Who will pray?
This morning I received an email from an elderly pastor friend who has been mightily used by God over the last 40 years...he has been diagnosed with bone cancer. Ever since we met a few years ago, I have often felt humbled when I would listen to his messages. It seemed that every other sentence was a direct quote from scripture without even looking at his Bible and everything he says reflects an intimacy with God. I got a glimpse of the hidden reasons for his powerful ministry one day when he casually mentioned his daily practice of reading more than 14 chapters of scripture and of rising at 4 am to spend hours praying through an extensive list of prayer needs.
Bone cancer? I thought. "Please spare him a little longer, Father", I prayed. A number of dedicated Christian leaders have gone on to glory this year, but can we bear to lose this spiritual giant? Who will believe God for sweeping movements of His Spirit? Who will pray?
The loss of such a man only seems frightening because of the spiritual condition of most Christians today. If the Lord is to visit us again in power (something that many Christians agree that we need), it must be in answer to the earnest, insistent, believing prayers of His people. But who will pick up the mantle?
This mantle cannot be picked up by any of us until we begin to address the things that hinder our praying. And there is probably nothing more hindering to prayer than losing heart because of unanswered prayer.
I believe that if most Christians were brutally honest, they would admit that many times prayer has been a disappointing experience. Often we pray and pray and nothing seems to happen. Sometimes after praying for awhile without any answers, we essentially lay prayer aside in view of trying to fix things ourselves. God apparently is not listening.
And this is precisely where a heart to persist in believing prayer dies on the vine and any encouragement to persevere in prayer just sounds like empty words. It has been my observation (and my experience) that the moment we begin to quietly blame God for unanswered prayer, all motivation to really pray goes out the window. At this pivotal juncture when we find ourselves questioning God's love, goodness or power, we must step back and take a radically different approach if we are going to be able to continue to pray or begin to see God answer our prayers.
And what approach is that? Instead of questioning God's motives, or agreeing in our hearts with the lie that prayer is essentially a waste of time, we need to ask Him a few questions. "What is it about MY life or MY praying that is keeping you from being able to answer?" or "What is wrong with ME, that I can't prevail with You in prayer, O God?" or to use the words of David, "Search ME, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in ME, and lead me in the way everlasting."
Such a request will invariably lead us to a number of Biblical conditions that we must meet if we are to prevail in prayer. Let me mention just 2 verses that contain a number of such conditions:
1Ti 2:8 "I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."
James 5:16b "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
These lead us to stop asking God why He isn't listening and begin to ask ourselves a few questions:
• Am I really saved? Do I really belong to God?
• Are my hands holy? Have I confessed any known sin and forsaken all "pet" sins?
• Am I resentful and unforgiving? Am I nursing some wounds instead of releasing them to God?
• Am I believing God's promises when I pray, or believing my experience? Am I praying in faith?
• Am I earnest and insistent in my prayers? Am I really pouring out my heart to God or just saying my prayers?
• Am I righteous--even though I'm not perfect? Am I standing in God's forgiveness in Christ and seeking to live a life pleasing to Him?
• Am I willing to believe God is hearing me and trust Him regarding His timing? Will I let God be God?
Honest answers to these kinds of questions can allow us to stop blaming God for unanswered prayers and start pleading with Him to make us the kind of people whose prayers He can respond to.
I'm beginning to realize that power in prayer is very similar to the matter of becoming a Christian. It is not complicated, but it is costly. Unanswered prayers are less a sign of God's unwillingness to answer than a sign of our unwillingness to let Him change us. We must be willing to respond like a little child to the matters God exposes to us, knowing that He loves us and only wants to make us holy. Then unanswered prayer will cease to be a hindrance to prayer because we will begin to see God doing special things in response to our simple but believing requests.
Our generation desperately needs some giants in the prayer closet. Let's take up the challenge and trust God to grow our feet big enough to fill those empty shoes that some of our elderly brethren are leaving behind.
Lord Jesus, teach us to pray.
"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him." 2 Chronicles 16:
Bone cancer? I thought. "Please spare him a little longer, Father", I prayed. A number of dedicated Christian leaders have gone on to glory this year, but can we bear to lose this spiritual giant? Who will believe God for sweeping movements of His Spirit? Who will pray?
The loss of such a man only seems frightening because of the spiritual condition of most Christians today. If the Lord is to visit us again in power (something that many Christians agree that we need), it must be in answer to the earnest, insistent, believing prayers of His people. But who will pick up the mantle?
This mantle cannot be picked up by any of us until we begin to address the things that hinder our praying. And there is probably nothing more hindering to prayer than losing heart because of unanswered prayer.
I believe that if most Christians were brutally honest, they would admit that many times prayer has been a disappointing experience. Often we pray and pray and nothing seems to happen. Sometimes after praying for awhile without any answers, we essentially lay prayer aside in view of trying to fix things ourselves. God apparently is not listening.
And this is precisely where a heart to persist in believing prayer dies on the vine and any encouragement to persevere in prayer just sounds like empty words. It has been my observation (and my experience) that the moment we begin to quietly blame God for unanswered prayer, all motivation to really pray goes out the window. At this pivotal juncture when we find ourselves questioning God's love, goodness or power, we must step back and take a radically different approach if we are going to be able to continue to pray or begin to see God answer our prayers.
And what approach is that? Instead of questioning God's motives, or agreeing in our hearts with the lie that prayer is essentially a waste of time, we need to ask Him a few questions. "What is it about MY life or MY praying that is keeping you from being able to answer?" or "What is wrong with ME, that I can't prevail with You in prayer, O God?" or to use the words of David, "Search ME, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in ME, and lead me in the way everlasting."
Such a request will invariably lead us to a number of Biblical conditions that we must meet if we are to prevail in prayer. Let me mention just 2 verses that contain a number of such conditions:
1Ti 2:8 "I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."
James 5:16b "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
These lead us to stop asking God why He isn't listening and begin to ask ourselves a few questions:
• Am I really saved? Do I really belong to God?
• Are my hands holy? Have I confessed any known sin and forsaken all "pet" sins?
• Am I resentful and unforgiving? Am I nursing some wounds instead of releasing them to God?
• Am I believing God's promises when I pray, or believing my experience? Am I praying in faith?
• Am I earnest and insistent in my prayers? Am I really pouring out my heart to God or just saying my prayers?
• Am I righteous--even though I'm not perfect? Am I standing in God's forgiveness in Christ and seeking to live a life pleasing to Him?
• Am I willing to believe God is hearing me and trust Him regarding His timing? Will I let God be God?
Honest answers to these kinds of questions can allow us to stop blaming God for unanswered prayers and start pleading with Him to make us the kind of people whose prayers He can respond to.
I'm beginning to realize that power in prayer is very similar to the matter of becoming a Christian. It is not complicated, but it is costly. Unanswered prayers are less a sign of God's unwillingness to answer than a sign of our unwillingness to let Him change us. We must be willing to respond like a little child to the matters God exposes to us, knowing that He loves us and only wants to make us holy. Then unanswered prayer will cease to be a hindrance to prayer because we will begin to see God doing special things in response to our simple but believing requests.
Our generation desperately needs some giants in the prayer closet. Let's take up the challenge and trust God to grow our feet big enough to fill those empty shoes that some of our elderly brethren are leaving behind.
Lord Jesus, teach us to pray.
"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him." 2 Chronicles 16:
Labels: Holiness, Personal Revival, Prayer
posted by pressingon at
9:11 PM
0 Comments
