Prayer – it’s wonderful, it’s mysterious, it’s powerful, and it’s the lifeblood of the deeper Christian walk. Charles Stanley gives us a beautiful definition of prayer: “[Prayer] is the link between God’s inexhaustible resources and people’s needs...God is the source of power, but we are the instrument He uses to link the two together.”1
When I think of prayer, I view it as perhaps the deepest form of love that a person can show another individual when that person promises to pray for them. Prayer is sacrificing our time to get alone with God and bring needs to His throne room. And persistent prayer is to bring our petitions to the Lord repeatedly until the answer comes. And as Charles Stanley shared, prayer is linking God’s inexhaustible resources to people’s needs.
Of all the Christian disciplines prayer is the most powerful, but the least used, and that’s because it costs so much in the way of sacrifice and persistence. But prayer is what the church needs more than anything else if we are to see a mighty move of God in the souls of the unconverted. I really appreciate what E. M. Bounds shared here: “What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use — men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men — men of prayer.”2
Developing a disciplined, consistent, and life changing habit of prayer, especially private prayer, is essential if we are to impact the world for Christ. There just is no substitute for having a special private place of prayer and communing with Jesus on a daily basis. May I challenge you to make your prayer closet the most important room in your house and the place where we meet our Savior in intimate communion.
In closing, may these encouraging words from Andrew Murray help you and guide you as you enter into this divine duty and divine delight of prayer: “Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!”3
1 Inspirational Quotes by Charles Stanley
Prayer: Where the Argument Becomes Personal -mrneveu-
Curt Blattman presents prayer as communion, persistence, intercession, and sweet access to God’s inexhaustible resources. True. But Reality Apologetics presses harder, cuz it needs to, feel me?
Maybe, Prayer is where Christianity stops being discussed and starts being tested.
1. Prayer makes a falsifiable claim about reality.
Christ did not teach us to meditate to an abstraction. He taught us to pray, “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). Christianity, therefore, stakes everything on an outrageous proposition. The Creator is not just “real”, but personal, knowable, and attentive. If God is only an idea, prayer is our make-believe sandbox. If Christ is right, prayer is contact…and not always the kind we wanted, but Always the kind He directs us to experience.
2. Unanswered prayer doesn’t disprove God. It often disproves our theology of God.
Gethsemane murders that childish notion that faith means getting what we request. Jesus asked that the cup pass, then surrendered: “not My will, but Yours” (Luke 22:42). Prayer is not leverage over God. It is submission to Reality when Reality refuses our preferred answer. That might happen frequently, Ethyll.
3. Prayer turns apologetics against the apologist.
Before I defend God before skeptics, successful prayer requires I trust Him when evidence, timing, pain, and circumstance turn hostile to me. Theology is cheap while everything works. Prayer reveals whether belief survives my contact with life, and with the back alley concrete that might reflect our life’s choices for the moment. I dunno, you tell me. You sweet as a 50-50bar?
Curt calls prayer a duty and delight. I would add a fairly effective cross-examination. Oh yea, we swear on that Bible, don’t we?
If your God only survives when He answers you in your way, at your appointed time and mood, well Ollie, maybe you just ain’t praying to God. You might be negotiating with an idol that looks suspiciously like yourself. Count yur blessings, with yur fingers and toes.