Recently my church gave a series of lessons on prayer. The series stressed the importance of prayer and the lack of it in today's churches. I pray everyday but I was seriously convicted by this message. My prayers are routine and lack creativity and passion. There are several points I want to bring forth. 1) My pastor said we we as men were meant to pray aggressively and passionately to fight against the sin of this world. I am usually so focused on repenting for my sins I fail to pray for the bigger picture. 2) There is a direct link between how much you know God and how much you pray. I want to know God way more than the amount of prayer that I have currently in my life. If we do not know God we do not obey Him. Rather, we do what comes naturally to us, sin. 3) If there is something that you are waiting for and it has not happened then pray! There are many things in my life that I am waiting for. A promotion, stable finances, a fulfillment of a calling. Yet, I find myself praying very little for these things.
Why do we not pray? Laziness and an unwillingness not to surrender our time. Lack of belief that our prayers will actually do anything. A belief that God has it covered already and through His sovereign power he will take care of all we need. While there is some truth in the statement of God's sovereignty there is also some falsehood. Throughout scripture God moved or acted in direct response to someone's prayer. God wants our prayers! Why? Check out Daniel. Daniel 9: 2-3, "I Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and fasting." Daniel 9: 21-23, "As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me. He explained to me, "Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God." Now we can read this and acknowledge and move on or we can take it to heart and believe the same applies to us. Our prayers can move God to act and give commands because we are very precious to Him.
Daniel serves as a model for us as a man of prayer. We all know of Daniel and the miracle in the lion's den. Daniel's miracle came as a result of his daily prayers, and his knowledge of God. He made time every day to pray and he was a man that called out to God for his people. Daniel was surrounded by sin and a people whose ways defiled God much like we are today. Yet Daniel was able to be obedient and know God and even intercede for others. I want to be a Daniel for God. It all starts with prayer. I want my family to have a legacy of obedience like the Recabites in Jeremiah chapter 35:18-19, "This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says: You have obeyed your ancestor Jehonadab in every respect, following all his instructions. Therefore, Jehonadab son of Recab will always have descendants who serve me." Those who pray know God. Those who know God fall in love with Him and obey Him. Out of obedience we experience all the goodness of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment