Pray: Trusting God in a Hurting World

As we meditate on prayer, one of the most cherished blessings that we as Christians have, I hope I can encourage you to love God even more and I hope you will express that love in a more meaningful prayer life than you perhaps have done in the past.

Have you felt spiritually lonely at times? Have you felt a deep hunger for a closer relationship with God sometimes? Do you feel a spiritual vacuum sometimes in your heart? It is probably because our lives are not characterized by worship and, as far as this lesson is concerned, not characterized by prayer.

A few years ago, the church was having a wedding shower or a baby shower and Cody and Mark and I were going to go out to lunch. I suggested a seafood place and Cody said that he was allergic to seafood. Mark then asked, “How allergic are you?” And Cody said, “Well, breathing is at the top of my list of things to do every day.”

Should praying also be at the top of our list of things to do every day? Because it is as necessary to our spiritual lives as oxygen is to our lungs. We ought to spend much more time than we are asking God to help, to intervene, to bless, and to change our situations if we need.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Prayer is an act of trust, a show of love, an expression of humility, and joy.

JOHN 14:14:

“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”

The New Testament teaches there are caveats to this universal statement. However, we ought to be encouraged by Jesus’ promise. Prayer is a total commitment of ourselves to God’s glory. It reflects a complete dependence on Him. Prayer reveals what is in our hearts; in the words of Hannah, “I have poured out my soul before the Lord” (1 Sam. 1:15). Prayer also changes us; it molds us more into the image of Christ.

MATTHEW 21:22:

“All things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

We should be more specific and more practical in our prayers than perhaps we have been. We should pray for our giving; we will give more to the Lord when our prayer life gets stronger. We ought to pray daily. One elder under whom I served, Cecil Ritchie, has a specific place in his house where he prays. That is a good idea. We ought to pray for those who criticize us and we ought to pray for someone we want to criticize, before we criticize him or her.

Tell others you are are praying for them. When I went into the hospital to have my colon surgery, people told me after worship they were praying for me; members texted me that morning; others called me on the way to the hospital. I had a friend, Eric Welch, who called and had prayer with me over the phone.

We need to pray for the lost. Here at Swartz Creek, pray for our two deacons – Kurtis and Brandon – who are taking an active role in strengthening our church’s evangelism work. Jesus told us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into His harvest (Matt. 9:38). If you don’t have non-Christians on your prayer list, put them on the prayer list!

Pray for your enemies. By name. Jesus specifically told us to do that: Matthew 5:44.

Pray for the president and our other national leaders as well as our state leaders and our local leaders. Do you know who your state senator and representatives are? Here is one area where my prayer life is deficient. I do not like politicians and I do not like politics. But all the more reason why I ought to pray for them and mention them by name!

We need to teach our children to pray. Hannah prayed for her child in 1 Samuel 1. Jewell is 25 years old. I don’t know how many times I have prayed for her, but if I have prayed for her three times a day, at a minimum (which I always do at meal time), then I have prayed for her well over 27,000 times. Ana is over 25,000 times. Theodore is 1,500 times and Jacob is somewhere around 7,600 times. Pray for your children’s future spouse too!

In James 5:16, the Lord’s brother wrote: “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

Unleash the power of prayer by infusing it with faith, determination, and humility. Let Jesus be your guiding light.

Your fellow-servant in Christ,

Paul Holland