08/28/2025
How is your life in Christ? Before you answer this question I would like you to answer another... "How often do I pray?" If we think that our life with Christ is robust because of the things we do, and yet we have not humbled ourselves before Him in prayer; then our relationship with the Lord isn’t robust at all… it is starving.
“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."”
Luke 11:1 ESV
The Apostles were feeling hungry, and prayer feeds our relationship with Jesus just as surely as mother's milk nourishes a child. It contains the nutrients that we need to strengthen ourselves and grow; yet so many of us live out our lives of faith, and walk through our churches, famished. Pastor Oswald Chambers described this need for prayer in a concise way when he wrote these words...
"When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in Him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way that the life in God is nourished." - Oswald Chambers
When I was a young man I could eat anything I wanted and ate everything I could get my hands on! When Ann and I were first married, I was nearly six feet tall and weighed a whopping 142 pounds. I was thin as a rail, yet I ate like a horse, however, that all changed after I moved to Nashville and fell in love with Tennessee BBQ. One afternoon while working with two of my brothers-in-laws and another fellow; we decided to have lunch at a BBQ restaurant in Pegram, Tennessee. The waitress came by and I ordered four large BBQ sandwiches an order of fries and two Dr. Peppers. She took down my order and turned to walk away; one of my brother in laws spoke up and asked if she was going to take their orders too, and she replied "I thought that was your order!"
If another person were to eat like that they would be the size of a barn, and yet I had no such limitation until I was well over fifty years old! It was then that I found what most of my friends had struggled with all their lives... an expanding waist line!
Everyone is different in how much food they can consume without becoming overweight, but prayer is a one size fits all diet in which there is no such thing as overindulgence! Prayer is a miracle diet for the soul and there are never any excess calories consumed. We are encouraged by scripture to eat as much as we can! Listen as the Apostle Paul’s instructs the Thessalonians, and us…
“pray without ceasing,”
1 Thessalonians 5:17 ESV
Prayer is our sustenance; it feeds our spirit and gives us life in abundance. Yet so many of us neglect it. In our physical lives we rarely pass up a meal because we feel the hunger pains of our body, likewise, we should become attuned to the groaning of our spirit. Even those who do feel this spiritual hunger will often try to satisfy their spirit with works rather than what it is really calling out for... prayer... and relationship.
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
Romans 8:13-14 ESV
I watch what I put into my body these days, and in so doing I pay attention to nutrition. One of the phrases I have learned is "empty calories" these are foods we eat that have calories that contain no nutritional value. As a Christian we need to pay attention to these kinds of food when we feed our souls. Prayer is the miracle food... the perfect balance between satisfying our need for a robust relationship with God, and the spiritual calories needed to satisfy the energy requirements of our spirit and faith. The word of God is the other food we need, but that is a topic for another day.
“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:22 ESV
So today let’s challenge ourselves to feed our spirits in abundance, not by eating food for the body, but by satisfying a much deeper hunger within us from the bountiful table of prayer. Let’s seek out God in everything we do and everywhere we go... and let’s do so by praying without ceasing in the name of Jesus. Today let’s feed our souls with prayer and watch as it nourishes and builds up our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Prayer:
Father I thank you for encouraging me to pray and the miraculous way it joins us in conversation and relationship. Thank you for listening as I reach out to you, and I thank you for speaking your Holy Word into my life as we walk each day together. Holy Father, I long for your presence and to pray to you without ceasing. It is only by my prayers that the longing for your presence is wonderfully satisfied in me. Hear me as I reach out to you from my secret place, know my heart as I pour myself out before you, and hear me in the little things as I call out to you in everything I do each day. Then Father, as I close my eyes in evening prayer each night, may my prayers continue into my dreams until morning. Teach me Jesus the true meaning of praying without ceasing; teach me, as you taught you disciples, to pray concisely and meaningfully. Teach me to weep, rejoice, praise, ask forgiveness, humble myself, and more, before the Father as I pray in your name. Teach me that everything is worthy of prayer and help me feed my spirit and my soul with it as my relationship grows with our Father... and you. Let me walk not in silence, but in peaceful and soft conversation; completed by the stillness of my spirit and shining with the splendor of my soul’s satisfaction in every word. Nourish me Lord and may my faith never starve as I long for you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who has stooped from Heaven to whisper lovingly into my ear and hear the longings of my heart and the voice of my soul as I reach out and worship you in my ceaseless prayers. Holy are you who sent your Son Jesus to redeem me in a fallen world, and to teach each of us who believe to pray and enter into relationship with you. I praise your name now and forevermore for your grace and mercy. I give you all the glory for transforming my life through prayer and worship from the sinner you found wanting to the redeemed in Christ. Hear me in this, my prayer, and walk hand in hand with me all this day as I prayerfully embrace your every Word.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And Amen!!
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.””
Lamentations 3:22-24 ESV
Rich Forbes