“When all else fails, pray.” How many times have you heard someone say that? Perhaps you’ve thought it yourself at times. As if the primary purpose of prayer is like sending an ‘SOS’ to God, reserved for times of crisis and distress.
The Scriptures teach that prayer isn’t to be treated as a fire alarm for use only when all other courses of action have been exhausted. Prayer, admittedly mysterious in some respects, serves as our means for uninterrupted communication with the God of creation, the One who declares, “Call on Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).
Yes, we can – and should – use prayer to present urgent needs to the Lord. That’s what Jonah did after spending three days and nights inside a great fish: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and You listened to my cry” (Jonah 2:2). Similar pleas for help appear in the Psalms. But we do ourselves – and God – a great disservice by limiting prayer to crisis management.
Recently I found these comments in a devotional book by Charles H. Spurgeon, the great 19th century British preacher: “Prayer is the never-failing resort of the Christian…. Prayer is an open door which none can shut…. Prayer is never out of season…[it] gains an audience with heaven in the dead of night, in the midst of business, in the heat of noonday, and in the shades of evening…. Prayer is never futile. You may not always get what you ask, but you will always have your true needs supplied.”
This truth is expressed succinctly in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. It says we’re to “pray without ceasing,” while another translation expresses it in two words: “pray continually.”
Much is made of “the full armor of God” described by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-17 – “belt of truth…breastplate of righteousness…feet fitted with the gospel of peace…shield of faith…helmet of salvation…sword of the Spirit.” However, the next verse points to perhaps the most powerful weapon of all. We’re told to “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 saints.”
Then Paul adds, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel…” (Ephesians 6:18-20).
I don’t know how many times I’ve been guilty of undervaluing prayer. Someone asks me to pray for them, and I promise I will, but then I forget. Or if I do pray, it’s more like a ritual than an act of sincere intercession. When the going gets tough, however, I suddenly remember how important prayer is.
I mentioned earlier that prayer is mysterious. We know from the Bible that prayer is an essential part of one’s relationship with God, but often it seems like one-way communication. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.” It doesn’t say that He will get right back with us. Sometimes what we get is only silence. ‘Is God listening? Does He even care?’
This is where faith comes in. When we pray, we can’t see God, make eye contact with Him. We don’t hear an audible response. His answers to our prayers often aren’t immediate – and may be different from what we expected. As Spurgeon noted, “You may not always get what you ask, but you will always have your true needs supplied.”
How, then, are we to pray? Years ago, a friend, Bob Foster, offered a simple acronym that can help us in shaping our prayers and not saving them for emergencies only. The acronym is ACTS:
A – Adoration. For all that He is and all that He has done, is doing and will do, God deserves our sincere and fervent praise.
C – Confession. Even if we are born again, “in Christ” as 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, sin remains a perpetual problem. Jesus Christ died on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, but when we do sin we confess, acknowledging them and repenting to restore our healthy relationship with the Lord.
T – Thanksgiving. God is at work in our lives every day, often in ways we don’t even recognize. In prayer we express our gratitude for what we know He has done – and for the things we haven’t realized, at least not yet.
S – Supplication. This is where we present needs to the Lord – our own needs and concerns, as well as the needs of friends, family members, our communities, missionaries, people in distant lands, and whatever He brings to our minds.
As I write this, I’m convicted that my own prayer life isn’t what it should be. We’re busy people, easily distracted, focused on myriad important and urgent things that must be addressed. But it may be that prayer is the most important thing we can do – even today. Even right now.
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