We need to take out our palettes and mix some other pigments to get the right shades of color for the portraits of prayer we desire for our canvas. So, with brushes in hand, we back up a bit to Gen. 15:1, where, “The word of the LORD came unto Abraham.” Prayer is simply talking to God! In fact conversation with God is called, prayer! What a beautiful, intimate relationship God and Abraham shared, to simply converse back and forth! Isn’t that what God desires for every one of us? A simple, plain, naked relationship, to share our burdens, our cares, our needs, our desires, our wants and our lives with Him? We need to talk to God, He hears, He cares, what a beautiful chapter to meditate on, Gen. 15. Verse six says, “And he believed in the LORD, and He counted it to him for righteousness.” Do we believe God, you and I? I mean do we really believe Him, against all odds, all circumstances, and all situations? Even to the point of offering your only son whom you love with all your heart on a rock, in a barren land? Gen. 22. Abraham believed, Abraham obeyed, and Abraham was blessed! Remember, God’s delays are not God’s denials! The word for believe here is amended, he said, ‘Amen, to God.’

The lesson here in prayer is, ‘What God has promised He will do in His own time frame, ‘But He Will Do It!’ What we need is the, ‘AMEN, of faith in our prayers.’ God cuts a covenant with Abraham and a pillar of fire and a pillar of a cloud pass between the animal parts. Was God showing Abraham how He was going to lead His people out of Egypt after 400 years? I don’t know! Abraham was open and honest with God and talked with Him; He hid nothing from God, Nothing! Do you hide anything from God? Some secret sin, that does so easily beset you? Heb. 12:1. We all have them! He stood like Adam, bare naked before his Creator and talked, face to face. We too, need to be open and honest with God in our prayer gardens. He knows everything, anyway. We can’t hide anything, right? Of course. right! Abraham just walked and talked with God and shared everything, we call it prayer, communion, worship, God calls it fellowship! We need to talk to God, to be open, to be honest; He hears, He cares, He listens; So, tell Him what’s bugging you, after all, He created the bugs too! “Oh LORD, may we be honest and open in our prayers, our conversations with You? Thank You, for hearing, for caring, for listening and for loving us.” Did you get to splash a little color on your canvas today?

Gen. 17:2 says, “And Abraham fell on his face.” Abraham is 99 years old and the LORD appears before him and says, “I Am the Almighty God, (El Shaddai) walk before Me and be thou perfect.” (blameless) Then Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him. Prayer is a two-way street; we talk to God and He listens; God talks to us and we listen, or do we? We need to develop the lost art of listening in our prayer closets.  “Abraham fell on his face!” Good position, humble, not kneeling, NO! Prostrate! Face in the dirt! He couldn’t get low enough before, El Shaddai! What a chapter, Gen. 17; Abram becomes Abraham; Sarai, becomes Sarah; circumcision is instituted, 700 years before the law; they are promised a son; Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90; and God’s covenant is re-established, WOW!

Notice, God does all the talking from v.1-17, then Abraham gets a word in edge-wise in v.18, seven words and then El Shaddai takes over again. Then when God is finished talking with Abraham in v.22, ‘He goes up.’ This was a face to face encounter with God. When was the last time God talked face to face with you? Then when was the last time you took God at His word literally? Abraham believed God and ‘IT’ was imputed unto him for righteousness! Believed! Amended! He said, AMEN! To God! God said it and that settled it! Amen God! When we pray, we need to be like Abraham and fall on our faces before El Shaddai and be still and ‘LISTEN’ to God. Got your brush out, paint this, let us meet God face to face on our faces! Here in Gen. 17:18 we have the first recorded prayer in the form of a father praying for his son, “And Abraham said, Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!” I believe Ishmael is a believer in the LORD and is lying on the ground right next to his father with his face in the dirt too. However, this was asking far more than God had offered to do, and he also received an immediate answer in v.20. A beautiful example of prayer for your children to God, El Shaddai, The Almighty God, The All Sufficient One; The Strengthener and Satisfier of His people; The One Who enriches and makes fruitful.

El Shaddai promises a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman that He would bless them and multiply them exceedingly and make them fruitful, v.16. This is the name used for for God primarily before the law on Mt Sinai; El Shaddai, The All Sufficient One; Then it was Jehovah the Self-Existent One. (YHVH) Job uses El Shaddai 31 times; so Job chronologically fits right here in Gen. 17. So Abraham met El Shaddai face to face, on his face and listened intently and spoke only briefly and probably wished he could take those seven words back, although they came from a father’s heart. “El Shaddai, Sustainer, Strengthener, Satisfier of all mankind; we believe your word and we say, Amen! To Your promises. LORD we seek Your will in this coming year, may You strengthen us, sustain us, and satisfy us. LORD teach us to cultivate the lost art of listening in our prayer closets and lives.” I trust you were able to mix a few pigments on your palette and apply a few brush strokes to your canvas on ‘Portraits of Prayer.’ We have some more palette work to do before we jump back into Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and the Matriarchs, so walk with me, “Between The Lines.”

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis” ‘Some Missed Pigments’