Prayer Matters To God
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Luke 11:9-10
I have recently read through Stormie Omartian's latest work on prayer, PRAYING AS THOUGH YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT (Harvest House), and I highly recommend it to you. Don't not pick it up because it is written by a woman. Stormie has devoted her life to prayer and teaching others on the subject of prayer.
Why is prayer so hard? Why do we find ourselves not praying more than we do. Stormie shares a number of reasons:
* We don't fully believe what God's Word says about prayer.
* We suspect the Bible was written for everyone else but us.
* We think we're too busy.
* We don't believe God will hear OUR prayers and answer them.
* We don't feel we are good enough to deserve an answer to prayer.
* We want God to do what we want without any effort on our part.
* We've seen instances where God did not answer a prayer, and therefore we have concluded that God doesn't answer any prayer.
* We think we can make life work on our own.
* We imagine God surely has far better things to do than answer our prayers.
* We believe Jesus was talking about prayer only to His disciples and no one else on the planet.
* We don't have enough faith to believe that prayer works.
* We don't think we know how to pray.
* We believe we can't face God after we have failed again to live HIS way.
* We forget that we have the Holy Spirit in us as a direct line to God, helping us to pray.
* We are intimidated by all the great prayers we have heard others pray, and we fear we won't sound eloquent enough.
* We don't look at prayer as a dialog with God, so we see our prayers as never rising above the ceiling, let alone to God's ears.
If we are really honest today, brothers, we probably can relate to one of the reasons above for not praying -- and we could most likely add some reasons of our own.
The bottom line is the easiest thing for us to do is PRAY. And yet the hardest thing for us to do is PRAY. The world needs more George Mueller's, Praying Hyde's and Andrew Murray's who are willing to PRAY! Guess what? We have the ability to be those next prayer warriors! Prayer matters to God and it should matter to us too! -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK
Dig This Quote:Guidance isn't asking God to endorse the plans that you hold out to Him. It is the reverse. You must have your hand out ready to take the blueprint He has drawn up for you. He then expects you to follow it implicitly. Paul White
Determined Digging: Level 1: Michah 6:8; Level 2: Psalm 139:7-12
Determined Praying: No church can be called a praying church until it meets more to pray for others than it does to pray for itself. Don Miller
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