How Important is Prayer in Our Life?

[Sister Marie]

Note the words "ask in my name." All heaven, the whole universe of un-fallen worlds, recognizes and adores the name of Christ. He is the all-powerful one, the Creator of heaven and earth, the upholder of the vast universe. It is He who declares: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matt. 28:18). It is He who "was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made: (John 1:2,3). Today He ministers as our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary, and as our prayers ascend to Him, He pleads His sacrifice before the Father. We may be unworthy, but we may have confidence in the fact that He, our Advocate, is worthy, and that through His imputed righteousness we may stand justified before the Father.

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With Christian Love,
Sister Marie

[Sister Marie]

Yes, as praying Christians we have been promised much. But do we qualify to receive the blessings that prayer affords? Jesus is our example. He became a suppliant. He felt His need of heavenly strength to do God's work, and for power to overcome satan's temptations. If Jesus, the Son of God, needed to pray, surely we need, even more than He, the help that prayer can bring to us. To feel our need of prayer is to satisfy the first condition of answered prayer. But with this sense of our need must be coupled faith to believe that there is a prayer-hearing God, for "he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6).

[Sister Marie]

COMING BOLDLY AND EXPECTANTLY

Feeling our great need, and with faith, we can come before our Father courageously, confident that He will hear and answer our petitions. We come "boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16). We come expectantly, knowing that the blessings God has promised await our demand and reception. We come with key in hand, for "why should the sons and daughters of God be reluctant to pray, when prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's storehouse, where are treasured the boundless resources of Omnipotence?" (Steps to Christ pp. 94,95).
to be continued....

[Sister Marie]

What a heavenly treasure awaits our asking and receiving! Our great Example, Jesus, drew from the bank of heaven power to heal the sick, power to feed the multitudes, power to speak words of truth greater in wisdom and literary beauty than any spoken by man before or since. He received power to raise the dead, and to His followers of today He gives this challenge: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:12,13).

What a challenge is this promise to larger, fuller service for Christ! If we are not now doing works comparable to those Christ performed while on earth, and even "greater works" why aren't we? Is it because we do not believe? Is it because we do not obey? To believe and to obey are two basic requisites of answered prayer and must always go together, for "faith, if it hath not works, is dead" (James 2:17).

[Sister Marie]

When He was here on earth our Saviour prayed in private and in public. He prayed in the seclusion of the mountains and by the sea. He prayed wherever and whenever He felt the need of communication with His Father. His prayers were always subject to His Father’s will: “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matt. 26:39). He prayed in faith that He might demonstrate in His own life the boundless love of God for fallen human beings. Surely, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” (2 Cor. 5:19).

[Richard Myers]

Prayer is our conversation with God. I have found that I need to talk with God more often so I don't wander away from Him for a moment. We need to pray without ceasing. We need to pray always.

In the twenty-first chapter of Luke Christ foretold what was to come upon Jerusalem, and with it He connected the scenes which were to take place in the history of this world just prior to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Mark the words: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” 

This is a warning to those who claim to be Christians. Those who have had light upon the important, testing truths for this time, and yet are not making ready for the coming of the Son of man, are not taking heed. “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” There is no period of time when spiritual slothfulness is excusable.

Only by being clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness can we escape the judgments that are coming upon the earth. Let all remember that these words were among the last that Christ gave His disciples. If this instruction were often repeated in our papers and publications, and less space were taken for matter which is not one hundredth part so important, it would be more appropriate. In these sacred, solemn warnings the danger signal is lifted. It is this instruction that church members and the people of the world need; for it is present truth.

Pray that we do not forget what we know, even for a moment.

[Dorine]

Amen Richard.