CULTIVATING A LIFE OF PRAYER
The Football nation missed a heartbeat for a second as
they watched their beloved son, Damar Hamlin, suffer a cardiac arrest on the
field during a Monday Night Football. The Buffalo Bills players huddled
together and prayed for the safety and recovery of their Number Three.
Forward times carried this headline, "America Is
Praying Mightily for the Healing and Recovery of Damar Hamlin."[1] Keith shared the situation
on Wednesday in our connect group, and we all joined the rest in praying for
Hamlin's healing and quick recovery. God heard the prayers of many and healed
Hamlin. After ten days, he returned home and slept in his own bed.
People not
associated with football have given their prayers and support. Interestingly, even
secular newspapers attributed Damar Hamlin's healing to the power of Prayer.
For believers, it shouldn't surprise us because we know who to go to in Prayer
when a crisis hits us. Not only during an emergency but Prayer should become a
part of our whole life.
We are on a series of Living Well. To live well, we
start with a renewed vision of who God is and His mighty power. We learned that
to grow in our knowledge of Jesus, we must consistently read and meditate on
God's word. If you grew up attending Church, perhaps you may have heard people
praying, and you may have prayed occasionally.
More than any
other religion, the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Islam, and
Christianity, places high importance on Prayer. If you are a student of the
Bible, you may have noticed Prayer appearing in Genesis and continuing till the
last book of Revelation, which ends in a
prayer for Jesus to return in glory. There are countless examples of
individuals praying to God within the Bible. And there is a whole book of Psalms
composed of prayers. What, then, is Prayer? Why should we Pray? How many forms
are there? How do we cultivate a life of Prayer?
I.
What is Prayer?
The most basic definition of Prayer is "talking
to God." Prayer is not meditation or passive reflection; it is a direct
address to God. It is the communication of the human soul with the Lord who
created the soul. Prayer is the primary way believers in Jesus Christ
communicate their emotions and desires with God and have fellowship with God.
Prayer is not a one-way stream but a two-way
conversation. We see this beautiful communication between God, Adam, and Eve in
the Garden of Eden before sin disrupted it. Since then, man has been trying to
get back into that loving relationship. God, from His side, through His Son,
Jesus Christ, reconciling the world and humanity back to Himself.
Prayer is an open invitation from God to his children
to come to Him and talk to him about all their concerns. He encourages us to ask
Him whatever we wish, and He is delighted to meet our needs and wants. Here are
some things we can ask Him boldly.
Psalm 50:15, "Then call on me when you are in
trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory." When we pray,
God delivers us from our troubles. When we pray, God will share with us unknown
mysteries. Jeremiah 33:2-3. "This is what the Lord says: Ask me, and I
will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come."
Ask God for wisdom when you don't know how to cope
with a particular situation. James 1:5, "If you need wisdom, ask our
generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking."
But when you ask him make sure you believe in him and don't doubt.
You can ask God to heal you when you are sick. James
5:14-15, Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the Church to
come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a
prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well."
Let's go to the school of Jesus to learn more about cultivating a Prayer Life.
II
Prayer is not a Public Performance but a Private Communion with God. (Matt
6:1-16)
Before starting his public ministry, Jesus spent 40
days fasting, praying, and being tested by the Devil in the wilderness. Right
after that, He preached his first message saying, Repent of your sins and turn
to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. One day He saw the crowds gathering;
he went up to the mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he
began to teach them. Let's pay close attention to His teaching on Prayer.
He began addressing three critical religious practices
of the Jewish people, Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting. The religious leaders
were performing these acts that were supposed to be sacred and private in
public to showcase their religiosity to earn favor from God and the people.
Jesus called out those who performed such acts publicly
as Hypocrites and wanted his disciples to be different. So, he taught them how
and what happens when they pray to God in Private. Vs. 6 "But when you pray,
go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in
private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you."
This verse doesn't indicate that Christians should
never pray in public. The early Church was involved in community prayers (Acts
1:24; 3:1; 4:24-30). To Jesus, the critical element was not the location or
position of the one praying but the motives ("to be seen by man").
To counter that hypocrisy, he suggested when we pray,
we go away by ourselves, shut the door behind and pray to our Father privately.
Prayer is not a public performance but a sacred private communion with God.
Jesus himself went away from crowds to lonely places to be with God, at times
all night in Prayer. My wife Wilma follows this scriptural advice. She goes
into a room, shuts the door behind herself, and has a wonderful time talking to
her Father. Some say they are too busy to pray. Are you? How tiring and busy
can one become if one were to raise nineteen active children? Ask Susan
Wesley, a busy mother of nineteen, how she did it.
"Mother Wesley's solution was to bring her Bible
to her favorite chair and throw her long apron over her head, forming a tent. This
became like her "tent of meeting," the tabernacle in the days of
Moses in the Old Testament. Every person in the household, from the smallest
toddler to the oldest domestic helpers, knew well to respect this signal.
When Susanna was under the apron, she was with God and
was not to be disturbed except in the case of the direst emergency. In the
privacy of her little tent, she interceded for her husband and children and
plumbed the deep mysteries of God in the Scriptures."[2] If Susan Wesley did it,
we, too, can. How can we cultivate a life of Prayer?
III.
Cultivating A Life of Prayer.
The disciples saw the great miracles Jesus did and
listened to his awe-inspiring messages, but one thing they really wanted to
learn was how to pray. Jesus taught them this Prayer, also known as the Lord's
Prayer. Let's begin with Lord's Prayer to cultivate a life of Prayer. It
teaches us who God is and His Kingdom and asks God for His will to be done on
earth as in heaven.
It reminds us of our need for daily food and
forgiveness of our sins and to ask God to keep us strong in temptations and
deliver us from the evil one. Here are a few words from Andrew Murray on Prayer.
"If, at first, you do not feel any special urgency, faith, or power in
your prayers, don't let that stop you. Tell Jesus of your weakness, believe
that the Holy Spirit is in you to teach you to pray, and be assured that God
will help you if you begin.
God cannot help you unless you start and keep on."
Cultivating a life of Prayer begins with a desire to talk to our heavenly Father.
He longingly waits for all his children to come and speak with Him. What is
hindering you from communicating with your Father? May the Lord help us to grow
in our prayer life. Next week we will look into various forms of Prayer. Amen!
