Devotional Message

PRAYER - A WASTE LAND?

      Prayer--perhaps the most talked about word among Christians. Prayer--perhaps the most frequently used subject of many a sermon from the pulpit. Prayer--a favorite cliché to cover a multi-tude of mistakes and deliberate laziness. Prayer--perhaps the most grossly neglected aspect of the believer’s life. Prayer--talked about but not obeyed. Prayer--preached about but not translated into life. Prayer--written about but not seriously taken. Prayer--a wasteland?

      How seriously do we take our prayer life? How often do we examine our prayer attitude? How dynamic are our prayers? How decisive is our prayer power? In this issue of our KIP and the next I will endeavor to share with you why our church constantly emphasizes the need and the importance of the “systematic prayer life.”

       The purpose of this article is to provide you with fuel for your prayer life. I recently attended a meeting with some Christian leaders of various churches regarding the Prayer Mobilization for the Global Day of Prayer comes May 11. In that meeting, we saw the great need of united prayers coming from all Christian worldwide to pray for one particular day for God’s purpose to be done throughout the whole world. There is power in corporate prayer.

      Having said this, we also need to practice constantly our own private prayer life. I put before you this question: how much time do you give to prayer? You must be honest in answering this question if you are to put yourself in the right context of the Jesus-like prayer life. How much time? Do you consider prayer more or less important than your ‘meals? I am sure you’d like to say yes to this question. But how much time do you put in for prayer every day? Is it not true that the time you put aside to take a bath is perhaps longer than the time you put into pray? You must spend between two to three hours for your meals. But how much time in prayer?

      Is prayer simply a banner to wave, a badge to wear on your lapel? Unless you deliberately, consciously and painstakingly take time to pray, your prayer life crumbles. You will readily find a thousand excuses to not pray. A busy schedule, a heavy work load, children, crowded rooms, the weather, physical exhaustion, and so on and so forth. But you take time to eat your lunch. To sleep. To visit with friends. To take your children out to the park. But no time to pray?

       Take time to pray--a definite period of time every day. Let nothing hinder that period. No excuses. Naturally, you have to do some thinking before you decide on a period of time for prayer. The second question: What do you do in prayer? Is your prayer mostly a list of requests? Lord, do this for me, do that for me? If you examine Jesus’ prayer life carefully you will notice that He used the time of prayer to listen to His Father. He did not do too much talking. He listened.

       Christians talk too beautifully in their prayers, but do not listen enough. They simply talk too much. Prayer is basically listening to God, to His Son our Savior, to the Holy Spirit who ministers to us when we pray. If your prayer is mostly your own taking, your life will remain barren. If your prayer life has not experienced any dynamic growth recently, one of the reasons could be that you talked too much and did not listen enough to God.

      Thirdly, do you follow up your prayers? Let us say you have a friend in need of financial help. He asked you to pray for him. You did that. But--and this is the question--what have you actually done to help him? Did you give your friend some money? You have a sister who is sick in a hospital. You prayed for her. Did your prayer end there, or did you actually go to the hospital and share you?

      God loves the world. He has spoken. He acts by sending Jesus Christ into this world. If Jesus only prayed and did not take up the cross, what good would His prayers have accomplished? He followed His prayers right up to hills of Golgotha. That’s prayer.  Prayer is the God-given dynamite whose explosion can change the world. Prayer can also become a wasteland. The difference depends on us.
      
by: Pastor Elmer Manzo