The "P" word is the difference!

A waitress was having a bad day. The customers were grouchy.  The cooks had botched a couple of orders. The tips had been small or non-existent.  A really nice man sat down at one of her tables. He was very polite, and then ordered a meal with a baked potato. When she brought out his order he said, "Thank you," and proceeded to eat.

He began to butter his baked potato and found that it was spoiled. He called the waitress over and said to her, "I don't like to complain, but this potato is bad." 

She picked it up and held it in her hand and spanked it twice and said, "Bad potato, bad potato!" Then she set it down on his plate again.

The bewildered customer watched her walk away triumphantly, and then she wheeled around defiantly and said, "If that potato gives you any more trouble, you just let me know.”

So many times we will allow circumstances to change us, instead of being thankful for a nice customer, this poor waitress allowed the circumstances to help her forget the grace of a nice customer. This is where Grace can become a danger, when we become complacent to sin, because God shows so much Grace. Jude warned about this.

Jude 1:4 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

There are two ways we mistreat Grace. First, we treat sin like it is no big deal. We know we are forgiven – TRUE – but not EXCUSED! Secondly, we become filled with self righteousness and our thoughts express this: My sin is not as bad as _____________________________________

So what can we do to guard our hearts and continue to give thanksgiving to our Lord. The answer is actually also the next item to be thankful for: Prayer!

John Bunyan: "You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until after you have prayed."

1. It is the POWER!

a. Overt Power

Exodus 9:28-29 Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don't have to stay any longer." Moses replied, "When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD's.

2 Kings 19:15-19, 35 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: "O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. "It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands.  They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by men's hands.  Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God." 35. That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning-- there were all the dead bodies!

When God shows up like this…all mouths shut!

b. Covert Power

Nehemiah 1:11  O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man." I was cupbearer to the king.

Many times – our prayers accomplish what no one obviously sees. Nehemiah chose to pray and step out in faith…showing a sad face before the king, which could cause him his life. As we know from Scripture the king’s heart was softened toward Nehemiah

John Guest wrote in Only a Prayer Away: "When we pray, we change. More often than not we become the answer to our own prayers as we open up ourselves to God in prayer."

"When a young man asked George Mueller to pray that he might be able to rise each morning for a quiet time, the wise Mueller replied, 'If you will get one leg out of bed, I'll ask the Lord to help get the other one out.'"

c. Invisible Power

We will never know how many times prayers we prayed for others were the reason God intervened until we are in eternity!

Ephesians 6:18  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Colossians 4:12  Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.

Mark 9:29  He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer. "

d. Unlimited Power

Matthew 21:22  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

No matter what it is, if God desires to accomplish something in our lives, if we pray according to His will, NOTHING can frustrate it!

"Disturb us, O Lord, when we are too well satisfied with ourselves; when our dreams come true only because we have dreamed too little; when we arrive safely only because we sailed too close to the shore; when with the abundance of things we are losing our thirst for more of God; when in loving time, we have ceased to dream of eternity; when in our desire to build on this earth we have lost our vision of a new heaven."

I will pick up next time with 3 more points.

Meditation: Have you ever given thanks to God in prayer, for prayer? What causes you to pray? Big things only? Is prayer an after thought many times? Sometimes, I have made the mistake to move in direction without prayer, it has always come back to bite me! Have you ever done that?