Successful Prayer #1

Reverence and Humility

Successful prayer considers the supremacy of the One we are addressing paired with an understanding and recognition of our own unworthiness.

“Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.” Genesis 32:9-11

Jacob begins with reverence for whom He is addressing. Acknowledging GOD as the GOD of Abraham and Issac was a statement of great reverence. Later Jacob’s name would be added to that acknowledgment. The GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is GOD of the Covenant (Genesis 15:5) (Galatians 3:16) He is the creator of Heaven and Earth; the one true and living GOD. Jacob begins by addressing GOD reverently; in contrast he acknowledges his unworthiness to be a recipient of the mercy and truth that GOD had shown him.

We must come to GOD in prayer with a clear sense of the One we are speaking to as opposed to who we are. He is all powerful, almighty GOD, and we are not worthy of the least of all the mercies and truth which He has shown us.