1 Timothy 2:1,2
Reviewing the things writers have said about prayer from previous centuries is a great help in looking at our own prayer life today. In our age, many churches have become so busy that prayer gets delegated to the last minute “bless my efforts” mentality after thinking that the work is already done.
The truth is, prayer is THE work—our plans should be coming from the Lord and accomplished in prayer before we even begin to try to do it. If the Holy Spirit is really leading our prayers, we cannot only know what the Lord wants us to do, but can have the assurance ahead of time that He will be in it, and blessing it before we even start.
I read a story once about a missionary who was scheduled to go to some foreign country, but he felt a real check in his heart, and a dread about when he should go. He prayed for six months aboutwhen and how to go, and finally received the assurance that the time had come. It turned out that the village he was being sent to had been a haven for witch doctors—the time spent in prayer had scattered them and left the place wide open for his coming.
In thinking about prayer as a priority, we must also be careful that we don’t just pray when we feel like it. We must pray because praying needs to be done—it is truly an awesome thing torealize that God doesn’t move except in answer to the prayers of the church. God burdens us for what He wants to accomplish, and then He accomplishes it as we ask for what He wanted to do in the first place! We’ve seen so many people who go off into Christian work, planning, working, striving—hoping God would bless their efforts, only to find that since the idea wasn’t His in the first place, no blessing happened, and program after program did not succeed.
We need to be constantly ready to listen to the Lord’s leading, for He will lead us to pray the prayers He wants prayed, so that He can can accomplish what He Himself wants done. We dare not getahead of God or lag behind Him—He has a plan that we might walk in it! (Ephesians 2)
We can also drift off in the other direction, doing a lot of praying, but no working. The two must be equal. Many years ago an unknown writer wrote “Prayer without work is like an empty wagon—lots of noise, but no load.” and “the sin of doing and not praying is only rivaled by the sin of praying and not doing.”
It is easy to see that God and human beings work in tandem with each other—one without the other doesn’t accomplish the job. God grant us the ability to hear clearly while we labor, that our labor not be in vain.
We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a proper mood, for it would be dangerousto remain in so unhealthy a condition.
Charles Spurgeon
God will do nothing on earth except in answer to believing prayer.
John Wesley
Prayer is where the action is. Any church without a well organized and systematic prayer program is simply operating a religious treadmill.
Paul Billheimer
God seeks intercessors. God needs intercessors. God wonders why there are not more intercessors. Do not rest until God sees that you are one.
Andrew Murray
It is staggering to even begin to realize that the whole process by which God’s will is done on earth depends on an interceding church Jack Hayford
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