THE
RESTORATION OF PRAYER
A heart-broken
little girl began to kneel and pour out her heart to God at the altar at her
local church. She did not know what to say. As she wept speechless, she began
to remember what her Father had told her, "God knows your needs even
before you pray, and he can answer when you don’t even know for what to
ask." So she began to say her alphabet. A concerned adult from that church
knelt beside her and heard her sobbing and saying her ABC’s and inquired what
exactly she was trying to do. The little girl told this caring adult, "I’m
praying to God from my heart." But the adult answered, "It sounds to
me more like you are saying the alphabet!" "Yes," she said,
"But God knows more about what I need than I do, and he can take all these
letters and arrange them in just the right way to hear and answer my
prayers!"
This
little girl understood the kind of prayers that God will hear, accept and
possibly answer. They that do not often contain eloquent words but are
accompanied by heartfelt agony and urgency. I am afraid when it comes to prayer
at times children seems to display more understanding than the adults. Once a man asked an evangelist “how can we
have revival?” The evangelist answered by asking “Do you have a place where you
can pray?” Yes the man replied. Tell you what to do, go to that place and take
a piece of chalk along. Kneel down there, and with the chalk draw a complete
circle around you and pray for God to send revival on everything inside that circle.
Stay there until He answers, and you will have your revival.
For
the past week we have been talking about and asking God to send us revival in
our Church. What revives a dead or nearly dying church? It is not more
programs, events, cookouts and not even hearing inspiring sermons, attending
spiritual conferences and retreats. It
takes personal revival in the lives of the individual members of a church. That
revival can only come by a heartfelt, and earnest prayers. Last week I said in
my sermon that “Repentance leads to restoration.”
We have repented and sought
God’s forgiveness. Now I believe that God wants to restore four things back to
us. In the next few weeks we will be looking at four areas of restoration: The restoration
of prayer, the restoration of the Word, the restoration of worship and the
restoration of discipleship. Today we will look at, “THE RESTORATION OF PRAYER.
I will talk about, the necessity of prayer, prayer as a relationship with God
and God’s promises concerning prayer.
I.THE NECESSITY OF
PRAYER.
Have you wondered, is prayer really
necessary? If so why? Isn’t God sovereign? Doesn’t that mean He accomplishes
what He wants, when He wants? If so why pray? Dutch sheets in his book Intercessory
prayer answers this question and many other questions on the subject of prayer.
I want to look at what the Bible has to say why prayer is absolutely necessary
in the life of an individual believer and the life of a Church.
Prayer, just like breathing is absolutely necessary for
Christians, the moment we stop praying from that moment we will slowly but
surely die spiritually. We are living in a high pressured society which has a
claim on our time. Trying to juggle through our busy schedules the first thing
we neglect is to carve some time to pray during the day or night. Wilma and I have to be intentional to protect
those private and corporate times of prayer. Over the years we realized that we
desperately need God in our lives and Prayer is the link that connects us with
God.
Throughout
the scriptures we see God and humans, for better or worse working together. After
the fall, Adam and Eve had a son and named him Seth. Seth also had a son and he
named him Enosh. “At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.”
Gen 4:26. That was the beginnings of prayer. When the wickedness of men was
increasing on the earth, God regretted that he had made them. “But Noah found
favor in the eyes of the LORD.” Genesis 6:8. God used Noah to build the Ark.
After
the flood, the whole earth was steeped in idolatry, from among the Idol worshipers, God called Abraham out of his, family, and country and made a
nation out of Him. Genesis 12. The rest is the History.
Israelites were slaves
for 400 years in Egypt. They were in bondage and mistreated so badly. Out of
their anguish the cried out to God, (another word for prayer). “The Israelites
groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their
slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant
with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and
was concerned about them.” Genesis 2:23-25.
There
is another scripture in where we actually see God searching for people who could
pray so that he would not destroy a nation. Even common people oppress the
poor, rob the needy, and deprive foreigners of justice. “I looked for someone
who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched
for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the
land, but I found no one.” Ezekiel 22:30-31. These are just a few scriptures
where we see people needing God and God needing people. In reality, we need God
more than God needing us. However several scriptures indicate that God acted
when His people prayed. God was silent when His people did not pray.
These
scriptures do send us a message that prayer is absolutely necessary. I believe
our prayers can bring revival. They have the power to heal, restore families
and marriages. They can change lives, they can bring sinners to Christ. They
can break addictions. They can even change nations. E.M Bounds once said, “God
shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better
the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil… The prayers of God’s
saints are the capital stock of heaven by which God carries on His great work
upon earth. God conditions the very life and prosperity of His cause on
prayer.”
I
agree with this statement. Let me explain why. When we see all around us chaos,
danger, violence, murders, and unrest, partly the reason is that there are no
more capital stocks of prayer in heaven by which God carries on His great work
upon earth. There has been a worldwide prayer movement which began in the
seventies continued until the nineties. There were qualitative and quantitative
prayer initiatives.
Pastors gave high priority for
prayer, children were praying fervently and effectively, there were many prayer
ministries, theological seminaries were offering courses on prayer even secular
magazines have been featuring cover stories about prayer. In the 90s there has
been an intensified focus on praying for the Muslim world. A 40 Day prayer
guide was printed and translated into many languages. I was involved in praying
and raising prayer for Muslims, back in India. For a while we have let the
prayer guard down, and there was the 9/11 attack and the world has never been
safe since that time. This tells me that the intercession of God’s people will indeed
change lives and push back evil. God can use our prayers to accomplish his
purposes. A 30 day prayer focus for the Muslim world is planned for 6th
June-July5th. Let’s join others and intercede for the Muslim world, they desperately
need the savior.
II PRAYER AS THE
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Prayer
not only connects us with God it also opens up an intimate relationship between
God and all those who call on His name. Prayer is based on God’s love for
believers. Through his grace, he gives them things which they do not deserve,
while through his mercy he shields them from those things which they do
deserve, like any loving father would do to their children. We as God’s children can turn to
our father in prayer at any time and from anywhere. Isaiah 64:8-9,
“Yet you Lord are our father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are the
work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our
sins forever.” Psalm 103:13-14, “As a father has compassion on his children, so
the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.”
Under
the new covenant, that relationship has not changed, it only strengthened.
Jesus approached God as his father, so we too can call God our father. Our Lord
taught us to address God “Our Father” when we pray. Mt 6:9-10“Our Father in heaven hallowed by
your name, your kingdom come your will be done, one earth as it is in heaven...” Lk
11:9-13, so I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will
find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives;
the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father
in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” What happens when we
pray?
III. PROMISES OF
GOD CONCERNING PRAYER:
Just
like a father would hear his children, God promises to hear and respond to the
prayers of his people, when they pray in the name of his Son and according to
his will. In fact God invites his people to make requests of him in prayer. Mt
21:22, “If you believe you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” God
not only asks us to ask him but he also promises to answer prayers that are
offered in the name of Jesus Christ. Jn 14:13-14, “And I will do whatever you
ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me
anything in my name, and I will do it.”
God
promises to respond to our prayers in times of need. Ps 91:14-16 “Because he
loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he
acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with
him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy
him and show him my salvation.” God promises to hear the prayers of the oppressed
Ps 10:17. God promises to hear the prayers of the truly repentant 2Ch 7:14 and
finally God promises to hear the prayers of his obedient children 1Jn 3:22.
So
far we have looked at three major components of prayer. Prayer is absolutely
necessary for a believer, without which he or she will surely spiritually die.
Prayer opens up a beautiful relationship with God as that of a father and son
or daughter relationship. God promised to hear and answer us when we sincerely,
and earnestly pray to him in His Son’s name. Dear friend how has your prayer
life been off late? Do you pray at all? My prayer for all of us is that God
will restore prayer in our church. Let’s ask the Lord to teach us how to pray. So
that we may grow in our prayer life and learn to pray the prayers that are
closer to His heart. Amen
