CHARACTERISTICS OF PRAYER MUST NOT ONLY BE PERSISTENT BUT CURRENT ALSO! (PART ONE) Prayer is as current as any of todays newspapers. It makes no difference where at in the world we live in. It could be your city or mine. Whether it be our own Statesman-Journal here in Salem or Portland’s Oregnian, the Le Monde Diplomatique in Paris or the Beijing National Review, the Philippines Manila Times or the Afghan Islamic Press. You know that the list could go on and on. Whatever news source it is, there is nothing more up to date and current than the “Good News,” or the Word of God itself. That is the greatest, most current news you will find in any book store or news stand. It is news that will always be regular and it will be as fresh as what you breathed this morning as you rolled out of bed. It is the good news of God’s Word that many find the most current and helps you and motivates you to move toward a place where your prayer life becomes your breath! I have come to believe myself that praying about current events can be fun and it can be quite powerful. Sometimes the prayer assignments of any believer are serious and they are difficult. On any given day, one may pick up that local, national or international newspaper or turn on their television and discover news about current events. Whether it be some serial killer who committed five murders in Washington, D.C. or a bank robbery in Houston, Texas; whether it be a terrorist attack in the Berlin or a typhoon in SE Asia. On any particular day, God calls His children to pray about current events that there might be divine intervention in any event. Can you recall how the national, as well as international, interest built so quickly when the word got out that one of the bomber suspects, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, seemed to possibly escape? Then, after several hours citizens around the globe were excited that he had been caught. His arrest had taken longer than expected. For current and engaging prayer breakthroughs to occur like this one, or any other, we may discover that we have to lay aside some of our own agenda and the old habits of prayer that we have learned in years past. We who are believers must know, “It is now time for us to risk, to stretch and ask God for new and fresh approaches to prayer. Contrary to what any one of us may feel or have been taught, not all of our prayer assignments, items God places on our heart to pray for and about will require years to complete!” In our formative years, mine included, we heard it taught that to pray twice for the same thing was a sign of unbelief. We were even taught that it was “vain repetitions” as noted in Matthew 6:7. Believe me, that is not true! It is a deterrent and it comes only from one source. And it NOT heaven. We must learn to dig still a bit deeper into the Scripture, God’s Word, and not believe everything were necessarily taught — or everything we read, for that matter — until we confirm what we hear through the Word of God. As Christ taught us to pray persistently and repeatedly He said, “Ask [keep on asking] and it will be given to you; seek [keep on seeking] and you will find; knock [keep on knocking] and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matt 7:7–8). So what does the Word of God tell us about praying? Isn’t that great news? As believers, we have a personal resource in the kingdom of God! Good news! WE MUST CONTINUE TO PRAY PERSISTENTLY! Then Jesus spoke a parable to them. He said that all men everywhere ought to pray and not lose heart, “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me’” (Luke 18:1–5). WE MUST PRAY EARNESTLY! “And being in agony, He [Jesus] prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). WE MUST PRAY ALWAYS! “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). In Matthew 26:44, we read that Jesus “left them [His disciples] and went away once more and prayed for a third time, saying yet the same thing.” Jesus was not the only person in Scripture who prayed for the same thing three times but the apostle Paul also prayed for the same thing three times. “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8). WE MUST UNDERSTAND THAT ALL PRAYER IS WAR! In some of my more recent research on prayer of people like Smith Wigglesworth, Kenneth Hagin, E.M. Bounds and others I discovered that perseverance is a primary requirement for effective prayer. In fact, the British intercessor George Muller said, “When once I am persuaded that a thing is right, I go on praying for it till the end comes. I never give up till the answer comes. The great fault of the children of God is that they do not continue in prayer. They do not persevere. If they desire anything for Gods glory, they should pray until they get it.” Anything less than persistent prayer for any of us is lifeless. So why is persistence so important for us? There are at least three reasons I have discovered that persistence in prayer may be necessary. They are: 1. PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER SETS THE STAGE FOR HIS RESPONSE. God often is known to postpone His answers in prayer so as to prepare the person or the situation for which we are praying to receive His response. “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32). Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. (Acts 2:14). “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today” (Acts 2:32,33). In closing, one last person whom I have researched is the prayer life of Charles H. Spurgeon, who said, “We must be careful not to think that delays in prayer are denials. Unanswered prayers are not blown away by the wind; they are treasured in the kingdom of God’s archives where every prayer is recorded.”
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 16:43:21 +0000
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