Prayer, the Believer's Privilege

Brethren, Pray

 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray continually” 

It’s not easy to get someone to listen to you today.  First, you have to get through the noise of today just so they can hear you.  Then they have to be willing to listen.  They have to be willing to turn down the radio, turn away from the TV, set aside the newspaper or book or whatever else has their attention.  If you find someone who is willing to do that, to silence everything else so they can hear you clearly and attentively, you have found a rare person.

But our Heavenly Father is like that.  Oh, he doesn’t stop what he is doing to listen to our prayers.  He continues to sustain all things by his mighty power but he listens to you with the same intensity as if there was nothing else on his agenda.

Max Lucado put it this way in THE GREAT HOUSE OF GOD, “[Your] prayers are honored [in heaven] as precious jewels.  Purified and empowered, the words rise in delightful fragrance to our Lord… Your words do not stop until they reach the very throne of God…”

In some mysterious way our prayers move God to change our world.  We don’t how this works, but then we are not called to know how it works; all we are called to do is make use of it.  All we need to know is that actions in heaven begin when someone on earth prays.

The story is told of a 12 year old Cambodian boy who began to question his family’s religious beliefs.  He had been taught that a person seeking guidance should go to a temple and shake a container of numbered bamboo slivers until one fell out.  The priest then interpreted the meaning of the number.  But the practice didn’t satisfy his longing for clear answers, nor did it fill the void in his heart that only God could fill.

He asked his uncle, a priest, if he had ever had a prayer answered.  The uncle was admitted that he couldn’t remember a single answer to one of his prayers.

Later the boy asked a Christian if his God had ever answered his prayers and the man gave several instances of answered prayers.  The boy was so impressed that he later received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and Lord.

Jesus said in Matthew  7:77 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  And James wrote in James 4:2 “…You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

So my sister and brother in Christ here on earth, pray!

The Power of Prayer

Col 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” 

So often we are told that if we just have enough faith our prayers will be heard and answered.  Let me remind you of an event in the life of Jesus recorded in John 11:1-3. There we read, “Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."

Did you notice how the request for Lazarus’ health was made?  The friend of Mary and Martha came to Jesus and said, "Lord, the one you love is sick.”   What was his request to Jesus based upon?  Did he base it on the perfect love of the one who was sick?  Did he base it on the faith of Mary and Martha?  No, he based his appeal on the perfect love of the Savior, "Lord, the one you love is sick."  Nor did he say, “The one who loves you is sick.”  He said, “Lord, the one you love is sick."  In other words, the power of prayer does not depend on the one who makes the prayer, how much faith or love or diligence or whatever he/she may produce.  The power of prayer is in the one who hears the prayer.

Perhaps we need to alter the way we pray.  Perhaps we should pray, “Lord, the one you love is weary.”  Or, “Lord, the one you love is depressed.”  Or, “Lord, the one you love is lonely, worried, angry, depressed.”  The words of prayer vary and there is no set form or phrase, but the response never changes.  Our Savior hears the prayers of His own.  As one writer put it, “He silences heaven so he won’t miss a word.”

So what is your need today?  Pray and fill in the blank, “Lord, the one you love is ________ today

In Eph 6:11-13 Paul exhorts us to "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Just how determined is satan (I never capitalize his name)? Would he enter into the most sacred of places? Would he even invade our talks with God Himself?

John Dorsey describes the devil's tactics in the following poetic words:

"I had a battle fierce today within my place of prayer;
I went to meet and talk with God, but I found Satan there.
He whispered, 'You can't really pray, you lost out long ago;
you might say words while on your knees, but you can't pray, you know.'
So then I pulled my helmet down, way down upon my ears,
and found it helped to still his voice and helped allay my fears.
I checked my other armor o'er; my feet in peace were shod;
my loins with truth were girded 'round; my sword the Word of God.
My righteous breastplate still was on, my heart's love to protect.
My shield of faith was all intact - his fiery darts bounced back.
I called on God in Jesus' name, I pled the precious blood-while
Satan sneaked away in shame, I met and talked with God!"

There are few Christians who have not experienced such evil interference in their lives. If we, however, like John Dorsey, put on the "whole armor of God" (Eph. 6:11), we will find it much easier to "stand" when we are buffeted by the enemy of our souls. Let us find encouragement in 1 Thessalonians 2:18, remembering that if satan is seeking to "hinder us," it must be because we are doing some- thing right for God!

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