Praying In My Heart

“Before I had finished praying in my heart, I saw Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ [Genesis 24.45]

The servant of Abraham, in searching for a wife for Isaac, prayed a prayer with conditions to know how he would select that wife for Isaac. While there are many things that could be discussed about that prayer and this whole wife-finding situation, I found myself drawn to consider the verse above - particularly the first phrase about the servant having prayed his prayer in his heart.

It seems of no great significance that he prayed the prayer in his heart, but having some experience myself in praying conditional prayers (with terrible success I might add) I felt compelled to make a distinction in pointing out how the servant prayed.

The fact that he laid out an if/then condition in his prayer is not really so significant. But the fact that prayed in his heart as opposed to praying out loud is huge! If we consider that God knows our every thought, then it is no matter to Him whether we pray to Him in our heart or verbally. However, if we also consider that the enemy of God, Satan, does not know what we are thinking, then there is something to ponder deeper! Based on this fact, all Satan can do is randomly throw things our way to see how we will respond - as opposed to directly counter-attacking a particular direction in our lives.

In other words, Satan cannot strategically counter something we are praying about in our hearts like he can something we pray out loud. Sure he will resist us, but if he does not know what we are praying, the best he can do is guess what we are up to!

I like this train of thought! While there are many prayers that it matters not whether the enemy hears or not, there are other prayers, particularly where we are seeking direction, that he we should not give him the advantage of knowing anything about.

Father, help me to consider this idea further today. This is especially important to me today as I am seeking direction...