December 3, 2020 – Click here to listen
I’ve been guilty on many occasions of not praying for things concerning me because I don’t want to bother God with my relatively insignificant needs when so many people in the world are truly suffering with needs that far surpass my own. I’ve heard others express the same sentiment about prayer.
I’m trying to abandon that thinking and in fact have asked God to forgive me for putting my own pea-brained limits on our omnipotent Lord. I mean, really? Is the problem that I don’t think God can handle the volume of prayers He is receiving? The Bible tells us in Luke 12:7, “Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” If God keeps up with that much detail on me, surely, He’s interested in hearing my prayers about back pain, or degenerating eyesight, or a lost friend coming to Christ, or even having a good day on the water fishing.
In Ephesians 3:20 it states: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us . . . God has no limits and even the tiniest prayer is heard and evaluated. Though it is difficult for us to fathom, in Luke 1:37 it states: “For nothing is impossible with God.”
The Bible says that the fervent prayer of a righteous man (woman or child) accomplishes much (James 5:16-18). So if Satan attacks you and whispers, “Don’t bother God with that stuff He is far too busy to listen to you.” Understand that sentiment is coming straight out of hell. The last thing Satan wants is for us to call upon God to not only resist him but run him and all his demons out of our lives.
Why does the Bible tell us over and over again to pray? God glorifies His name in our lives as we believe in Him enough to come to Him often in prayer. Praying should be as natural as breathing. We should not even have to think about it. It is the only way I know of to obtain God’s solutions to our problems. It is also a direct line for expressing our gratitude for all that He is and does for us and is an expression of worship at the highest level.
A buddy of mine told me recently that he had trouble praying for just five minutes a day. Our church has a program where each member is asked to pray for five minutes a day. A card is given to each of us and we are to check off each time we pray for the five minutes. His card is embarrassingly lean.
With all that is going on in our nation, the world in which we live, our schools and churches, our spiritual and secular lives, our children and other family members, the sick, the poor, the persecuted church, natural disasters and the need to thank God and praise His Holy Name, it seems to me that spending five minutes daily fervently praying would be a small task. My buddy told me after a few minutes he has trouble focusing and soon catches himself drifting off to thinking of other things including work and play. I think most of us can relate to that, I know I can.
The key is not that we lack plenty of things for which to pray. The Lord knows we could pray about what has happened to our country until the cows come in over its migration to becoming a banana republic filled with corruption, bitterness, and anti-God hate.
The real key to focusing during prayer, to my way of thinking, is understanding that Satan doesn’t want you to pray. He wants you to drift and think about work and what all you have lined up to do today, and golf or whatever. He knows full well the power of prayer because it foils his plans for you and all that he hopes to accomplish in attacking God’s people.
Use some discipline, resist Satan and focus on Jesus. Pray without ceasing and remember no prayer is too insignificant. The Bible states He hears all our prayers. So cry out to the Lord or softly ask Him to show you the way. Breathe prayers!
1 Thessalonians 5:16
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.