09/20/2024
Today let’s concentrate on prayer as the divine pattern for our relationship with God. As I read my devotional message this morning Pastor E.M. Bounds dealt with this subject using these words: "No standard of religion is worth a moment's consideration when it neglects prayer... A life of prayer is the divine rule. This is the pattern, just as our Lord is the one Example that we must follow. Prayer is required for a spiritual life... Our goal should be set not by the opinions of people, not by what they say, but by what the scripture says."
“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Philippians 4:6 ESV
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.”
Psalm 119:9 ESV
Scripture is indeed our guide. Our words mean little unless they are inspired by the Word of God, and sealed by our prayers in the very relationship we maintain with Him. We succeed in our spiritual lives only by the will of God, the sacrifice of Jesus, and the work of the Holy Spirit within us... without these there is no victory. Without prayer there is no communing with God.
“But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.”
2 Corinthians 10:13 KJV
I have asked myself, "can a child boast in its own upbringing?", and as I have looked back on my childhood and the way my parents raised me, I see that I was indeed the beneficiary, and that they deserve any acclaim for who I have become. Our Father, God, raises us in our spiritual lives through the love, truth, and instruction He has provided. We benefit, but the glory is His. For our part we need to be good and willing students, and pray our way into His outstretched arms.
Our prayers take God’s Word, which we read and study, bring our faith to life within us; prayer takes His instruction and breathes life into it. I have observed that human love is simply infatuation without its being reciprocated, and God's Word and instruction is also hollow without our prayers and desire to bring them to fullness as we follow Him. Our prayers are the catalyst that takes God's will and man's desire for Him, and forms our faith from it.
This morning I pray that God finds us eager students of His Word, and that He also finds us active in our prayers as we seek Him, His truth in scripture, and His will for us.
“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”
Psalm 145:18
Prayer:
Father, thank you for making us eager in our prayers, and for your Holy Word that fills them. Thank you for giving us understanding through your Holy Spirit, and for teaching us to pray your Word feely as we kneel before you. Your scripture is useful for teaching, and for training us in prayer and righteousness. Help us to use it as we repeat your Words back to you, as if they were our Amen, and bless us as they flow from our mouths; being your sweet breath that has you breathed into us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who spoke all of creation into existence with your word, and who breathed life into us. Holy are you who takes your breath that is in us, and forms once more the words we pray by using it. Hear us as we breathe your name by inhaling “Yah” and exhaling “Weh”. You breathe out scripture Father, and by it we desire to perfect our prayers with every breath you give us… with every word our lips will form and our voice utters. Great are you, and greatly to be praised. We praise and worship you with the sound of the instruments we play, but no sound is more perfect than the song you give us as we sing… No smell sweeter than the fragrance of your breath that forms our words… No honor more profound than when we cry out “Glory to God on The Highest!” Hear our prayers today Father. Hear the songs of our Praise, and bask in the sweet aroma of your breath as we pray your Word back to you. Blessed are you, and we pray that you will bless us too as we humble ourselves before you and give ourselves unto you in prayer.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV
“Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 150:3-6 ESV
“A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.”
Ecclesiastes 2:4-10 ESV
Amen, Amen, Amen!
Rich Forbes