Conversation there means your way of life, and without covetousness means to quit wantin’ everything you don’t need.”
–B.N. Rundell (Tincup)
Also [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).
–Luke 18:1 (Amplified)
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No, I haven’t forgotten that this is D-Day, the invasion that started the end of the Nazi regime and Hitler’s agenda in Europe. It has been eighty-one years that 2500 Americans gave their lives on that day. That brings me to a scripture and thought that has been going through my mind–prayer, and the verse is Luke 18:1, “…men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” (NKJV) or as the NIV puts it, “never give up.”
I’ve read recently that as believers, we don’t need to pray since God already knows what is going to take place. But then why did He instruct us in so many places that we are to pray? There is something to prayer! Why I’m dealing with this subject two days in a row I don’t really know. Perhaps I need it, or maybe you do. I’m one of the world’s worst prayers, and there are so many good sources on prayer–Bounds, Rinker, Murray, and a host of others–that I shouldn’t be the one to write on prayer. Yet, more and more I see the importance of it. Not so much as to get something from God, but just to talk with Him.
When I start to pray I have something on my mind: a need, a request, a grateful heart, fellowship, but then when I start to pray there are a thousand thoughts that begin to wander through my mind trying to get me off into some box-canyon. I have to stop, concentrate and focus–is that the way it should be? I am going to borrow from Alistair Begg this morning and he brings this thought: “in His sovereignty, God has ordained both the ends and the means to those ends, and we will not reach God’s intended ends without His foreordained means.” Duh??? What? Yes, indeed a mystery.
But we are told earnestly to pray. How God uses the prayers of His people in His plans remains a mystery. We don’t and we won’t have all the answers to all our questions about prayer, but we are told to pray and it works. “We can be confident that God ordains means such as prayer for His eternal purposes. And knowing that is enough to bring us to our knees so that we might enjoy the privilege of knowing in all eternity that our prayers were used as part of His sovereign purposes to save His people.” (Begg)
Along with that we come in closer fellowship with the Father when we pray. Remember, He is the Father, not a “sugar-daddy”, not a buddy. We have the intimacy of a dad, but He is also to be revered as Father. As Ray Stedman writes, we do not address our prayers to the Chairman of the Committee for Welfare and Relief expecting a handout. Neither do we pray to the Grand High Secretary of the Treasury to help finance our needs. We come to Him as a child, one who recognizes Him as a loving dad and a heavenly Father.
Prayer–sometimes it is hard, sometimes it is only a word or a feeling within our souls. Sometimes it involves petitions and needs. Mostly, prayer should be a conversation with our Father about life. I close this morning with a word from Lois Chaney’s book, God Is No Fool.
One morning I awoke with a desire I wanted to fulfill. It concerned a way I wanted to be.
This was a matter to lay before God. This was a matter for prayer. The desire was for a power and goodness, and I wanted the prayer to be right. I would preface my request with an acknowledgement of my unworthiness. This wasn’t false; I knew it, and God would accept it.
All day phrases and words escaped me. My special prayer lay limp and wouldn’t take shape. I would set aside a time. I would approach Him in truth.
In the evening I closed myself away from others. I read from His word. I fought for phrases and words–I felt embarrassed and mute. And the world got bigger, and God got greater, and I got smaller.
Frustrated, I jerked to reality, and suddenly I was flooded with the answer, and I was the way I wanted to be.
But I felt confused…I had wanted that moment of communication with God, but I had found myself impotent and alone. Then I thought I heard something.
“I heard you this morning.”
I think I have a lot to learn about prayer.