PRAYER 101

Did you ever find yourself “praying” and instead start thinking about breakfast, lunch., or what you have to do for the day? Does your prayer time consist of a minute of prayer, and then an hour of sleep? Don’t feel bad. We have all experienced this more often than not. Prayer is a time of sacrifice. It’s a time of concentration and focus. And for humans such as ourselves, rushing around––always going and doing–– this is not easy. But God––in His infinite knowledge–– knew and planned for this. Jesus said in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” It is tempting to spend my prayer time sleeping on my Bible, and very tempting to go fix breakfast instead of eating of the Bread of Life. So what is the answer Jesus gives?

WATCH AND PRAY…

And how do we do this? By the strength of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is present to help us get through the sleepy times, the hungry times, and the plain I-just-don’t-want-to-be-doing-this-right-now times. Romans 8:26-27 says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Did you catch that? This is amazing: when we cannot find the strength to pray, or we are unmotivated, or we just don’t know what to pray about, the Spirit prays for us. And since the Spirit knows the heart of God (obviously, since he is God), we end up praying according to God’s will. So God doesn’t chastise us for laziness, lack of concentration, or absence of motivation. He doesn’t penalize us for of our human weakness. Instead he provides the Holy Spirit to supernaturally intervene when we just can’t do it. And we end up receiving the Blessings of God because we have, in the end, prayed according to God’s will!!

Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14). R.A. Torrey, in his book, How To Pray, explains this idea in this way: “If, for example, I should go to the First National Bank of Chicago, and present a check which I had signed for $50.00, the paying teller would say to me: ‘Why, Mr. Torrey, we cannot cash that. You have no money in this bank.’ But if I should go to the First National Bank with a check for $5,000.00 made payble to me, and signed by one of the largest depositors in that bank, they would not ask whether I had money in that bank or in any bank, but would honor the check at once.” Jesus Christ has given us “unlimited credit in heaven, and He has granted to me the privilege of going to the bank with His name on my checks, and when I thus go, my prayers will be honored to any extent.”

Lord, Make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

- Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
(printed in What to Do When You Pray, by Lucille Walker)