We are in the midst of a study put together by Dr. David Jeremiah It is a detailed look at the Lords Prayer. This has given me new insights in praying.
Charles Spurgeon the famous British preacher had an encounter with a young man that concerned the power of prayer. The man was on the street cussing a blue streak. Spurgeon went up to him and said “can you pray as well as you cuss?” The man laughed, but the preacher pulled out a valuable coin and told him he could have it if he never prayed. He took the coin but eventually he and his wife were bothered that prayer was so valuable that maybe there was something to it. Eventually they found Spurgeon and gave him back the coin and wanted to know more about this prayer thing. Eventually the two can to know Jesus and Spurgeon had two more converts!
The story raises some questions for us. Has prayer become such a taken for granted part of our Christian life that we forget the truly great worth that it is? Would you sell your privilege to pray, for a valuable coin? The one sin that hurts almost as much as all the other is the sin of not praying and communicating with God, the one who created you; the one who loves you; the one who wants you to have all that this life can give you. God has give us the Holy Spirit to giide and direct us on our life journey, But how can we get that guidance if we don’t speak to the Holy Spirit? We do that through prayer.
I want us to understand why prayer is important. Here are four reasons…1- we pray because Jesus prayed. Jesus was constantly in prayer-communicating with his father God.If he needed to pray don’t you think we should too? 2-The second reason we pray is that prayer makes a difference! When we pray , things start to happen. The bible is full of storues of men and women who prayed to God and their prayers were ansered. 3-The third reason we pray is that prayer is to our spiritual soul as breath is to our physical bodies. 4-The fourth reason is that God cannot answer prayers that haven’t been offered. In Bruse Wilkersons book The Prayer of Jabez he tells of a man who went to Heaven where he was escorted around to all the wonderful places to see. As they were touring the man asked about a big building that looked like a warehouse. St. Peter said you really don’t want to know what is in there. Long story short, he finally convinced Peter to take him into the building. What he sees is rack after rack of white boxes tied with red ribbon. There seemed to be a name on each box and the man asked Peter if there was a box with his name on it. Peter said yes and the man ran down the aisles seeing that the boxes were in alphabetical order. He quickly found a box with his name on it.He opens it up and gives a deep sigh. For in the box were all the blessings that God had wanted to give him but he never asked.
Examine your prayer life… being in communication with God feeds your spirit, guides your life and answers those requests that you do make. As you become more comfortable with praising God, living in His Kingdom, you will be able to ask for the things you want. What is it they say about answered prayer…. it is either yes, no, or not now. I close with this quote:
“prayer is not a spare wheel that you pull our when you are in trouble,but is a steering wheel that directs the right path througout the journey” Amen.
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