Where Are We With Prayer

On this Lord’s Day Sunday, we give thanks for a new week. Indeed, we are truly grateful to God for this blessing and we seek God’s guidance and grace to follow and be obedient to Him, in every way. We know that we cannot do this without His enabling Holy Spirit, so we seek His help.

There are several truths about prayer, which we speak, tell others and even believe. But are they evidenced in our praying lives? Here are a few of these truths.

1. Prayer is the believer’s vital and native breath, all in the Spirit.

2. Prayer is of God and not of humans, as He initiates, directs and rewards prayer.

3. Prayer has the power to move mountains, regardless of the size.

4. Prayer is a transforming power and can change the lives of people.

5. Prayer has wings, the spread of which no human mind can ever hope to fathom or fix.

6. Prayer is Jesus’ command, instruction and good pleasure for all believers, without favouritism.

7. Prayer is God and man in communion, the Creator and the created; the Invisible and the visible, the Heavenly and the earthly, as one.

Prayer is a grace which God has given to us and He calls us and uses us in prayer. However, many of our lives do not identify with those seven truths brought before us. The truth is that I cannot claim one without the others, since they are all pearls on the same complete rope of prayer. But there is no need to despair, for this week has been targeted especially for believers like me, who need to lean more on Jesus and not on our own, traditional way and understanding of prayer and praying.

Before we move on, we must never be confused, deceived, or in any way beaten down about prayer, which is our response to the One True Living God. Prayer is not unique to our God, for all kinds of believers pray but to their gods. My mind goes straight to the open prayer session which was taking place on a ship heading for Tarshish, on which God’s servant Jonah was. Here is the scene. The ship is going along fine until, the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. Jonah 1: 4. The sailors, men used to storms no doubt, could read the intent of this unexpectedly horrendous storm. This was a life-drowning storm and instantly a time of prayer took form. What a prayer meeting that was! This is what Jonah 1: 5a states. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. Each had a different god it seems, nonetheless, the point being made is that prayer is not only made to the One God.

When we pray however, we must be perfectly and confidently sure that we are not praying amiss, for to do so, will be as one praying to another god. The devil is good at fooling believers where prayer is concerned and our Lord knows this. Perhaps this is the reason for us being brought to prayer in a most diverse and different manner.