The overlooked treasure: Prayer

I have felt led to spend the next few Devos meditating on being thankful. More than once in my life I have heard believers that are struggling in their walk state: “What do I have to be thankful for?” I understand the passing emotion, however to live there is destructive and will blind you to all that there is to be thankful for.

The obvious one is our Salvation, and a lot has been written on that. I want to select some of the others that we might just take for granted.

To realize that we have been given the privilege to speak directly with the Lord is something that we should be very thankful for.

Let consider Prayer!

A PRAYER TO AVOID - by Richard Woike

O thou pleasant, comfortable, kindly, good-natured God:  How glad I am that I can look forward to another ordinary day.  Keep me today from anything that taxes my faith, from discomfort, from unnecessary strain, from unusual problems, especially those involving sickness or death, or the necessity of extending financial aid to relatives and friends.

Dear Lord, grant that nothing may occur which will disturb my satisfaction with the way I am, and the things I say, and the thoughts I think, the acts I do, or the many deeds I leave undone.

Give me this day, in addition to my daily bread, the butter, meats, and sweets that are my necessary diet, and let me not be troubled by qualms of conscience concerning the amount of time and money I spend on food and clothing, pastimes, good and bad, and those pursuits which, while not of spiritual value, are the accepted hallmark of the normal citizen of this enlightened community in this enlightened age.

About the future and the darkening trend of things, keep me from thoughtfulness.  Events rush on, the world travails.  Can screaming headlines prove thy hand's at work this very moment, bringing nearer that fateful cry, 'Behold! He comes!'?  O Lord, such disconcerting thoughts! Keep me from worrying about such things, and guide me safely to and from my office and my home.  Amen

Hopefully we pray nothing like that! But hopefully we pray!

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

Words spoken to God are not just words.

1. Prayer is the POWER!

a. Overt Power – One of the healthiest things I did as a young believer was to keep a prayer diary. Time after time I could look back and see the clear answers to my prayers. I have had times when the only explanation for what happened was God openly demonstrating His 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." 29  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. 16  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. 17  "It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18  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. 19  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!

b. Covert Power – Notice, though, whenever our prayers are answered by God overtly, the purpose is to make known Who God is! God is in the business of maturing children of God, so He does not encourage us to walk by sight, so most of His work is covert. Prayer affords that power to function in an incredible way. When you desire to see something happen, but do not pray about it, when it does happen, you think it was a coincidence! If on the other hand you are taking this issue to the Lord, and then out of seemingly nowhere what you hoped for happens, you know Who was working behind the scenes the entire time. Mordecai understood this and that is why he exhorted Esther:

Esther 4:14  “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

God’s name never appears in this book, yet His fingerprints are all through it!

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.

Nehemiah could have been put to death quickly when he did what he did, yet he believed that His Lord would be speaking to the King’s heart, and we all know the rest of the story!

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 – Having ministered overseas for 22 years, this is a power I fully understand! I know for sure that when I am in heaven I will discover the hours of labor my spiritual family spent bringing our family and our ministry before the Lord. The protection, the supply of needs and the fruit of our ministry is a testimony of the power that was coming from our Father because so many lifted us up in prayer!

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 (demon) can come out only by prayer. "

d. Unlimited Power – Prayer removes the limits of the world! We need not ask if we have the funds, the time, the abilities, etc. All we need to ask and seek is, “Is this from You Lord?” We need to stop trying to drag God to our plan and instead find out what He is doing and join Him there. When we do that…anything can happen!

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

"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."

The So What: What is your prayer life like? Have you kept a conscious record of how God has answered your prayers? Is “No” an answer? How many times has God saved you by saying “No?” What’s the difference between the Power of Prayer, versus the power of Personality or the Purse?

I have three more…for next time.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday…it is a way of life.

There was a King that was concerned that his sons were not learning to appreciate what they had. He put on a feast and in the middle of it, a beggar came in, sat down, ate and then left without saying a word. The King’s sons were furious, demanding that their father teach that beggar a lesson for not thanking the King for the feast. 
The King responded, “why should he be punished, you boys sat and ate and never thanked God for what you have?”

I don’t know about you, but for me, I know I can just take many things for granted. A study was done by a university in the 1960’s when most women stayed at home with the children. They found the average housewife in her lifetime prepared. 35,000 meals, made between 10,000-40,000 beds, Vacuumed rugs that equaled 1 mile long by 1/10 mile wide, and cleaned 7000 plumbing fixtures! Most times they were not thanked for all that work.

What does it mean to be thankful? To express appreciation or gratitude. Very simple, yet very powerful in giving a healthy mindset.

Consider King David, who was known as a man after God’s own heart! He meditated a lot on God and understood Him better than his contemporaries. Even when he sinned by murder and adultery, he understood the real issue with his sin:

Psalm 51:4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

David is the one writer of the Scriptures that has a large work that examines the generosity, greatness and kindness of God. Consider just one of his writings:  

Psalm 145: A Psalm of Praise, of David. ¹ I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. ² Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. ³ Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable. ⁴ One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. ⁵ On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. ⁶ Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, And I will tell of Your greatness. ⁷ They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. ⁸ The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. ⁹ The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. ¹⁰ All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, And Your godly ones shall bless You. ¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom And talk of Your power; ¹² To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom. ¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. ¹⁴ The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down. ¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time. ¹⁶ You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. ¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. ¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. ¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. ²⁰ The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy. ²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.

Notice what David is thankful for:

        


         v. 1-3 - His Awesomeness

         v. 5 - His Works

         v. 8-9 - His Grace and Mercy

         v. 16 - All satisfying

         v. 18 - His intimacy

         v. 19-20 – His Salvation

So here is the question we must ask ourselves: Why do we struggle with this?

The answer is easy, however the problem is difficult. The FLESH.

(1) We are by nature Self Centered. Scripture points out that our worldly heart has evil intentions. Remember the 10 lepers that were healed by Jesus, Luke 17:11-17, only one returned to thank Him…our flesh is very easily gratified! Once we get what we desire we can move on real quick. What I find interesting about this Psalm is David refers to himself only 6 times, whereas he refers to the Lord 50 times!

(2) The Spirit strives against flesh. The natural man will not want to honor God. Paul points this out in Galatians:

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

I find it interesting that many I have talked to, including my own experience, that when we begin to praise God, our flesh attempts to make us feel as though we are “buttering” God up. That is because our flesh does not feel good doing what is right!

(3) We are conditional beings. The usual communion we have with God most times carries personal requests with it. In Ps. 145 David does not make one personal request!

The So What: Do you ever talk to God about Himself? How easy is it for you to praise the Lord? Do you thank Him for everyday things or only special answers to prayer? Take Ps 145 and read it back as a praise of thanks to God.