The Father Waits To Answer
Posted by jerrywhite on Aug 30, 2010
“One of the greatest mistakes that a Christian can make, is to imagine that increased social or spiritual activity can be any compensation for the lack of secret communion with God. A prayerful life is always a powerful life; and a prayerless life is always a powerless life. If we cannot pray aright, we really can do nothing aright; but how slow we are to believe that. We find a spiritual law at work in the uniform experience that the more we pray, the more we need to, and want to; and the less we pray, the less is the desire to do so….
The simple fact is, we must find time for prayer, or we shall perish: we must regard it to be as essential to our souls as is our daily dinner to our bodies. For every child of God some time each day must be reserved for private communion with Him; and we can better afford to drop anything in the day’s programme than that.”
W. Graham Scroggie
How to Pray, 11, 13
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“God is looking for prayers to answer. When He does so, it satisfies a part of His Fatherly nature. It allows Him to express His love as nothing else can do.
Your every prayer wafts like incense to heaven and elicits a response from a God who is hungry to move on your behalf.”
Nick Harrison
Magnificent Prayer, 339
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You do not have, because you do not ask.
James 4:2 (ESV)
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Do You Watch With Him?
Posted by jerrywhite on Aug 26, 2010
“These three [Peter, James and John] were appointed by our Lord for one purpose—to see His agony. ‘Tarry ye here, and watch with me.’ He did not put them there to go to sleep; He put them there to wait and watch. The twelve disciples were all He had; He knew that one had gone to betray Him, that Peter would shortly deny Him with oaths and curses, and that all of them would forsake Him and flee; but He took these three with him to see the unveiling of His heart—and they slept for their own sorrow.”
Oswald Chambers
If You Will Ask, 19-20
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“In essence, there is only one thing God asks of us—that we be men and women of prayer, people for whom God is everything and for whom God is enough. That is the root of peace. We have that peace when the gracious God is all we seek. When we start seeking something besides Him, we lose it.”
Brennan Manning
The Ragamuffin Gospel, 46
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Prayer was priority in the life of the Lord Jesus. Prayer was priority in the early church. Prayer was priority in the life of the apostles. Prayer was priority in Paul’s ministry. With Biblical commands like, “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and “continue steadfastly in prayer” (Colossians 4:2), and “praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication” (Ephesians 6:18), there comes a compelling question, “Does prayer hold that kind of priority in my life?” Do I watch with Him to see the unveiling of His heart, or do I sleep in my own selfishness?
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Simple Short Prayers
Posted by jerrywhite on Aug 18, 2010
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Matthew 6:7-8 (ESV)
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“Short prayers are long enough. There were but three words in the petition which Peter gasped our, but they were sufficient for his purpose. [Beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord save me, Matthew 14:30] Not length but strength is desirable. A sense of need is a mighty teacher of brevity. If our prayers had less of the tail feathers of pride and more wing they would be all the better. Verbiage is to devotion as chaff to the wheat. Precious things lie in small compass, and all that is real prayer in many a long address might have been uttered in a petition as short as that of Peter.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
Morning and Evening, January 14, P.M.
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“ Many words in our prayer come from our flesh. Our prayer may be long-draw-out with many words which are not real or effective. Frequently, in our time of prayer we circle around the world several times, using up time and energy without obtaining any answer to real prayer. Though you have prayed much, your prayer will not be answered nor will it be effective. You simply expend your time and strength ill-advisedly. Prayer need not be too long. There is no necessity to insert many speeches into it. Be careful lest you have too much argument in your prayer. We need only to present our heart desire before God. That alone is enough.”
Watchman Nee quoted by Nick Harrison
Magnificent Prayer, 156
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Note the model prayer the Lord Jesus taught. It was simple, brief, intimate and trusting.
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Fasting For God’s Glory
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 14, 2010
And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Matthew 9:15 (ESV)
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“It is significant that the Lord dealt with fasting as a spiritual exercise distinct from praying. Though fasting and praying are often linked in Scripture and in experience, this is not necessarily the case. We should not think of fasting as a semi-detached house, always joined to praying. On the contrary it stands in its own grounds, and may on occasion serve a spiritual purpose all its own.
Just as there may be praying without fasting, so there may at times be fasting, truly acceptable to God, without praying—at least in the sense of intercession. There is no mention of prayer accompanying the fast we read of in Esther. In the fast of the prophets and teachers in Antioch, they were giving themselves to worship rather than prayer (Acts 13:2).
Because one is not able to give oneself to prayer for the whole of a fast does not mean that the period not accompanied by specific prayer is devoid of spiritual value. Fasting…has many purposes besides the very important one of facilitating intercession.”
Arthur Wallis
God’s Chosen Fast, 22
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“The supremacy of God in all things is the great reward we long for in fasting. His supremacy in our own affections and in all our life-choices. His supremacy in the purity of the church. His supremacy in the salvation of the lost. His supremacy in the establishing of righteousness and justice. And his supremacy for the joy of all peoples in the evangelization of the world.”
John Piper
A Hunger for God, 79
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Mystery Of Prayer
Posted by jerrywhite on May 10, 2010
I have been asking, seeking, and knocking persistently [the meaning of the original in Luke 11:9-10] for some serious matters in the lives of friends I deeply care about, but the answers have not come. This has required persistence without receiving much encouragement that the answer is on its way. I am sure many who read this have had a similar experience of apparently unanswered prayer. Why pray? Does it make any difference to pray? The Lord Jesus emphatically said that it does, and the strongest reason on top of what He taught is that He Himself prayed often and sometimes prayed long.
A respected author addresses this mystery of prayer quite honestly.
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“God will hear me. What a deep mystery! There are difficulties that arise and perplex the heart. There is the question of God’s sovereign will. How can our wishes change His perfect will? He knows that is best and loves to give us the very best. How can our prayer change what He has ordained?
What is the need of persevering in prayer? If God is infinite love, delighting to give, why is there need for pleading, for urgency and long delay in answering our prayers?
What of the multitude of apparently unanswered prayers? Many have pleaded for loved ones and they die unsaved. Many cry for physical healing without result. This tries our faith and makes us hesitate when we say, ‘God will hear me.’
Prayer is a deep spiritual mystery. Answers can be given that remove some of the difficulty from our questions but, as little as we can comprehend of God, we can comprehend one of the most wonderful of His attributes—He hears prayer. It is a spiritual mystery.
God hears because we pray in His son and because the Holy Spirit prays in us. If we have believed in Christ and the Holy Spirit, we should not hesitate to believe in the power of our prayer, too. We can believe and rejoice in it, even where every question is not yet answered. We need to surrender our questions to God’s love, trust His faithfulness, and obey His command to pray without ceasing.”
Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
Teach Me To Pray, November 28 reading
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