What if I told you that you could change the outcome of this upcoming Presidential election? What if I told you that you had more power than any world leader? What if I told you that you could change the course of history? What if I told you that you could do this all in the comfort of your own home? Would you believe me?
Well actually all of these things are true, and they are all true through this one little thing:
Prayer
I’m sure most of you know what prayer is, but prayer is coming to God as His son or daughter and talking to Him. Most people think that prayer is just asking God for things but worshipping Him, thanking Him, and confessing to Him are also prayers because we are talking to Him.
If you think about it, we are so lucky that we have a God that we can pray and talk directly to. Think about trying to meet and talk with a celebrity. You would have to pay tons of money to go to a meet and greet just to spend a couple minutes with them. But how much greater is our God than a celebrity and we get to talk to Him whenever we want. He is the creator of the Universe and we get to talk to Him like He’s our Father.
I heard a statistic recently that said that on average, Christians in America pray 2 minutes a day. At first I winced at that statistic thinking about how sad it was, but then I was hit with some conviction:
“That’s probably the amount of time a day that I spend praying.”
I really don’t do it that much. I mean, I read my Bible, listen to worship music, and listen to sermons, but I really don’t spend much time talking one on one with God.
Part of the reason why I don’t always talk to God is because I forget. It’s sad but sometimes with the distractions of the day, I forget that I can talk to my amazing Father. Another reason is that I think “I’m just too busy”. Ha the biggest lie I could believe. If I have time to watch movies, exercise, go on walks, and play Dutch Blitz, then I most certainly have time to talk to the God who created me and everything else. The problem was:
I didn’t prioritize prayer.
I think another reason that most Christians, including me, don’t pray very much is because we like to rely on our own strength first. When someone has a headache, we give them Advil. When someone is sad, we try to cheer them up with a joke and our best advice. When we are trying to finish a stressful task, we just try to crank it out on our own. When we try everything in our own power to fix the situation and it doesn’t work, then we cry out to God. So when we are in over our heads anxious about a project, we cry out. When we are sick and nothing is working, then we cry out. So why don’t we ask for Gods help first? There’s nothing wrong with taking Advil or trying our best but how much better could it be if we asked the Ruler over everything to help us out first?
We are God’s children. He cares about us and He loves us. When we ask for help, He wants to provide for us. He wants to show that He can do anything and He wants to bless us:
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
??Matthew? ?7:9-11? ?NIV??
Also, God can do anything. His power is greater than anyone and anything. He can move mountains if He wants to. But:
God also needs us to show His power.
Just take a minute to think about that.. Yes if someone is sick God can heal them but how would that person know that God was the one that healed them? God needs a person to go and pray over them and asked them to be healed in His name so that when they are healed that person will know it was God.
When we ask for His help, God will help us. If you are sick then pray for healing because God can heal us. If we have a huge project to accomplish then pray that God can give you wisdom and peace to accomplish it. If you don’t like the presidential nominees, then pray to God to soften the politicians’ hearts and let them be filled with wisdom.
I experienced the power of prayer during this month. My team and I go on prayer walks where we pray for the city and let God lead us to talk to or pray for specific people we see. Since we are in an Islamic country, we are not allowed to evangelize to Muslims. So even if we did meet someone on our walks, which we hadn’t been all month, we couldn’t talk about Jesus. So before one of our walks I prayed that we would meet at least one person. Just at least have one casual conversation. Well God showed up because not only did we meet someone, but we even got to share the gospel with him. He was Hindi and brought up the topic of God, so we shared what we believed, prayed for him, and invited him to church. I was not expecting that to happen at all. I had only asked God for one small conversation and then we were able to share the gospel.
I think a lot of times we limit our prayers to what we think is within human reason. We say prayers like “God I pray that you use the doctors’ hands to help this surgery go well”.
Now that’s a great prayer, don’t get me wrong, but what if we prayed for a complete healing for someone even before we went into the doctor’s office? God wants to show His power to you and to others. Don’t be afraid to pray the big prayers. Don’t be afraid to pray things like “I ask in Jesus name to heal this chronic knee pain right now” and “God I pray that no more Christians will be persecuted in the world”. What do you have to lose with these prayers? God hears you and He wants to bless you.
So I encourage you all to find that quiet spot and pray every day. You never know how God will show up.
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
??Ephesians? ?6:18? ?NIV?
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
??Colossians? ?4:2? ?NIV??
