08/27/2024
The lost art of prayer was the subject of my devotional reading this morning. This has been a matter that has troubled me deeply, and one that I hope we have addressed in some detail over our nearly yearlong journey with Pastor E.M. Bounds each morning. No relationship survives without communication and that is true of ours with God as well. Paul wrote these words to the church of the Thessalonians:
“Brothers, pray for us.”
1 Thessalonians 5:25 ESV
Paul understood the necessity and power of prayer. If time spent on prayer and the subject of prayer is any indication, then read scripture as the bible drives that point home for us... The word "prayer" is mentioned 600 times in the bible, but there are 650 actual prayers recorded. The need for prayer as a mainstay of our faith goes beyond saying.
Pastor E.M. Bounds is emphatic regarding the lack of prayer in his day (the early 1900s) but the need is more pressing today. He encouraged his congregation, and us, to pray when he wrote words such as this...
"In the hustle and bustle of life today people don't take time to pray. There are laymen who will give their money, but they will not give themselves to prayer." - E. M. Bounds
And...
"To many people prayer is out of date, almost a lost art. The greatest benefactor that this age could have is the person who will bring the preachers and the church back to prayer." – E. M. Bounds
If those words were true in the years leading up to Bounds' death in 1913, then they are certainly true in the modern society that exists today. In our world business transactions occur in nanoseconds and correspondence in milliseconds... Not minutes or days. Is it no wonder that people feel that spending 10 minutes in prayer is exorbitant; but they are mistaken in this.
In our speed of light lifestyles we have pushed God into smaller and smaller slices of our lives. Our prayers occur at lightning speed; often in a single (heartfelt?) word... "Jesus!" And we think that listening to the song "Jesus Take the Wheel" as we maneuver through traffic, talk on our smart phones, and conference with the office, is prayer, but we are mistaken.
Our society and indeed our lives are failing at an ever increasing speed as we spiral out of control. We keep saying "I've got this" all the way to our personal, family, church, and societal breakdown. It is time to stop. It's time to pray.
I have written much in the past months about finding that quiet place where we can seek the calm within us and dedicate ourselves to prayer. We need to slow our lives down and let God speak to us before we lose everything to a television analyst who might have advised us, in his 3 minute power chat, that he could help us, and promised us he would make us happier. God intended light to move that fast... not us. He desires us to spend our prayer time together with Him in quiet and peaceful conversation, and He wants desperately to heal our lives and save us from ourselves... none of this is possible without dedicating time to prayer.
In this regard there is no difference between clergy and lay people. We are all frothing in this modern boil of social change. We complain about the church losing its way, and our governments becoming ungodly, but is it any wonder? I would like to say one thing... IT ALL BEGINS AND ENDS IN PRAYER!
The foundation of everything we are is God, and when we neglect Him (stop praying), then the house of cards falls down. Do you want to stop the spiritual decay in your own family? PRAY! Do you want to find God in your church? PRAY! Do you want to save our society from itself? PRAY! Do you want to return our country to faith and morality? PRAY! Do you want the gospel to rule your family and be preached around the world? PRAY! Our prayers are what everything "of man and God" is built upon... It cements us to divinity.
There is no substitute for personal prayer. Going to church and letting someone else pray for you each Sunday isn't a replacement for your own private conversation with God. Listening to a prayer on podcast as you drive to your next meeting means nothing. He wants to talk with YOU!
God didn't create churches, societies, or governments... He created a man and a woman. The rest of these were instituted as a result. So if you want to impact our world it begins with personal faith and prayer! PRAY! Jesus came to save you... And you... And you... And you..., well, you get the point.
Prayer isn't lost, but the art of it needs to be reclaimed. We need to revive our ability to focus on God for periods of time; we need to listen quietly and reverently as He speaks, and most of all we need to remove the hard shell that we wear and share ourselves intimately with Him. God doesn't want another piece of our social persona... He wants to talk to who we truly are with all of the "junk" we carry around stripped away.
This morning I pray that you will take time from your busy schedule, let your shoulders relax, and just talk with Him. I pray that you will hear scripture in your voice and in His responses. I pray that the "ping" of incoming email and texts is left in the other room, on silent, and that for your time of prayer the world is left behind as you enter into His. Then, I pray that He blesses you as he begins to heal you, your family, your church, your country, your society, and our world. May The Art of Prayer find its way back into your life today and then through your prayerfulness... All else will follow.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for speaking to us of prayer in your Holy Word, and for giving us so many examples of it to guide us in ours as we come to you. Thank you for the secret prayers, the desperate prayers, the prayers of the needy, and those we offer up in praise, worship, thanksgiving, and deep adoration. Hear us as we find peace in our times of prayerful repose, and a release from our troubles through the moans and utterances of your Holy Spirit. Help us to recapture the fullness of prayer, and to come before you without the anxiousness, and raging heart of someone being driven by the pace of the world around us. Comfort us Lord, and let our breathing become deep and restful… not the quick and fearful panting of those seeking escape from a raging lion who hunts them within a sinful world. Help us to lay back in your arms, and to begin every day in a prayerful embrace. Hear us now as we ask you to strengthen us in our prayers, and to fill us with love for others as we pray for them. Hear the peacefulness of the quiet spirit within us as we breathe in your breath and exhale it expectedly, and confidently, in every prayer. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who calms us, and guides us through the turmoil of this fallen world, comforting us in Jesus Christ through our quiet and intimate times of prayer. Holy are you who has a bold shout, and yet speaks to us in a small still voice, in whispers, and the language of silence. Merciful and full of grace are you who walks with us in the cool of the evening, and knows the meaning behind every subtle groan we utter, and every moan of our spirit. Hear your Words as they return sweetly to you in our prayers, just as Jesus prayed them from the cross. Give us joy, give us peace, give us solace in you, and establish us in all these through our loving relationship founded in prayer.
Amen.
“When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.”
Jonah 2:7 ESV
“Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.”
Daniel 9:17 ESV
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
Romans 12:12 ESV
Rich Forbes