Litigating with the Lord

Many times when we pray for someone, we need to view God as Eternal Judge and do our best trial lawyer impersonation when voicing our prayer.

NUMBERS 14:15-20 “Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word”

If you ever get overly frustrated when someone you are praying for is not changing or seems to get worse then you need to read about all Moses had to tolerate from the tribes of Israel. No matter what he or God would do to appease them, they never seemed satisfied.

In Numbers 14, God gets frustrated and talks of giving up on them. The good news is He loves us enough to where He will never give up on us. Moses modeled a structure of prayer for us when he pleaded to God to spare His people.

Moses reminded the Lord it would make Him look bad to give up on His people after all He had done for them. In a similar prayer in Exodus Moses also reminded God of the promises He made to their ancestors to bless them and that He was bound by His word to fulfill those obligations.

When bringing our petitions to God we need to use the promises in the Bible to build a case in favor of why God should honor our request, almost like a lawyer would build a case for a client. For example, when praying for a lost person you can remind Him of His words in Ezekiel 33:11, “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways.” Tell Him of your mutual desire for this lost person to turn from their evil ways and accept Jesus.

Then remind Him of John 3:17 where Jesus said, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Jesus did not come to save some of the world or a chosen few of the world – it said world meaning everyone in it including the person you are praying for. In fact, the word in the original Greek text is kosmos from which we derive our word cosmos or universe. Since God paid such a high price, you would like to see Him get the best return He can get and adding this person to Jesus’ flock would be a step toward that.

Finally thank God for saving you and remind Him that because you are saved you are entitled to the promise Jesus made in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”, and that you believe He can save this person because He saved you.

One thing to also remember that Moses models in this prayer is the giving of praise. We should never miss an opportunity to praise God or bring Him glory, especially in prayer.

Many think the Bible is just a rulebook for life but it is far more. It is a long list of promises God has given us. Take the time to remind Him of these promises and see what blessings He has in store for you.