Prayer

After telling us about our need for spiritual armor in facing our enemy, Paul adds: “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

Commenting on this verse in How to Pray, R.A. Torrey writes:

Paul realized the natural slothfulness of man, and especially his natural slothfulness in prayer. How seldom we pray things through!…I wish the whole verse might burn into our hearts. But why is this constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer so needful? First of all, because there is a devil…and if the child of God relaxes in prayer, the devil will succeed in ensnaring him.

If an empty mind is the devil’s playground, what better way to fill ours than with prayer?

Praise God for providing you with spiritual armor through prayer; repent of any failure to take up this armor; ask Him to burn into your heart His call to prayer; yield to Him today by presenting more requests to Him, for more of the saints.

I was there, but not present. I was oblivious. Like those vintage photos of Albert Einstein with his crazy hair, where he looks like the absent-minded professor, I was the absentee. I was solving my Pi. And when 3.141592 … is going around in your head, it’s hard to think about anything else. It drives you mad.

Here’s the story. I’m obsessive—spontaneous, and sometimes ready to combust. It’s part of what makes me good at what I do. But it’s a hazard. Because when I am not present, it seems that God isn’t either. I subtly ask God for help, but it’s superficial—I know it, and he certainly does. So, I have to be honest with myself, my friends, my family and with God. I have to be willing to say, “I’m burned out, and I need to refocus on the Infinite God, so that I can be present again.”

I have friends that got burned out and ran. Running is for cowards. We do it because it’s easy, but it’s not the right choice. (Side Note: All you men who are thinking about running from your spouse, kids, work, or education: “Man up and get a spine. Work at being present. It is worth it. I promise.”)

It took me a long time to realize what I am about to say, so please read carefully. Searching for God doesn’t mean going out and finding him, it just means looking around you. Start by simply calling to Christ. And then do everything in your power to be aware of where, when and how he is active in your life. For many, backpacking through Europe opens their eyes. But maybe it isn’t the backpacking trip that did it. Maybe it is just that when we are in a foreign country, we feel so separated and isolated that we have no choice but to be present. What else are we going to do? Finding the Infinite God in everything means being present. It means closing that box of work, anxieties, fears, and whatevers, and opening a new one. And doing so before we enter the next room and begin that next conversation.

I don’t really strike balance; I use a sliding scale. Balance can’t exist completely—it is a false dichotomy. When I find myself leaning too far in one direction, I need to lean the other way. There is no equilibrium. Equilibrium in life is an allusion professed by religions and philosophies that were created with strata in place to keep new converts at a lower level and elders at the top. Equilibrium is an idealism made up by some nut jobs that wanted their followers to believe they were spiritually lower than them; it’s all a power play. Straight up: Equilibrium in life is a bogus philosophy. Leaning on the Holy Spirit as a guide for balance—now that’s something I can buy into, because the Holy Spirit is a constant corrector. Who doesn’t need constant correction?

The Spirit is what made the prophets spiritually present in all situations. They weren’t that way naturally. They too had moments when God showed them that they needed guidance. Classic example: Moses went from self-indulgent prince in Egypt’s royal court, to peasant, to the leader of the largest slave exodus in history (Exodus 1–3). And then he continued to struggle to find balance while leading God’s people through the desert (Exodus 18). Like us, it got him in a lot of trouble (Exodus 17).

So, do you need to work at being present? Do you ever feel like your hair is getting a little crazy like Einstein? (My goatee is starting to look that way, but at least my eyebrows don’t look like Jack Nicholson’s anymore—I got that fixed.) How can we see God everywhere by being present all the time? Drop a comment and tell me know what you think.

- John D. Barry

Article courtesy of John D. Barry, Editor-in-Chief of Bible Study Magazine (published by Logos Bible Software) and author of The Resurrected Servant in Isaiah. Each issue of Bible Study Magazine provides tools and methods for Bible study as well as insights from people like John Piper, Beth Moore, Mark Driscoll, Kay Arthur, Randy Alcorn, John MacArthur, Barry Black, and more. More information is available at www.biblestudymagazine.com. Originally published on John’s blog at www.conversantlife.com/johnbarry. Follow @JohnDBarry on Twitter.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

Jesus expanded our understanding of this “wellspring” in the heart. “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38). Consider John Calvin’s commentary on this passage:

There can be no doubt…that they who believe shall suffer no want of spiritual blessings. He calls it living water, the fountain of which never grows dry…. Still he does not say that, on the first day, believers are so fully satisfied with Christ, that ever afterwards they neither hunger nor thirst; but, on the contrary, the enjoyment of Christ kindles a new desire of him…. The Holy Spirit is like a living and continually flowing fountain in believers.

We have the boundless privilege of tapping into that fountain every time we pray.

Praise God for the flow of His Spirit in your life; repent of any pollution; ask for His Spirit to cleanse your heart; yield to Him by hungering and thirsting for more of His presence and power.

Listen to Oswald Chambers on what it means to pray in the Spirit:

The whole meaning of praying is that we may know God. The “asking and receiving” prayer is elementary; it is the part of prayer we can understand. But it is not necessarily praying in the Holy Spirit…Our minds must be saturated by the revelation of prayer until we learn in every detail to pray in the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not an exercise, it is life…

The sign that the Holy Spirit is in us is that we realize that we are empty, not that we are full. We have a sense of absolute need…[which] is one of the greatest benedictions because it keeps our life rightly related to Jesus Christ.

Part of this “absolute need” is the joy of having the Holy Spirit residing within us. Once we have experienced His presence, we must have Him always.

Praise God for being the source of all life; repent for ever feeling falsely satisfied; ask for a true awareness of your emptiness; yield to Him in emptying yourself of any pride or self-sufficiency.

Charles Spurgeon wrote this commentary on the apostle Jude’s phrase, “pray in the Holy Spirit,” from Jude 1:20:

Praying in the Holy Ghost is praying in fervency. Cold prayers ask the Lord not to hear them. Those who do not plead with fervency, plead not at all. As well speak of lukewarm fire as of lukewarm prayer – it is essential that it be red hot.

It is praying perseveringly. The true suppliant gathers force as he proceeds, and grows more fervent when God delays to answer…Beautiful in God’s sight is tearful, agonizing, unconquerable importunity…. We shall never sing Gloria in excelsis except we pray to God De profundis: out of the depths we cry, or we shall never behold glory in the highest.

May your prayers be just as heartfelt – and as a red hot firecracker.

Prayer for today:

Praise God for being a “consuming fire,” as Scripture says; repent of being lukewarm in prayer; ask Him to make you powerful in prayer for the rest of your life; yield to Him by tossing aside your spiritual dullness and blazing forward in boldness and fervor.

In Power through Prayer, E.M. Bounds argues persuasively for making prayer a priority in our busy schedules:

To pray is the greatest thing we can do: and to do it well there must be calmness, time, and deliberation; otherwise it is degraded into the littlest and meanest of things…There is nothing which it takes more time to learn. And if we would learn the wondrous art, we must not give a fragment here and there – “A little talk with Jesus” as the tiny saintlets sing – but we must demand and hold with iron grasp the best hours of the day for God and prayer.

The manifold rewards of a serious, consistent prayer life demonstrate clearly that time with our Lord should be our first priority.

Praise God for being above and beyond time; repent of any failure to give enough time to prayer, and for being too hurried in the time you did give; ask for His help in being more efficient and effective in your use of time; yield to Him by giving Him the best hours of your day in prayer.

In Gethsemane, Jesus “returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked Peter. ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak’” (Matthew 26:40-41).

In A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, William Law says:

Prayer is the nearest approach to God, and the highest enjoyment of Him, that we are capable of in this life…On the other hand, sleep is the poorest, dullest refreshment of the body…so far from being intended as an enjoyment, that we are forced to receive it either in a state of insensibility, or in the folly of dreams.

Sleep is essential, but prayer is even more important. Ask God to help you find the right balance in your life.

Praise God for His grace in allowing you to talk with Him; repent of any drowsiness or dullness you’ve had in prayer times; ask for more of His spiritual energy; yield to Him by changing your prayer routine to help you stay alert.

The 59th Annual Observance of the National Day of Prayer was a historic moment in heaven and on earth. It will forever be an eternal blessing to our Lord as we united in intercession on behalf of our communities and our nation.

Jesus said, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father” (John 14:13). How should those words affect our prayer? Tony Marshall Anderson addressed that question in Prayer Availeth Much:

Jesus revealed His purpose in answering prayer when He said, “…that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” In order to achieve His exalted purpose to glorify the Father, the Son has bestowed on His redeemed people the inalienable right to ask anything in His Name. In the clear light of this remarkable truth…the possibilities in prayer are as great as the purpose of the Son of God.

Pray daily that the Father might be further glorified in the Son through your life, too.

Praise and thank God for allowing you to be His partner in ministry in this world; repent of any failure to step out boldly in ministry, empowered by Him; ask that the Father may be glorified in the Son through your ministry; yield to Him by expanding your outreach at this time, in dependence upon Him.

We sometimes feel a bit ashamed to find that most of our prayers occur during severe hardships. Yet Martin Luther seemed to view the situation differently:

Except under troubles, trials, and vexations, prayer cannot rightly be made. God says: “Call on me in the time of trouble”; without trouble it is only a bald prattling, and not from the heart; it is a common saying: “Need teaches to pray.”

That’s a strong statement! God certainly wants us to pray at all times, not just in moments of crisis (1 Thessalonians 5:17). But Luther makes his point – when times are good, our natural tendency is to drift away from God. Likewise, trials seem to bring out our most fervent prayers. Let’s thank God for allowing troubles that drive us closer to Him.

Praise and thank God for the burdens in your life; repent of any failure to be grateful for them; ask for His help in the specific difficulties you currently face; yield to Him by not complaining.

National days of prayer have occurred since 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the nation to join in a petition for divine guidance. Since then, 34 of 44 U.S. presidents have called for days of prayer during times of crisis, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. This has been the tradition of our nation from its founding.

In 1952, both houses of Congress passed legislation establishing an official Day of Prayer. It was signed into law by President Harry Truman. In 1988, Congress passed an amendment to the earlier law designating the first Thursday of May as the annual National Day of Prayer. This has been our cherished history, which is supported by millions of Americans of all faiths.

Unfortunately, that heritage of prayer has come under unrelenting assault. On April 15, 2010, federal judge Barbara Crabb issued a ruling striking down the National Day of Prayer as unconstitutional. And now, a small group of naysayers in Albuquerque has demanded that the Pentagon cancel its planned National Day of Prayer on May 6th. It is time to say, “Enough is enough.”

America is engulfed in bloody wars on two fronts, where men and women are fighting and dying for the cause of liberty. They need, and deserve, the prayers of people of faith during their time of sacrifice. We at the National Day of Prayer Task Force ask the American people to defend the right to pray in the Pentagon and to call on President Obama to prepare a vigorous defense against the egregious decision by Judge Crabb. We can be silent no more.

Shirley Dobson
Chairperson
National Day of Prayer Task Force