Luke 11:2 -So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven…”
In my last post I shared about the things that happened when Jesus prayed. For some reason, I never really stopped to think that all of what happened in His earthly life and ministry was as a result of prayer. And yet now, I see that it was.
Today, I want to look at the same phrase but to turn the spotlight on us: When we pray…! Jesus gave the following suggestions for when we pray:
*When you pray, go into the secret place..Matthew 6:6
*When you pray, do not use vain repetitions…Matthew 6:7
*When you pray, believe that you receive…Mark 11:24
*When you pray, forgive..Mark 11:25
Each of these suggestions (or commands) are powerful enough to warrant their own page, but for today’s post, I will just mention them. The secret place is where you just get alone with God and pour your heart out to Him. Vain repetitions are things you find yourself saying over and over again like, “in the name of Jesus, dear God, praise God, and other wonderful sayings that have become religious sayings. “Believe and receive” have gotten a bad rap by many, but if you don’t believe God will give you what you are praying about, then how can you ask in faith? And the “pray and forgive”..this is tough and I will deal with unforgiveness at a later time, but He’s pretty clear that we have to come to Him understanding that He requires for us to forgive others.
So what happens when we pray as Jesus instructed us:
James 5:17-18 -“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”
*Elijah prayed that there would be no rain, and there was no rain. He prayed that it would rain, and there was rain!
*Abraham prayed for Abimelech and God healed him and his wife..Genesis 20:17
*Hannah prayed and received a baby-1 Samuel 1:27
*Elisha prayed for his servants eyes to be opened and his servant saw chariots of fire..2 Kings 6:17
*Hezekiah prayed and God added 15 years to his life…Isaiah 38:2
*Paul prayed and received his sight and direction…Acts 9:11
*Peter prayed and Dorcas was raised from the dead..Acts 9:40
*Cornelius prayed and salvation came to him and his household..Acts 10:30
*Paul and Silas prayed while in jail and their chains were loosed..Acts 16:26
I get excited just reading over these things knowing that I am praying to the same God that these people in the Word prayed to! Yes!
When the boys were lost in the cave in Thailand, a lot of people were praying. I was saddened but I can’t say that I was giving it much attention. Then I was in the kitchen when they found the boys and said they were alive and well but it would be a difficult task to get them out, and they were running out of time because of the weather. The burden for prayer came upon me to pray that all of them would get out safely. So I did! What a day of rejoicing when they all got out safely and it was called “miraculous”! Many prayed at His promptings, and I am delighted that I was one of them! When we pray!
Testimonies could feel the pages of 1,000 blog sites and never exhaust the wonderful news that God answers prayers. So know that when you pray you can cause great things to happen in your life and the lives of those you know and don’t know. Just do it like Jesus did: go into your secret place, don’t just use vain repetitions but speak your heart, believe that you receive and forgive others so that guilt won’t keep you from receiving from Him! Keep praying! Pray more! Never stop praying, because God answers prayers! Wonderful Jesus!!
Wonderful Jesus! 