Applying The Gospel In Our Praying

I’ve heard from more than one source a quote that goes something like this: every struggle in the life of a believer comes from a failure to understand or apply the gospel. I’ve meditated on this idea continually ever since and I really do believe it’s true. It’s so easy to take the gospel for granted and begin to assume it—privately and in our Christian circles (which is absurd considering that this is what we'll be singing of for eternity, Revelation 5:9-10). But I have discovered that I don’t know the gospel well enough and I don’t apply it to my life as much as I ought to. So I am daily trying to fight the inclination of my heart to assume the gospel and take it for granted. Instead, I’m seeking to grow in my understanding of the gospel and to apply it more fully in every area of my life.

One place it might be easy for us to assume the gospel or take it for granted is in praying. Prayer, in a sense, must assume the gospel since we can’t draw near to God and God won’t listen to us apart from the person and work of our Great High Priest Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16). But how much are we really applying the gospel in our praying if, in the act of drawing near, we bring to God various petitions and even thanksgivings without ever making explicit reference to the gospel? Yes, we are applying it but not as much as we could be.

So how can we apply the gospel more fully in our praying? A couple of weeks ago as I began trying to memorize one of David’s psalms, I encountered what, to me, seemed like really strange logic:

Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
Psalms 25:18

The thought process here doesn’t immediately make sense. David is obviously suffering. And He is praying to God in the midst of his suffering. If you only gave me the first half of this verse and told me to finish it, my logic would go something like this:

Consider my affliction and my trouble…and deliver me.

Or: Consider my affliction and my trouble…and take them away.

This is typically how I am inclined to pray when I am bringing my requests to God. But that’s not how David prays. This prayer of David reveals his strange, yet biblically inspired logic.

In short, David lets his affliction and his trouble cause him to remember that he is a sinner (and to remind God as well!). In a sense, many of David’s sufferings came as a result of his adultery and murder. So part of the reason he is suffering is because he has sinned. But David experienced suffering even before the incident with Bathsheba (as Saul pursued him). So his suffering isn’t all a consequence of his sinning. His suffering is the consequence of living in a fallen world. So I think David reasons something like this: I can’t escape the suffering of a world that is under the curse of sin, but I can escape the wrath of God and experience the care of God in and through my affliction—as His loving Fatherly discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11)—if I have God’s forgiveness. So what I really need is God’s forgiveness. Yes, I want deliverance and I will pray for that too (Psalm 25:19-22), but the greatest need I have, my first priority, is to seek God’s forgiveness and to know that I am forgiven.

So it is with us. Our greatest need is, our first priority should be, to seek God’s forgiveness and to know that we are forgiven. The source of David’s forgiveness and the source of our forgiveness is the same: the cross of Christ (Romans 3:23-26). David (unknowingly) looked forward to the cross. We look back to the cross. And we have so much more light than David! We have so much more reason to be certain of our forgiveness! But we must explicitly remind ourselves of our need to be forgiven, the certainty of our forgiveness, and the source of our forgiveness.

I encountered the same strange, biblical logic when within the past few days I began trying to memorize another one of David’s psalms:

For evils have encompassed me beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
my heart fails me.
Psalm 40:12

Again, David is suffering and seeking deliverance. And he prays for deliverance (Psalm 40:13-17). But he doesn’t do so without first reminding himself (and apparently he sees the need to remind God again) of how sinful he is. David knows how sinful his heart is. And that’s what causes him to pray the way he does. Perhaps the reason we don’t pray the way David does is because we aren’t in touch with the sin in our hearts the way David—the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22)—so intimately was throughout his entire life (Psalm 51:5). And the only remedy for the sinfulness of our hearts is the righteousness of Christ that we are covered with and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit that we are filled with through the gospel. If we are mindful of how great our sinfulness is as we pray, we will inevitably rejoice in that great gospel as we pray.

The evidence that not only David but those who live in closest fellowship with God pray this way can be seen in an example from the life of Moses:

I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.
Numbers 11:14-15

Once again, strange, strange logic. Kill me if I find favor in your sight? Who prays like that? Only a man whose terminal sin disease is so painful to him that to kill him would put him out of his sinful misery. Moses seeks deliverance from the burden that is placed upon him by the people of Israel, whose demand for meat to eat is crushing him. But he knows that the main problem in his affliction isn’t with God or even the people. The main problem is him—his own wretchedly sinful heart. And the gospel, again, is the only thing that will strengthen, cheer, or deliver the heart burdened by sin.

In fact, I have found that sometimes the pain of an affliction in my life is in direct correlation to the power of a sin in my life. For example, if I covet the praise of man, then the pain is overwhelming when others put me down or don’t give me the compliments I desire. So if the power of that sin in my life would be broken, which the gospel alone can do (Romans 1:16), then the pain of the affliction would be gone. Therefore, another way I should apply the gospel in my praying is by praying for God to use the power of the gospel to break the power of the sin in my life that causes the affliction and not by primarily praying for the affliction to be removed.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think God is displeased with our praying if we pray to Him without making explicit reference to the gospel or if we pray primarily for our afflictions to be removed. But the reason I think it’s important to consider how much we are applying the gospel in our praying is because:

1) It brings more glory to God as we proclaim and tell of His wondrous deeds in the gospel through our praying both privately and publicly (Psalm 40:5).

2) It often attacks the root of our affliction rather than merely the fruit.

3) It will strengthen our faith and the faith of those who hear us as we bring to explicit remembrance through our praying that which is of first importance: the gospel of grace in which we stand.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [Simon Peter], then to the twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:1-5

So, for God’s glory and for our joy, may our prayers be filled with strange but biblical logic as we seek to bring the gospel more fully to bear on our lives through our praying.