Prayer

PRAYER

P

rayer is a much talked about discipline in the Christian faith but at the same time the most neglected and less practised. Why do we talk much about such an important aspect of faith and practise it less? It is probably because we don’t understand the power available to us in prayer or it could be that we are too lazy to pray—or maybe we don’t believe much again in the power of prayer. It could also be that we have become so self dependant and so self reliant—we no more have the childlike faith (Luke 18:15-17).

Our world has become a world full of human wisdom with a lot of theories and human philosophies which seek to eliminate God from our lives. I understand in some countries, public prayers and public reading of the Bible is prohibited. What happened to these countries? Just like when the Philistines took the ark of God and placed it in the temple of their god dagon (1 Samuel 5:2), today’s world, in the name of human rights seeks to place God side by side with our idol worship of self. We have exalted self so much above God. But just as Dagon fell to His face in worship at the presence of God (1 Samuel 5:3), our worship of self will not last, because God in His might and power will abase everyone that exalts self above Him (James 4:6) including Nations who don’t acknowledge God as God. Others have even come up with concepts to suggest that the human being is god to himself and everything we need is in us. Such Abomination! This is indeed a perverse generation that will stop at nothing to satisfy self above the rule of God on earth. Its ok, they say, so long as you feel good about it. It’s ok, so long as no one is hurt and it’s ok, because it is my human rights—Pervasion in society is deemed to be human rights. This world has become so humanistic; God has no place in our hearts.

I believe the very reason for the ‘death’ and prayerlessness in our churches today is humanism. When God is saying “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14), we are also saying MYSELF and I. We (Christians) are constantly striving to keep up with the standards of the world; our moral fibre has become weak. We have become politically correct, accommodating everything in the name of human rights. What happened? We don’t command authority and power anymore, like the early Church did. Ours has become a religion of convenience. We don’t speak against sin, because it will make us unpopular with the world—we have lost our saltiness (Matthew 5:13) because we have stopped praying—and even if we are praying, we are praying “God give me, God bless me, God protect me Amen” Our prayers has become so self centred, it lacks the power to change the world.

 

But for those who still believe in the sovereignty of God and in the fact that He rules in the affairs of men (Daniel 5:21), we need to rise up in fervent prayer and bring down the righteousness of God on earth. We have to stamp the authority of heaven on earth (Matthew 6:10), for all to know “there is a God in heaven...” (Daniel 2:28) and we need to correct our society and be unapologetic about it. It is only through prayer that we can move the hand of God to intervene in our lives—both personal and the body of Christ in general. 

There is a place in prayer where every Christian must aspire to attain. It is the place of “unceasing prayer”. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”. What is Paul talking about? Is he serious at all? How can a human being keep a constant prayer life? With all the pressures of life, the traffic to beat, the early morning waking ups, the bills to pay, the budget to "budget", the targets to meet, the stress to overcome, a love one's sickness to be healed, a friends habits that gets on your nerves, the annoying drivers we drive alongside with, the impolite bus conductors and drivers we contend with, the wayward children, the problem husbands and wives, the list goes on. Well, the truth is that we cannot allow all these to distract us from coming to God in prayer. Joseph M. Scriven’s hymn says it all.

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.