He…wondered that there was no
intercessor… —Isaiah 59:16
“The reason many of us stop
praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest
in prayer. […] Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible
without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting
the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying (see
Philippians 2:5). […] When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic.
We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do.
We don’t worship God, nor do we seek to conform our minds to the mind of
Christ. And if we are hard toward God, we will become hard toward other people.
[…] Be a person who worships God and
lives in a holy relationship with Him.”
CHAMBERS
Next to reading the Word of
God, I think that prayer is the most neglect discipline in the Christian’s
life. Prayer is communication with our
Father. When the disciples asked Jesus
to teach them to pray, Jesus began with “Our Father who is in heaven …” (Luke
11:2) Prayer is vital. Prayer is
spiritual. But prayer is useless if our
hearts are not right. God does not hear
the prayers of those who are not His children.
And for those who are, He will not listen when we try to approach him
with sin in our hearts. It’s not like
having a conversation with your earthly father.
You might talk to him and all the while you have deceit or some hidden
sin in your heart. Prayer is a spiritual
act. Prayer is a combination of thoughts
– what it is that you are praying about, devotion – your love for God, and the
Spirit – the enabler of your spiritual life.
The Word says the “the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and
effective” (James 5:16) That would
cause us to consider what is it that makes the man righteous … right before God
… a pure heart and clean hands .. (Psalm
24:3-6) “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His
holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his
soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the
Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
We must pray, but our hearts
must be right when we do. We don’t get
to define the conditions for our relationship with God. We don’t approach God in the wrong way
intentionally, we do it without thinking.
Remember that when you pray, you are praying to your Father in
heaven. The Creator of the
universe. A friend of ours gave me
simple reminder for how I should pray .. ACTS
.. Adoration .. recognizing who God is … Confession … confessing
my sins (1 John 1:9) … Thanksgiving
… thanking God for what He has done in my life … and lastly Supplication
… (Philippians 4:6-7) . Oh, and the next time someone asks you to
pray about something .. stop and pray right then … with them … You both will be
glad you did. ELGIN
Charley Elgin
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