Monday, March 1, 2010
Have you ever seen the blue prints for a building or a house? Do you know how houses are built? I am sure that you have at some point of your life walked by a building in the middle of construction and have noticed that it has solid foundations that hold it while it is being built. In fact, even when disasters hit and cause chaos and destruction, if the foundation is strong it will stand, even if everything is shattered to pieces.In the life of a Christian, prayer needs to be our foundation.
But what is prayer? Is it some weird chanting used to invoke the spirits of nature? Is it a ritual that people perform so they can hopefully reach a being that will grant all their wishes? The answer is: NO.
For the believer, prayer is talking with God, it's coming to a time of worship, fellowship and communion with God. It is the best tool against the attack of the enemy. It is a supernatural power that allows us to intercede for our needs and the needs of others to the One and Only who created it all.
It is a privilege that many, even those in ministry take for granted...
We live in a society in which prayer is becoming the least important thing, eventhough it is the most important! Even our all-modern, all-american churches are disregarding the importance of the power of prayer and replacing it with other man made methods to help fill that void that prayer leaves in lives. People are taking prayer as a magical solving hot line to getting their problems solved and when it doesn't happen, the blame God or simply think that their prayer was useless because they deduce that He just doesn't exist.
People tend to believe that prayer is for us, that it is so we can get our three wishes from the "genie in the bottle" mentality when in reality, prayer has absolutely nothing to do with "us", but with God. Prayer is all about Him.
Even Jesus is shown in the gospels as praying, eventhough He was God! That is how important prayer is and should be in our lives!
I think the McDonalds mentality that our modern society comes from several passages that are taken out of context, here is an example:
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
(James 5:13-15)
I once heard this in a heretic teaching about praying and getting our wishes granted: the typical "name it and claim it". This is a terrible teaching and false doctrine that is out there in the modern church.
In case you haven't heard about it (which I would be surprised if you haven't), this is the teaching that if you want something and believe hard enough it will come true and many people are believing it because they want it all for them. I see that a lot in the city I live in, so many people have this belief that church is for them and it must fit their needs. Not only that, but God is to fit their every need. Many people turn to God because of that idea and are being mislead because this doctrine totally tickles their ears and tells them exactly what they want to hear.
The Bible warns against false teachers and false doctrines and even though that is not the topic of this blog, I will briefly share this verse with you:
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
(1 John 4:1)
Back to prayer, we need to remember it as being the foundation for every aspect in our Christian walk. Many Christians consider it important, but they don't consider it the main situation. Many focus on the powers of the Holy Spirit and His gifts and miss that prayer need to be the center of it all. Some focus too much on only teaching the Word and miss the prayer part too.
"If you have only the word you dry up, if you have only the spirit you blow up but if you have both you grow up." - Jim Cymbala
How true is that? We need a perfect combination of both. Prayer must be the support, the solid foundation in our Christian lives.
This is a picture that my pastor asked me to make to illustrate the statement of our church, which should be what we all should strive for. Notice how prayer is the in the bottom step, it is the foundation, without it, none of the others will work if prayer is not behind it. That is why you see many churches and even people fall and stumble, because there is no prayer. Churches don't have prayer meetings because their members can't find the time to pray and claim to be "too busy".
We need to be more prayer-minded Christians. One thing I have learned recently is, why do we make so many excuses when it comes to our prayer life? Why will we make time for less important things and disregard prayer? Not that our every day activities aren't important, but if you really think about it: who has given you all you have? Who has given you a job, school, and whatever else you use your time in? God did! So why not take the time to talk to Him, to fellowship with Him and to grow with Him and to invite Him into our daily activities. You see, we can have a deep connection with God through prayer, we have a priviledge as Christians that many other people who are involved in "world religions" in which they have to go through a priest or a "holy man" to reach their deity.
Confess [your] trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.Be fervent in prayer, pray without ceasing just like 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says!
( James 5:16)
Good blog brother. The church really needs to get back to a life lived by prayer. Simply read the puritans. They were known for staining the floors with tears because of their weeping in prayer. But I do remind you...prayer is NOT our foundation. Christ is! I really had to learn this lesson, especially when I was going through this phase in prayer. It's all useless without Christ and it all falls without Him. We will never have the urge, the strength, the encouragement to pray without Him and often times we fail, yet the great thing is that Christ has done what we could never do or always fail to do. He is our great intercessor. I know your not saying prayer is the foundation, but many people could miss read what your stating. Love the work God is doing through you, yet don't get your focus off of Christ. It's as we a drawing ourselves after Christ that we enter into deeper fellowship with Him through prayer. Love you brother!