What A Prayer!

1 Kings 8:46-51
⁴⁶ "When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to his own land, far away or near; ⁴⁷ and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their conquerors and say, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly'; ⁴⁸ and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; ⁴⁹ then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. ⁵⁰ And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their conquerors to show them mercy; ⁵¹ for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace.


// THOUGHTS:

.. This is Solomon's prayer of dedication after building the temple that the Lord had promised to David.
.. What can we learn from this? Solomon prayed according to God's principles - pray according to His will: "... if they have a change of heart... hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause."
.. His prayer wasn't selfish or just wanted God to answer his request no matter what the people would do; rather, he prayed to God according to how God sees things (that is, God forgives when we repent and ask for forgiveness - the "our part" factor)
.. Implying that Solomon knew the Scriptures, God's will, God's way of seeing things, having the mind of Christ type of attitude; for him to be able to pray that way.

// BELLE:

.. Continue to know the will of God - both from the given Word (explicitly, general principles) and those that He reveals to me personally - so I can pray according to His will.
.. I desire to not pray selfishly.
.. Surround my thinking with God's Word that my thoughts would be filled with His Word restructuring my mind and transforming it to conform only to the pattern of His will.

// Lord, I still cannot comprehend this completely but I trust Your Word. I pray that You will change the way I pray into how it should be. Forgive me for praying selfishly - I'm sure many times. But I know that you still hear me - my blabs and my concerns. Help me not to waste a bit of my prayer life - thinking that You would answer it when it's totally not in line with your will. I just want to pray (the ones I request from you) in accordance to Your will at all times. Please help me. In Jesus' name, amen.