Prayer Instead of Despair

ValMay ♦ November 9, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

 A.W. Tozer says, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What comes into your mind when you think about God? I think it has great impact on how we look at prayer.

“Pray without ceasing… My house is a house of prayer: Not sing without ceasing or study without ceasing.” I heard these phrases in a Max Lucado devotional earlier this year and they have stuck with me.

How much does anyone really know about prayer? Apparently a lot of people are trying to figure it out. Just do a search on the subject.

o Over 10,000 books on Prayer on Amazon, alone.
o Mentioned in the Bible 245 times.
o Herbert Lockyear’s book, “All the prayers of the Bible,” lists 650 prayers and approximately 400-recorded answers.
o Jesus prayed 25 different times.
o Paul mentions prayer 41 times.

Obviously prayer, like so many other topics in the Bible, is very important. I am reminded of a scene in Kung Fu Panda (a movie my 2 year-old granddaughter has watched numerous times) where Master Shifu tells Poe, the Panda, after he was humiliated when he tried to teach a class and failed miserably at it, that “incredible power awaits you .” He then tells Poe, “If you only do what you can – you will never be more than you are“ Poe says, “I don’t want to be more. I like who I am!“ Shifu answers, “You don’t even know who you are.” Poe says, “Of course I do! I’m the Dragon Warrior!”

Don’t we also say we know who we are? “We are children of God.” But do we really know who we are in Christ? We won’t know until we strive to know Who He is and how we are transformed more and more into His image as the children of God.

Incredible power awaits us and I would say to us all that that power — is the power of prayer- when we connect to the Omnipotent source. There is an old song, “Little is much when God is in it“, and the truth is that it doesn’t matter who we are, it doesn’t matter how small we feel, it’s because of the God we serve that we can pray and know that incredible things can happen. Pray.

Phil. 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.