Luke 18:1 Jesus taught quite a bit on prayer and this scripture tells us "men ought always to pray and not faint". Does that make you feel good or guilty?
Let’s do
some brainstorming about prayer! I’d
like to pose some questions and I’d love to hear from some of you with regard
to how you would answer such questions personally. I will share with you my own personal
thoughts.
First
question, how important is prayer anyway?
Well, most people would say pretty important. I say it is life and death to the experience
of a believer.
Second
question, why then does it seem sometimes to be the most natural thing in the
world to do and at other times, the most unnatural and the thing we seem least
inclined to do?
Third
question, why is it that most people can only give you a few times in their
lives when they felt that they really got a clear answer to their prayers?
Fourth
question, and this is one that I heard over and over again as a Christian
therapist, if there is a good God who answers prayer, why are there still
starving children in Africa?
Fifth
question, is it possible that what we have is a major misunderstanding about
what prayer is and what it is not? Or,
could it be that we have not been educated or trained in the life-changing art
of prayer?
These
questions were triggered within me after reading the following quote from
Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School
of Prayer:
“Though in
its beginnings prayer is so simple that the feeblest child can pray, yet it is
at the same time the highest and holiest work to which man can rise. It is fellowship with the Unseen and Most
Holy One. The powers of the eternal
world have been placed at its disposal.
It is the very essence of true religion, the channel of all blessings,
the secret of power and life…It is on prayer that the promises wait for their
fulfillment, the kingdom for its coming, the glory of God for its full
revelation… (For) true prayer, that takes hold of God’s strength, that availeth
much, to which the gates of heaven are really opened wide—who would not cry, Oh
for someone to teach me thus to pray? pps.8,9.
Last
question, does your prayer life fit in the description of Andrew Murray
above? If not, please do not feel
condemned. You are not alone! In my experience, there are more of us who
would say, I wish!!! But, for many of us, we would say he had
something that we do not.
For today,
let me say that I do not believe that has to be the response of the majority of
us to his experience of prayer. I
believe that we have been under educated in the whole concept of prayer and we
have not matured in what we have been taught.
So, let’s
address the first question in the next blog.
How important is prayer anyway? I’d
love to hear from some of you. If you
have a difficult time posting to the blog, email your responses to me at sonshine38@carolina.rr.com .
Meanwhile, I
pray that the Son of God is shining brightly into your world today. He wants to brighten our world with the light of His great love, so turn your face upward and allow Him to fill you with His warmth!