“…one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to
pray…"” —Luke 11:1
“Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man.
We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I
question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is
nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above,
the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish
that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our
common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon
prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical
purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. […] To say that
“prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes
me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the
basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a
matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s
inner nature.” CHAMBERS
A few thoughts on prayer.
First, the point of
prayer. You would agree that God wants a relationship with us. I mean, why else would have He sent
Jesus? A relationship that includes
communication. God is not a God of “I
speak, you listen.” He wants two way communication. God speaks by His Spirit through prayer, the
Word, circumstances, and other believers. We speak back to God through prayer. There are
tons of books on prayer. The disciples
asked Jesus how to pray. He said, 1)
acknowledge the Father, 2) acknowledge that His will is best, 3) ask Him to
meet your daily needs, 4) guide us through the day, 5) acknowledge that He is
worthy of all gory .. all credit. Reciting the Lord’s prayer is OK, but it can
become a mantra of sorts, something that is said from memory and from the
heart. With the advent of newer
translations, you don’t hear it so much anymore, but for many years, people
thought they had to pray in King James language. Like that was the heavenly language. If language style were important, we would
all have to learn Hebrew since that is what Jesus spoke. Second,
in the process of prayer, we focus on God and in doing so, as we make a habit
of praying, we cause change to take place in the way we think, see the world
and our circumstances. Prayer is God focused not
self-focused. Have you ever been talking
to someone who was not listening to you, but busy thinking about what they were
going to say next? You can see it in
their eyes. They are not nearly as concerned about hearing
you as they are about hearing themselves.
The point of prayer is not so you can access God’s pocket book so you
can get anything you want. Some folks
believe that if you name it .. you can claim it .. they believe that is what
the Bible promises.
(James 4:2-4) You
do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive,
because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your
pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world
means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the
world becomes an enemy of God.” What you
pray about reveals your heart … “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaks.” (Matthew 12:34) We are admonished to not crave the things of
this world, so why do we? And lastly - third, prayer is a privilege. Through Jesus, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, you have direct access to the Creator God. Do you understand the significance of
that? In the Army, commanders have what
is known as an “open door policy”. What
that means is that at certain times, anyone can come in to talk to the
commander, without an appointment. Normally there are many bosses in
between. But the lowliest privates can
come by themselves and talk to the commander .. with no one else
listening. They will not be denied
access. God has an open door policy as
well. When Jesus died, the curtain in
the temple was torn in two symbolizing that man was no longer denied access to
the Father. We have the privilege of
speaking to the Father, with no one else listening. Think about it. ELGIN
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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