great promise of Jeremiah 33:3 that God will give great answers to our prayers. The context of this promise is the great prayer of Jeremiah in 32:16-25. In that passage, we notice three characteristics of great prayer:
1) Pray to a great God.
Jeremiah speaks of God's great character in verse 17: "Oh, Lord God! You Yourself made the heavens and earth by Your great power and with Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you!" He speaks of God's great covenant in verse 18: "You show faithful love to thousands..." He speaks of God's great counsel in verse 19: "the One great in counsel and mighty in deed..."
2) Pray believing God still acts today.
Notice that in verse 20, Jeremiah not only remembers God's signs and wonders in Egypt, but goes on to say that God continues to "do so to this very day."
3) Pray believing God keeps His promises.
Jeremiah prayed in verse 24, pointing out that God was allowing the city of Jerusalem to be conquered just as He had promised would happen. God warned them that they would be punished, and they were, as Babylon laid siege to the walls of Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 32:2). But God also promised that after 70 years, He would punish Babylon and bring them home, so they had a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:10-14). Jeremiah reasoned that if God kept His promise of punishment, He would also keep His promise of grace. Thus, believing they would come back one day, Jeremiah told the Lord in verse 25 that since God told him to buy property for the future in the land of Judah, he would buy it, even as they were about to be taken to Babylon in exile.
Can you pray believing God when all hope seems lost? If you can, you can pray a great prayer!
Notice what "great and incomprehensible things" God showed him in chapter 33. In Jeremiah 33:7 God promised a return from captivity, and in 33:15 God promised a Messiah: "In those days and at that time I will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David..." God always does more than we can imagine.
So let us pray great prayers to our great God!

Copyright 2011 by Bob Rogers