“2Ch 7:14  If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. “

The practice of personal, at home prayer is at an abysmal low.  Prayer at church cannot replace prayer at home, in fact, prayer at church does not lead to prayer at home but prayer at home does lead to prayer at church.  And when Christians do pray during the week they mostly do it on the run.  A quality relationship cannot be maintained this way.  Investing so little time and effort in a relationship does not make, or keep, it fruitful.

We say things like, “I know I should pray.”  “To grow in Christ I have to pray.”  “For this revival to happen we must pray.”  We make it sound like prayer is some sort of spiritual castor oil.  Not very pleasant but essential.  And it is essential.  But it is also so much more.  Prayer should be a delightful session of closeness with a Father who loves us and not just something we try to ration out just enough time to get a desired result.

We often treat prayer as nothing more than a transaction.  “Well Lord, I’ve served you and I’ve asked you, so now it’s your turn, God.”  But prayer as transaction will turn into either dissatisfaction, or be seen as a duty, when it actually is a privilege.  It is a privilege that Jesus died for.

Sometimes we want to use prayer as just a method of establishing Gods presence, but instead we should use it as a way of responding to His presence.  He is there, whether you feel him or not.  We cannot have awesome mighty experiences of His presence every time we pray, but if we are of the mind that we are to just spend enough time with God to get what we want, not only will we probably not get what we want, but we will never have that awesome experience in His presence.

Sometimes we tend to reduce prayer to a mere component of worship, but it should be a natural demonstration of our love for the One who loved us first.  Prayer should be passionate because love should be passionate.  We think that loving the church, or our ministry, is the same as loving God, but it is not.  These things are just vehicles for service.  We serve the church, but our passion belongs to Christ.  When we pour out our hearts to God with passion we will end up praying through our objections, overcome our disobedience, become able to confront our doubts and overcome our fears.

We must understand that we are dependent on God.  We must realize how very weak we are.  Prayer is a declaration of that dependence.  An admission of our weakness disarms our pride and prepares us for grace.  By trying to be strong in ourselves we can actually block God’s presence and practice.

Devout Buddhists use a prayer wheel.  They believe that every rotation sends up prayers.  They do it all day.  Some tech savvy Buddhists have prayer wheel programs on their computers that spin at 5400 revolutions per minute.  That’s a ton of prayer every day.

In Japan some pay priests at Shinto shrines pay up to 50 dollars to have a priest offer up prayers.

In Taiwan they have “ghost money” which is fake money offered up to ghosts for good fortune.

Hindus in India appease the gods with offerings of food, flowers and animal sacrifices.

Muslims pray five times at least a day, every day.

It is amazing to me that there are more people praying to nothing than those of us who know the real God.

God said that if we humble ourselves and pray and seek his face, He would heal our land.  Our land is in much need of being healed.  So we must not be praying.  God has the power; He just wants us to ask. As I said earlier, He wants us as partners in creation.  He also wants to share His love, dry our tears, allay our fears, lighten our load, and fulfill our needs.  To do all of this, we must pray.  We must share our lives with Him.

Have you prayed today?

Love you all

Tags: castor oil, God, jesus, muslim, Personal, Power, Prayer, presence, privilege, quality relationship, relationship, Sin