Prayer can do anything God can do; for the arm of God responds to the touch of prayer.All the infinite resources of God are at the command of prayer (E.M. Bounds)
The focus of our prayer life should be centered on an intimate relationship with God and not just on our personal needs.Purge any and all tendencies towards allowing your prayer time to be reduced to a list of requests for your wants and necessities.God knows about our needs and has promised to supply them according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).The higher purpose of prayer is friendship with God, which is better and greater than the sum total of His abundant riches.
Why should we ask the Lord for things when He is an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-present God?Matthew 6:8 says, “Your Father knows what you have need of before you ask.”The Lord asks us to pray for the things he already knows we need so that we will learn to depend on Him (Oswald Chambers).He certainly doesn’t need for us to pray so He can get to know us, God knows our heart; He needs us to pray so we can get to know Him.God is not interested in a one-sided relationship.Jeremiah 3:14 says, “Return, O backsliding children … for I am married to you ….”A person without prayer is like a tree without roots (Pope Pius XII).
The closer we get to the Lord the less likely we are of being self-centered in our faith and abusing God’s kindness.Paul asked a question in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”The Temple of God was set apart exclusively for God and nothing else; defiling it with anything other than those things associated with worship brought certain judgment.The best way to guard your heart and keep your body temple clean is to make prayer a priority in your life.David said in Psalms 34:1, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”Focus on Christ and the less concern you will have for the cares of the world, or focus on the world and the less concern you will have for Christ.Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God (E.M. Bounds).Spend the majority of your prayer life developing your personal relationship with the Lord for the Bible says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).He or she who ceases to pray ceases to prosper (William Gurney Benham).
Submitted 3/11/2009 6:06:33 PM | Author: Pastor Dan Turpin
Print