Reminded this week of the importance of prayer. Here are a few verses that have stoked the flame of prayer, along with some provoking commentary on each verse.
Eph 6:18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints”
Prayer crowns all lawful efforts with success and gives a victory when nothing else would. No matter how complete the armor; no matter how skilled we may be in the science of war; no matter how courageous we may be, we may be certain that without prayer we shall be defeated. God alone can give the victory; and when the Christian soldier goes forth armed completely for the spiritual conflict, if he looks to God by prayer, he may be sure of a triumph.
Matt 6:6 ‘But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.’
We all make excuses that this place is difficult to find, but “the desire to pray, and the love of prayer, will create such places in abundance. The Saviour had all the difficulties which we can have, but yet he lived in the practice of secret prayer. To be alone, he rose up “a great while before day,” and went into a solitary place and prayed. With him a grove, a mountain, a garden, furnished such a place, and, though a traveler, and among strangers, and without a house, he lived in the habit of secret prayer.
What excuse can they have for not praying who have a home, and who spend the precious hours of the morning in sleep, and who will practice no self-denial that they may be alone with God? O Christian! thy Saviour would have broken in upon these hours, and would have trod his solitary way to the mountain or the grove that he might pray.
Matt 6:8 ‘for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.’
Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that There is his Father, his country, and inheritance.
May God excite your heart to pray. Pray often, pray with thanksgiving. The Father wants to abide in us, commune and share His heart, but we must come.
“He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.” – CS Lewis
Bruce & Deborah Crowe
Missionaries | Rzhyshchiv, Ukraine
Did you write this? Just curious.
For me, I have been getting up at 7:30am and praying before anyone else gets up. In the past it has been the hardest thing to do, but I have been thriving on it now. For me, I feel “too much is at stake”, my life, my family, my marriage, my work. To hear from God, and have the scales removed from my eyes through prayer, and see His heart means that prayer is actually exciting! -Trevor
Hi Trevor. I too am often reminded how I can’t do my life anymore without His help. Someone I was blind before to that reality, because I don’t think I’m necessarily doing much more now than before, but I’m much more conscious of my insufficiency, lack of wisdom, pride, etc. Like you said, not just our own lives at stake when we make foolish choices. I did not write most of the above, excerpts from my favorite commentaries on prayer.