Tomorrow is the first of four special days that the General Overseer of my denomination has called to be set aside as special days of concerted prayer. Starting at midnight and going till midnight there should not be a minute of any hour when there are no prayers being poured out to God on behalf of ourselves, our families, our churches, and our nation and world. It should be an awesome time of communion with our Father. I intend to pray as much as I can. I have actually determined in my heart and mind that I will pray more tomorrow than I ever have.
What is prayer to you?
I could go on quite a bit on this but that is not the focus for now. So for now, I will keep this simple. I believe prayer to be, at the simplest level, communication with God. A discussion with our Lord. A talk with our Father.
I actually heard an evangelist say once that this is not what prayer is. He said prayer was asking and receiving from God. I have to disagree with this. If this was all prayer is, then how in the world are we supposed to pray without ceasing? I want and need a lot of things but, I can’t even begin to come up with enough to continuously, never cease, to ask from God. And if prayer is also receiving and we look to James 5:16 to see that righteous men’s prayers accomplish much, then why aren’t some receiving a whole lot?
Tuesday, in my first attempt to stimulate discussion, I posted and posited a scenario and some questions in hope of provoking thought on prayer, its effectiveness, and to ask if it was truly enough, in a given situation.
I thank the three, only three, that responded with their comments. They were good, loving responses to the situation I put forth. But they didn’t get to the place I wanted to get to.
I am one of the first ones that will say we have to love, and love, and love some more. But I also believe, no, I know, that that love will look different depending on the person, the situation, and the circumstances.
In that post, I asked the following questions. What do you do? How do you pray? What do you ask for? And do you think it would be effective?
The answers I got were great answers, and loving answers in a way, but the whole post was really designed to let me ask this question.
When is it time to stop letting people off the hook, so to speak, and tell them in no uncertain terms, that your praying for them in their current state, is probably a waste of time?
Whew! I got it out. You will never know how hard it was for me to write that question.
When I asked; what do you do; I knew that the vast majority say to simply pray. Don’t confront, that has been done. Don’t instruct, they already know. Don’t judge, they need compassion.
When I asked; how do you pray; I knew the vast majority of the faithful would say to pray for his salvation, his healing or comfort, and for God to be glorified. I didn’t think anyone would pray for strength and instruction on how to disassemble the lies and deception our adversary had woven in this man’s life.
When I asked; what do you ask for; I knew the requests would mainly be in how to show love to the man, how to show compassion and how to love him. I somehow knew that no one would ask God how to tell the guy that he is on his own if He doesn’t do a little more himself, like joining in the battle for his soul, than just relying on other warriors.
Finally, when I asked if the prayers sent up would be effective; I somehow knew that most thought they would be. I would have been very surprised if James 5:16 had not been brought up. It was, by two out of the three commentators. I even used it above. It is a powerful verse but, we all have to admit that sometimes, no matter how fervent, no matter how much faith we have, what we ask for does not come about. Sometimes people are not saved, sometimes people are not healed, and sometimes God is not glorified in a given situation.
Jas 5:13-16 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Who is James talking to? He is talking to the brethren; those who walk in service to our King. The man in my scenario was not described to be one of the brethren. Just going to church does not mean you are fighting on the side of the Kingdom. But you say, I am the one that is righteous and asked to do the praying. Look at the part I emboldened. It is the first part of James 5:16. It is the part that no one bothers to memorize. In my scenario the man never said he wanted to confess, or get forgiveness. I purposefully implied that he only wanted healed. Most of the people in church who don’t have nothing to do with you, the true prayer warriors, will quickly turn to you when they really, selfishly, need something. But does that mean God will do what we ask? Because of our service, and our faith?
It is time that we did a little bit more. Prayer is our most effective weapon in the spiritual warfare we are involved in. But we have to get it out of our head that it is to simply ask and receive. In my scenario it is actually more about discussing the battle plan with our King. How do we let this man know that He can be healed, and forgiven, if he will only turn from his iniquity?
Isa 59:2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
The man in my scenario, and many of those out there that ask for prayer, have caused God to hide His face from them because of their iniquity. Some of my own children are in this group. Do I stop praying for them? No. But do I let them know that that is probably not enough? That they have a part to play in their own salvation? Every chance I get.
What is wrong with letting those that are on the wide path to destruction know that they bear the responsibilty for their choice? As the people in the culture we live in accelerate ever faster towards their doom, isn’t it time we joined in the fight, to ram into them if need be, to knock them off the path to destruction?
Sometimes, love hurts.
Love you all
Some believe He created evil and sin for example, so that we can experience good and His mercy. Some believe He had to create time because He does not experience duration or sequence because He is infinite, but because we are finite we had to have time created to experience the same. Some of these concepts are definitely brain twisters and the most vocal of the believers in these things end most of the discussions with the argument of God being so far beyond, above, mysterious, and such that we should not attempt to even ponder them. Logic seems to have no place for determining what God is like.
I missed all but the last seconds of a news report about the legalization of gambling in my state, Alabama, a couple of hours ago. What I did see was the statistics proclaiming that 67% of the residents here approved of it. Gambling, to my knowledge is not addressed specifically in the bible.
It seems to me that maybe I have been a little bold lately in some of my posts. Commenting about controversial issues and even getting a little harsh is some responses. Some of this stems from a passion for Gods truth while some may just come from that confrontational part of me that I just wrote about and am truly trying to tame. But it is not tamed and there are good reasons for some of what I ask. I really am still learning myself. And one of the ways to learn what we believe is to bounce those beliefs off those that others hold. So the questions for today may spark more controversy. I hope not and I really do not want any heated arguments or words of offense. But I do want to know what you think.
As followers of Christ and workers in His kingdom we all have a job to do. A lot of us are more behind the scenes but what we do is as vital to the Kingdom as those in the forefront of ministries. There are so many “superstars” in the body of Christ in this country that everyone knows of at least one.
