“O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come” (Psalm 65:2).
Probably more books have been written on prayer than on anything else in the Christian experience. Yet most Christians still have great difficulty in this area. Why? Because our problem is not merely academic, but spiritual. We can learn to pray only by praying. How often we try everything else first! Prayer moves the Hand that moves the world. Samuel Chadwick once said, “The devil laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.” John Wesley said that he believed that God did nothing on this earth except in answer to believing prayer. Hear it if you will, our omnipotent Father has chosen to limit His work to our prayers. That is why the devil’s main concern is to keep you and me from entering an effective life of prayer. Are we going to him get away with that? When we pray there is no power on earth that can keep out our prayers. Prayer is universal in effect…faith is omnipotent when it is on its knees. Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God!
Prayer is conversing with Almighty God. It is a relationship in which God shares His heart with us and gives us the capacity to respond to His revelation with sincere words and obedient lives. True prayer is birthed out of our relationship to God our Father through Jesus Christ His Son and is made effective by the Holy Spirit. It is a child talking to his Father…the infant to the Infinite. It is friend to Friend, helplessness casting itself upon Power.
Prayer is a family time. And since He already knows all about us and our needs we don’t need to try to impress Him. We may come to Him boldly, confident of His love.
Prayer takes time! Any saint who wishes to be much for God must be much with God. Our impotence must be linked to His omnipotence. Apart from Him we can do nothing. The value we place on prayer is equal to the value we place on God.
All real prayer begins in the heart of God. The most important factor in prayer is not the sense of human need, but the discovery of the plan of God. That’s why much of prayer is listening…a time of discovery and response. It must be a dialogue, not a monologue.
As you pray today ask your Heavenly Father to tune you in to the great, thunderous, 2000-year-old prayer meeting going on in glory above. Then join in to what you are hearing. You have an audience with the King of kings!