Prayer
“The great people of the earth are the people who pray; I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray”– S. D. Gordon
The Bible talks a lot about prayer. It gives many examples of prayer. The Apostles were very vigilant to pray continuously. It is an important Christian discipline.
Prayer is a mystery. God knows all our needs before we tell Him. We cannot supply Him with any new information since He knows all things fully in His omniscience even from eternity past. God is omnipotent– He is able to do anything that He desires. He is sovereign– His sovereignty means that He has supreme authority and power over the all of heaven and earth. He has absolute control over everything in the universe, over every incident, every man, every woman, and every authority. Nobody can persuade Him to do anything against His perfect will. We cannot advise God on any matter since His wisdom is infinitely superior to our wisdom. It is impossible for us to force God to do anything against His will, for He does everything according to His good pleasure.
So, why should we pray?
God in His sovereignty has recorded in the Bible some of the prayers of His people and His promises as an answer to their prayers. Therefore He asks us to pray and receive answers from Him. At the same time, He is a loving Father to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is merciful and kind to us. He wants us to depend on Him and trust Him for everything, small and great. He delights in hearing the requests of His loving children. He delights in answering them according to His immense riches in glory so that He will be glorified in them. Hence, He asks us to pray to Him for everything, for all things, for all people according to His will, and He expects us to pray at all times. It is the will of God for us and also the command of God for us that we pray.
Prayer includes the following
- Confession of sins:
If there are sins in our heart, the Lord will not listen to our prayer. There is no sinless person among us. It is our responsibility to search our hearts by the help of the Holy Spirit, find out our sins, and confess them to God before we pray. We have to confess before others the sins we committed against them.
- Worship:
We have to come to God’s presence with adoration and worship, recognizing His holiness, majesty, sovereignty and other attributes.
- Giving thanks:
Giving thanks for the answers to prayers, God’s provisions, protection, and guidance in our lives is an essential aspect of prayer. It will be a sad thing if we fail to remember how good the Lord is to us and how graciously He has answered our prayers. We can thank the Lord that He is going to answer our current requests too.
- Intercession:
Intercession is praying for others. There is nothing wrong in praying for one’s own needs, but we have to be concerned about others’ needs too. The Bible teaches and shows multiple examples of prayers done for others. Lord Jesus Christ also prayed for others. At the same time, to pray is not to take the role of a mediator, for there is but one mediator between God and Man – Jesus Christ.
We as the Church pray for many things which include the following:
- For God’s name to be glorified and His kingdom to come
- For God’s will to be done
- The personal needs of people which are both spiritual and physical
- Evangelism – For the whole world to hear the gospel and believe the truth of salvation
- For the nation and the government, which includes all levels of authorities
- For God’s people to grow as disciples following their master in their life
Hudson Taylor, a prominent missionary to China, said about prayer like this; “It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a famous Christian preacher of the 19th century, said that prayer can never be in excess.
Prayer is a very important discipline in the life of a Christian. It is a lifeline for him to be in touch with the Lord. Unless prayer has a prominent place in the life of a Christian, he cannot grow as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.