Acts 4:24-29
24 And
when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and
said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and
all that in them is……. And now, Lord, behold their threatening’s and grant unto
thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
This
is my first blog for the year 2014 due to a lot of events that went on in order
to wrap up the year 2013. I am grateful that we are all witnesses of this year.
It is never an understatement that New Year brings with it incredible potentials
for wonderful new beginnings. It is always a moment of resolution, turning over
a new leaf and revisiting the journey of life. It is a time when people often
plan to change habits like smoking; dieting, family, people get engaged and
marry, change jobs and if possible relocate. There is always an inclination
that change is an effective tool that can be instigated in the beginning of the
year. Either you believe it or not, you will be surprised on a whole lot of
things that people do when it comes to starting a new year.
Christians
often feel like it is a time to revisit their prayer altar, encourage revival
time, take on a new assignment in the vineyard etc. So, I decided to take on the assignment of looking into what else
could be done to present an effective and fervent prayer to GOD in an acceptable manner. Christians all
over the world do pray daily, attend seminars, organize crusades and fast, yet
most of the times it seems nothing is changing. So, let me try to see why we
continue to pray the same prayer over and over again. Matthew 6 answered the
question posed by the disciples to the master to teach them how to pray. The master
admonished them for not knowing how to pray, but gave them the sample prayer in
verses 9-13. This is just a model prayer and needs not to be mistaken for the
only prayer a believer can recite.
There was
a mandate from God according to I Thessalonians 5:17 that we should pray
without ceasing. Simply put, prayer is our minds communicating with
God. It is not an option as a believer, but we need to know what we pray for
when we get to the throne of grace. That is the essence of my effort here so
that we can present our requests or petitions to God in an acceptable manner to
elicit an answer. There is no point having a conversation with God, but could
not hear us. That was why the instructions in Matthew 6:1-8 became necessary.
First
we have to understand the fact that we do not pray to Jesus Christ.
Instead, we pray to our GOD who art in heaven through Jesus Christ His son (John
15:16b--that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you). God wants you to bring your
concerns to Him, but in a way that there would be result. You have to approach
the gates of heaven with your worship and enter his court with your praise. Yet
two things can keep Him from embracing you while you are in His court. Sin –
going against His will, or asking for something that goes against His will.
God knows what’s best for
you, but because sin separates you from Him, you must turn to His Son, Jesus
Christ, who paid the price for your sins. When you do, this everlasting mercy
then lifts the barrier and God hears your prayers.
It is one
thing for God to hear your prayer, and it is another thing entirely for God to
answer your prayer. Thus, we need Faith, as the vehicle that transports our request
to God and the same faith brings back the answered prayers to us. A whole lot
of people miss out in this area. They believe God answers prayer but they don’t have enough faith to know
that it can happen in their life.
OBSERVATION:
It will surprise you that in this politically inclined and polarized society, where
everything has to be correct in a certain way, you find yourself in a mixed
gathering with people of different faiths and someone just want to offer a
general prayer without the name of Christ. That's not an acceptable
prayer. So, if you are the one to lead such a prayer, make sure you pray
in your own faith regardless of who is in the audience. Trying to reach out
across the isle to satisfy your audience amounts to compromising your faith. At
that point, you're in charge and if God hears and answers your prayer for the
event or the group, then the non-Christian among them could get saved.
Finally,
to render an effective and fervent prayer that moves the hands of God, I will
suggest that you adopt the style of what I called referencing/precedence/scriptural prayer, as exemplified in this
text by Peter and John, where you cite the same scenario in the bible and you
ask God to move. Case in point, someone praying for the fruit of the womb should
know about Elizabeth and Hannah stories, then used that as the reason for God
to answer. Look at what Peter & John did in Acts 4:24-30. With their
boldness, they referenced what God had done before and what He told David, then
the prayer point.
In essence,
there's no way we can have an effectual/a fervent prayer without knowing the
word of God. It is an individual thing and I encourage us to get into the habit
of searching the Scriptures daily where God actually speaks to you before you
engage him in prayer. Most of the text messages and Internet prayers these days
are mere excitement or possible encourager, but to have an immediate answer to
your prayer, you have to know your bible. Study it and use it wisely. There are
lots of prophets, evangelists, apostles, teachers and pastors among us, but
we're as well running after others or those who God did not even call because
we're so lazy and we could not find time to spend with God. So, we get easily
frustrated when answers don't come quick. Remember, the same people have
their own shortcomings. I hope your attitude would change this year 2014.
My prayer is that God who anointed Jeremiah when he never knew who he was, and
Isaac in the year that king Uzziah died, the same God will release his fresh
oil upon you this season in Jesus name.
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