I’ve been reading a book about Billy Graham, (one of my heroes). One thing that stands out to me is his prayer life which is far more in depth than my own. He spends an enormous amount of time in prayer about virtually everything one can imagine. As I pondered this I thought of Jesus and similarly how His prayer life far and away exceeded my own. As we read the Gospels, we constantly see Jesus praying. Sometimes He rose up early to pray; sometimes He prayed all night.
I have often wondered why God wants us to come to Him in prayer so much. The Bible tells us to “pray ceaselessly”. And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Jesus lived in total dependence on the Father and I believe Billy Graham has picked up on His example and tries his best to emulate Jesus in that regard. What did Jesus know about prayer that the average person does not?
I believe that the answer is probably that “persistent prayer” brings us peace. I don’t think “pray without ceasing” is to be interpreted literally; to do so would not allow us any time to accomplish anything else, including the Lord’s work. Rather I interpret this to mean that we should always have God on our minds and pray persistently, earnestly and not lose heart. We should never cease to pray even when things appear hopeless…
We have plenty of examples from God’s Word concerning the importance of this command. First and foremost prayer should glorify God, and we should always thank Him for all that He has done for us, especially for the love of Jesus. We should also seek to align ourselves with His will for our lives and ask Him to meet our needs in that regard. And we should confess our sins and ask Him to forgive them.
I believe prayer should be a complete and perfect inner openness to God that enables His divine power to be released in us whereby we can have an intimate fellowship with the Lord, to find wisdom, and to be free from worry. Peace!
As CEO of various companies I always disliked it when people came to me asking for advice or help with some trivial matter for which they should have been entirely capable of handling on their own. I considered them to be a nuisance and on more than one occasion have burned a new one to those who dared to bother me with some unimportant matter.
It seemed only natural to me not to want to “bother” God with my trivial problems, preferring instead that He spend His time on more important matters. Indeed not long ago I had to go to a follow-up CAT scan for the spot on my lungs, but didn’t mention it in WFTD because I didn’t want readers to waste time praying for me, preferring instead that they spend their prayer time on more important matters. I said a simple prayer prior to going in for the scan and all turned out well and the spot has not increased in size.
All things considered mine is a foolish notion and what seems “only natural” is in reality a really stupid way of thinking and looking at prayer. In fact I now believe it is insulting and disrespectful to an omnipotent God who has virtually unlimited power to simultaneously address all of the problems of creation. Any serious student of the Bible recognizes that God’s power far and away surpasses all logic and human understanding and to underestimate Him or put limits on His power is ignorance.
I am resolved to change and I look forward to receiving the blessings associated with a more active prayer life. I appreciate what I consider to be a revelation from God regarding my prayer life and I appreciate my new found wisdom.
How about you?
I urge you to pray about it.
Ephesians 1:17
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.