Prayer is in interesting topic. Many, many, many people pray. Not all pray to the same God, but, still the fact remains that the majority of people believe in the power of prayer. I felt a series of articles about prayer and it’s effectiveness might be time well spent. Over the course of the next few articles I’ll be striving to put pen to paper in order to give some insight into the place and power of true prayer.
It’s a subject full of controversy. How to pray, when to pray, what to pray, where to pray and to who to pray. All things which come up in the normal course of discussion about such an important subject. Sadly, one could reasonably say that more time and effort is given in the discussion of prayer than is put forth into the endeavor itself.
Over the years I've encountered too many "gimmicks" in Christianity geared toward prayer. Things such as prayer clocks, prayer stones, prayer oil, prayer cloths and so on just gives me headaches. So much money and time lost for something so simple and yet so profound. The weight of the doing keeps many of us from rendering the time it requires.
E.M. Bounds once wrote:
" Praying is no light and trifling exercise. While children should be taught early to pray, praying is no child's task. Prayer draws upon the whole nature of man. Prayer engages all the powers of man's moral and spiritual nature. It is this which explains somewhat the praying of our Lord described as in Hebrews 5:7: "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared."
What a mouthful! Childlike and yet no child's task. We're given the privilege and honor to come before God Almighty and intercede for others, but, so many of us stumble over such a task. It's an awesome commandment to fulfill and yet so few of us actually understand it or even do it. And when we do we spend so much time on frivolous items such as material goods that the greater tasks of prayer for lost souls goes undone.
Given the requirement to pray, it would do us well to spend as much time in the task as possible. One of the downsides to too little prayer is that we end up not fully understanding our relationship with God. Reading through epistles such as Romans and Ephesians should be extremely helpful helpful to us in our comprehension of who we are in Christ. Especially the Book of Ephesians. And I'm not talking here in any way about personal gain such as is in the "prosperity gospel" being preached in so many corners.
Even a cursory look at the early forefathers and Christian before us would and should give us pause as to how and why we pray today. Men like George Mueller and David Brainerd should convict us and convict us deeply about how shallow we are in this 21st century. Our prayers reflect it. Our government reflects it. So do our schools and neighbor hoods.
Do you know of anyone that weeps and travails for their neighbors? Or for their city? Forgive me for what I'm about to say, but most pastors spend more time and effort on fund raising than they do engaged in prayer for the souls around them that are dropping off into eternal flames never to return. I repeat, never to return. No second chances. No "Oops I made a mistake". No "do overs".
Once more, if I may, from Mr. Bounds:
"The ingathering of the harvests of earth for the granaries of heaven is dependent on the prayers of God's people. Prayer secures the labourers sufficient in quantity and in quality for all the needs of the harvest. God's chosen labourers, God's endowed labourers, and God's thrust-forth labourers, are the only ones who will truly go, filled with Christly compassion and endued with Christly power, whose going will avail, and these are secured by prayer. Christ's people on their knees with Christ's compassion in their hearts for dying men and for needy souls, exposed to eternal peril, is the pledge of labourers in numbers and character to meet the wants of earth and the purposes of heaven. "
So, such is the task set before us. Weighty, but in it, joy. Somber and yet a task to be relished. I'll write more about prayer in upcoming articles. Until then, strive for a powerful, prayerful life. Peace.
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