Luke 11:1 - Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
How many times have we heard someone say – or said ourselves – “well, I guess all we can do now is pray.” So often we consider prayer a last resort – an exercise reserved for that point when nothing else we’ve done or said has worked. But isn’t this backwards? Shouldn’t we consider prayer our FIRST resort? Shouldn’t we bring everything to God in prayer BEFORE we attempt any human effort? When we consider prayer our last choice of remedy, it makes me wonder that with so little faith in the results, why bother with it at all? We need to transform our view of prayer from a short sentence or two before a meal to a powerful opportunity to seek fellowship with our Heavenly Father.
I don’t pray as much as I should. The concept of setting aside a specific time just for prayer is, I’m sorry to admit, not something I’ve ever really taken the time to do. I’ll read my devotional, even read my Bible, but pray? I mean really PRAY? By prayer, I mean more than just the obligatory sentence or two – I’m talking about deep conversation with God. I am guilty of being painfully neglectful of that that aspect of my faith – and I know that I’m not alone in that negligence. Chambers says:
It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
It isn’t that I never pray, but I tend to reserve the privilege for when I have something specific to pray for. Before Carson was born I prayed in that 9 months more than I’d prayed in the last 20 years. First for a healthy child and then that the Lord would squelch my tendency towards hysteria and give me the grace to handle the birth of our child in a way that would make it a wonderful experience for my husband. God answered those prayers for me so completely and I am incredibly grateful for that (as is David, I’m sure). If God will answer THOSE prayers, how much more will he fulfill my desires to know Him better?
I think most of us have said “I want to be a better Christian” but all too often, at least in my own life, the efforts to do so have consisted primarily of a human attempt to be kinder, attend church more faithfully, be a more patient parent or a more attentive wife. What if I were to put that energy into prayer – into nourishing the life of the Son of God in me? It isn’t that those other aspects are unimportant to our lives as Christians – quite the contrary – but when they are approached from our human efforts, success is temporary at best. When we nurture the Son of God in us and allow Him to change who we are, the other aspects fall into place as our lives reflect more and more who He is.
How true that the life of the Son of God in us is what suffers when we do not pray! If Jesus himself had to retreat to spend time in communion with His Father, how much more do we need that time? Prayer is the mightiest weapon we have in our arsenal, and yet is often neglected, to our own detriment and that of everyone with whom we come into contact.
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