Genesis 18:23 Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”

In Genesis chapter eighteen we are given the story of the Lord and his two angels visiting Abraham to give him the promise of Isaac.  Sarah laughed to herself when she heard this knowing she was pass the age of bearing children and that Abraham was old as well.  The Lord’s answer to this was “Is anything impossible for the Lord”.  After the meal the two angels left to carry out their task of saving Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as the Lord stayed behind with Abraham.  As I study the verses of Genesis 18:16-33 I realize how much these verses reveal to us how our prayer life with the Lord should become as we grow in our relationship with Him. 

In these verses we see the Lord revealing to Abraham his plan for Sodom and Gomorrah.  As we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord, the Holy Spirit will also reveal to us the Lord’s will on this earth as it is in heaven.  With our growth in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord we develop a closer relationship with Him.  As I study these verses in Genesis chapter eighteen I realize that our prayer life is not just taking our needs to the Lord, but it really a conversation with the Lord concerning the events happening in our life. 

In this prayer we see Abraham asking God the question “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked.  God started out with no if he could find fifty.  As he continue his prayer to the Lord he got the number down to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, and finally ten.  This prayer was not a simple request from Abraham but a conversation with God.  These verses reveal the special relationship that Abraham had with Lord.  He prayed to the Lord until he was comfortable that the Lord could find ten righteous in Sodom (Lot’s family and a few others close to Lot).  As we enter our daily prayer do we just offer up a daily prayer and then go on living on daily life or do we continue to go to the Lord until we see our prayers answer.  Abraham prayer was answered.  Yes God did destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, but he took the righteous out first. 

These verses in Genesis eighteen provides us a way to approach the Lord in our prayer life.  Our Lord gives us a great example of this in Luke 22:42 “Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me, yet not My will, but Thine will be done.”  Jesus prayer did not keep him from going to the cross, but it reveals how He surrender His will to God’s will.  These two prayers reveal how deep our prayer life should develop as we strive to walk closer to Lord.  We should learn to make our prayer life as a moment by moment of taking every thought of ours to the Lord.