What is your prayer life like? If it is much the norm, it is pathetic. For most of my life, I can say that I have had a flawed view of prayer. I didn’t understand the beauty and power that go with having a true prayer life with God.
One thing I have realized recently is that without prayer, we do not have anointing in our lives. As an evangelist, I have realized that without the anointing, which only comes through fervent prayer, evangelism is useless. It is the gospel without God…sweetness without taste…air without lungs…beauty without sight. It is worthless. The Spirit is the only thing that convicts. Without the Spirit our efforts are worthless. Prayer is not an option, but a necessity.
IT IS NOT enough to say we love God, we must fervently seek Him. IT IS NOT enough to believe in God, for even the demons do…and even more…they tremble. When was the last time you trembled in fear of God? When was the last time that your reality of how big, how pure, how righteous God really is hit you so hard it brought you to your knees in repentance and desperation?
We should be so desperate for God in our lives that we cannot sleep. And yet how many of us go days, weeks, sometimes even years without seeking Him in fervent prayer.
Our spiritual lives, without prayer, are usually peaceful. They are peaceful like the grave. Why? Because we are dead! Visit any cemetery and you will realize how quiet and peaceful it is. This is your life without prayer! You can learn to be a “good Christian” by reading the scriptures and other spiritual books, but you cannot be an effective Christian without prayer. Pastors can learn to be eloquent preachers by study, but they cannot change hearts of their listeners without prayer.
Want to see what God can do with your broken, hypocritical, lazy spiritual life? Pray fervently to God. Not just daily, but hourly. Don’t try and add it into your day, but let prayer consume your day.
Men of consequence are men of prayer (and yes, I am saying “men” as people generally, women included). In the scriptures Jacob wrestled with God, Elijah prayed earnestly that it might not rain, Christ prayed even to blood and tears and spent many whole nights in prayer. Men like Charles Simeon, the English revivalist, spent the hours of four to eight in the morning to God. John Wesley spent two hours a day in prayer – be began at four in the morning.
And my favorite quote, which I will end this blog with today is one that chastens me to the heart and brings tears to my eyes each time I read it. Joseph Alleine, a simple English clergyman, arose at four o’clock every morning for his prayer time with God until eight o’clock. If he heard other tradesmen going about their business before he was up, he would exclaim, “Oh, how this shames me! Does my Master not deserve more than theirs?”
If Christ is the master of your life what are you doing to serve Him?
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