prayer

I love going to church on Sunday mornings. I love the energy of the worship service. I love listening to the truth found in the Scriptures through the messages. I love hugging and laughing with the team of volunteers who gather before service. I love greeting people as they come through the doors and praying with people at service end.

But as much as I love all that, it is still my “second-favorite” time of the week.

My favorite time is Thursday mornings from 9 to 10 AM. That is when we gather for prayer.

I walk into that building and greet Pastor Laura. She sets up the music playing softly and the screen in the front of the church with prayer emphasis for that hour.

I find a chair and sit down. My body won’t let me kneel anymore, but my heart still kneels before my LORD. I pray. I worship. I sit quietly. I rest in Him. I sense His presence. I am at peace with my Savior and LORD. It is the very best time of my entire week.

Usually there are just a few of us. I often wonder why the place isn’t packed. To be given the opportunity to sit with the LORD for an hour and quietly share my heart with Him … and Him share His heart with me, well, that is a bit of heaven on earth.

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.” [Colossians 4:2 NLT]

I was having a difficult time last weekend. To be honest, the entire week before was difficult. I had an infusion that week and I was hurting more than normal. (The infusion is supposed to help the pain.)

I was extremely fatigued, and it got worse as the week progressed. Saturday was the worst day. When I went to bed that night I was tired, battling pain, and also fighting discouragement. I kept thinking that this is not the way I want to live out my remaining days. My emotions were fragile.

Now, for those of you who may not know me, I am a positive person. I usually handle difficult circumstances knowing that “God’s grace is sufficient.” And I seek in all things to try to find what God wants me to learn or take from every situation. But Saturday night, I was none of those things. I was tired, discouraged, and ready to quit.

Sunday morning, I got up still fatigued and hurting. I debated just sitting in my rocker but did not give in to that. I went to church. At the end of the service, I decided to go up for prayer. I am so thankful.

The prayer team knew exactly how I was feeling since one member of that team also battles an auto-immune disease. They prayed. I heard God speak through them to me.

This morning as I look back, I remembered the lyrics of an old song, “Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer!” [What a Friend We Have in Jesus]

I am so thankful I followed the Spirit’s promptings and went for prayer. Whether or not I am physically changed, my Friend Jesus took away the discouragement and the despair and gave me courage, grace, and strength for the days. Thank you, Jesus.

I went to a prayer meeting this morning. (I wrote this on 8/17). God’s presence felt so precious while we prayed.

I had just prayed something personal to me, quietly so only God and I could hear. Then a sweet woman with a quiet voice got up and prayed His answer back to me. One little sentence that stood out for my ears only to hear.

It was such a precious time when the hour was over. I just wanted to sit there and bask in the LORD’s presence.

I had missed the last three Thursday morning prayer meetings (infusion, doc appointment and not feeling well), so I was so glad to be back in the house of the LORD. There is something that lifts you outside yourself when you gather with others and pray. There is something that touches deep in the soul when you pray for others.

“Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer.”  [1Peter 4:7 HCSB]

The above verse is from a section of Peter’s first letter. That section is labeled “End-Time Ethics” in my translation. We are definitely in difficult times. I do not know if we are at the very end of times, but we sure are getting close if we gauge that by what is going on in our world.

These “end-times” that we live in require prayer for survival. And not just for survival, but to have all we need to thrive as disciples of Christ Jesus. And prayer requires discipline because every weapon the enemy has will be aimed at those who pray.

We must be serious … and we must be disciplined … and we must pray. Nothing less will do.

One of the greatest privileges is to pray for another. One of the greatest pleasures is to see God answer those prayers.

I came across a phrase in the Book of Daniel that touched my heart. It came on the heels of someone telling me that what I had prayed for them God granted.  That phrase is “I have come because of your prayers” and was spoken to Daniel.

“’Don’t be afraid, Daniel,’” he said to me, ‘for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.’” [Daniel 10:12 HCSB]

Daniel had been mourning and praying for three full weeks for his people. He had fasted during that time. At the end of that time Daniel had a glorious vision of a heavenly being. This being told Daniel that he had been sent to Daniel immediately after Daniel prayed but there had been opposition in the heavenlies that delayed the answer’s arrival.

Even though the answer was delayed, the impetus for the answer was because Daniel was prayed.

“I have come because of your prayers.”

God dispatched a heavenly answer just because Daniel prayed.

Imagine what God will do because we pray!

Last Thursday morning I accepted an invitation to pray. The invitation came in the form of an announcement at the Sunday service at Christian Faith Center (CFC) Caldwell. “Prayer across all CFC campuses @ 9 AM Thursday!”

That announcement actually just gave the time and location of the invitation.  The invitation to pray is found throughout the Scriptures, as well as the attitudes we need to have regarding praying.

 “Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer.” [I Peter 4:7 HCSB]

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.” [Romans 12:12 HCSB]

Peter reminds us that we need to be “serious and disciplined,” while Paul tells us we must be “persistent.”

Praying is difficult for many reasons, otherwise, why would we be warned to be serious, disciplined, and persistent if it was easy.

The enemy of our soul hates it when we pray and will put every obstacle in our way to keep us from gathering in prayer. Our own natural man also hates it when we pray and will convince us that our prayers don’t matter, or that we are too busy, or that “it’s boring!”

Praying together and having the Almighty God of the Universe in our midst (where two or three are gathered) is one of the greatest privileges given to men and women. It is an invitation we should be so honored to receive AND respond to.

One of the most beautiful prayers ever recorded is found in Ephesians 3:14-19, Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. He is asking God to grant them (according to the riches of His glory) strength, and power in the inner man. He asks that Christ Jesus dwells in their hearts. He prays that they would be rooted and established in love and that they are able to comprehend the enormity of God’s love … so that they may be filled with all the fullness of God.

We could spend weeks studying the depth of that prayer. It might be better, however, to spend our time praying that prayer for others and even for ourselves. But this morning, it was the following verse (vs 20) that caught my attention.  “Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us….” [HCSB]

The NKJV renders “able to do above and beyond all,” as “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all.”

Reading that verse was God’s way of reminding me that all too often I think too small!

And yes, I agree with God that all too often I do think too small and expect too little. How often are my prayers driven by temporal needs? How often is my vision focused on what is around me? How often do I pray a perfunctory prayer without much faith?

Paul lifted his eyes to the heavens. He prayed that his readers would comprehend – COMPREHEND! – the “width and length and depth and height” of God’s love for the purpose of being “filled with all the fullness of God.”

I am duly chastened, LORD, and I will strive to raise my eyes to the heavens … to Your glory … and pray with greater expectations about all You are able to do above and beyond all that I can imagine. Amen.

I was reading in Genesis this past week. When Abraham was old, he sent the chief servant in his household to go back to his relatives and find a wife for his son, Isaac.  (Genesis 24)

When the servant arrived at his destination, he stopped at the well outside of town. This was where the women came to draw water in the evening.  He prayed, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham ….” Then he spoke the prayer to God about how he would know the right choice for Isaac.  The Scripture records, “Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder.”

We know from the rest of the story Rebekah became Isaac’s wife. Before the servant finished praying, the answer to his prayer walked into his presence.

Daniel had a similar experience. “While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill- while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me….” [Dan 9:20-21]

When we pray, do we expect God to respond? Or is our prayer simply telling God what we think He doesn’t know and reminding Him of what we think He should do to fix the problem.

How shocked would we be if the answer to the prayer appeared before we even finished praying! 

There are two things that I’ve noticed about prayer over the years.  First, we love to study and talk about prayer. Second, we don’t pray so much.

When I was pastoring, I could plan almost any event at the church and have lots of people come but schedule a prayer meeting and the same few showed up.

Romans 12 is a wonderful, practical chapter in a book that is largely theological.  There are three practical attitudes commanded in verse 12: “be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

What a list.  All three are important but that last one, “faithful in prayer,” is vital.  Vital, and may I add confusing?

Why pray?  Doesn’t God know all our needs already?  Are we trying to change God’s mind?  Does He just need more information, or a better viewpoint to make a better decision?

Lately I wonder if we are actually praying or just ‘posting’ our requests.  Do we think we can gang up on God by getting hundreds or even thousands of people to pray our request?

These are legitimate questions to be explored and understood. No matter how we answer those questions, the command is there to pray … and to be faithful in prayer … to our Omniscient, Sovereign Lord and Master.

Maybe the greater question to consider as we pray today is … just who is supposed to change when we pray?  I bet it is not God!