| Prayer
is foundational to your individual Christian life, and also to the life
and ministry of your church. Like a foundation that secures a building,
prayer gives you something trustworthy on which to rest. No wonder
satan works overtime to keep you busy and distracted so that you lose
regular in-depth communication with your heavenly Father. But there's
one person against whom satan couldn't make headway, when it came to
trying to disrupt His prayer life: Jesus. And He's the great example of
what your prayer life should be. He began and ended His public ministry
in prayer. In Mark chapter one, on one of the busiest days of His life,
we see Jesus getting up before daylight to pray. Luke writes,
'He...often withdrew...and prayed.' It was His regular daily habit! In
the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed with an intensity none of us will
ever know. No wonder the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray.
Just how important is prayer? Ask Peter. It was the prayers of Christ
that kept him from being destroyed completely when he denied his Lord;
they salvaged him, and eventually promoted him to leadership in the
church. And the only reason you don't fail more often is because Jesus
is praying for you, too (John 17:20; Hebrews 7:25). The application is
pretty obvious: if Jesus needed to pray--so do you. Furthermore, if
you're waiting until you feel like it, or for the Spirit to move you to
pray, you're missing something. The Holy Spirit has already moved you to
pray--through the instruction and example Christ left you.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment