“Ask, seek, knock.” These are all active verbs denoting continuous action
We often treat prayer as a brief moment when we say something to God. But prayer is not a moment, it’s a pursuit, Paul said “pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
David
said, “Evening and morning and at noon I
utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice” Psalm 55:17
Prayer
is not a moment, meeting, or a memo. It
is not a merely a point in the service, a good way to begin and end. The
church today as reduced to a have to and supposed to, not a get to…not a
journey, a ministry, a pursuit. Prayer
is something that we so often throw in because…if we don’t then the puzzle
won’t be complete. We make dream, plan,
organize and then finally we pray asking God to be in what’ve we’ve come up
with and to bless it. Like prayer is the
final piece of the puzzle. Prayer is not
a piece of the puzzle, but it is the box that guides us to putting the pieces
together. Without it nothing that we
attempt or do can happen!
I’m not sure that God is
desiring just a moment of Prayer from us…but rather I think that what God
desires is a movement of Prayer!
Billy
Graham said “To get the nations back on their feet, we must first get down on
our knees.”
The
pursuit is of prayer is what our nation needs and personally it is what we
need! Prayer is a pursuit, and
adventure. As in any journey and pursuit
there are a few things you discover and learn along the way.
Through
the pursuit of prayer we learn:
We learn about ourselves
As sinful people are seeking the
face of a holy God, we realize who we are.
Through prayer God takes us from where we are to where he wants us to
be. Maybe this is why prayer is such a
struggle for us, we want the need met, but we don’t want to be any different.
It’s like going to the doctor if you are hurting,
sick, etc. You have questions, you need
answers, you have problems you need solutions.
Your job is to take yourself to the doctor. The doctor’s job is to find out what the
problem is. So he examines you up and
over, in and out. He takes your
temperature, blood pressure, he asks you all sorts of questions about our
lifestyle and habits, he even weighs you (I hate it when they do this…I mean
really? What does my weight have to do
with a sore throat??!!) In the pursuit
the doctor discovers and sees parts of you no one else has. He’s going to find the problem and when he
finds it he’s going to tell you what must be done about it. Sometimes the solution is something he will
do (medicine, surgery, etc). Sometimes
it’s something you must do (health, diet, exercise).
Prayer is somewhat like this. We take our questions, problems, dreams, and
dilemmas to the Great Physician and do you know what he does? He examines us, up and over, in and out. He takes the temperature of our attitude, the
pressure of our activities, he asks us all sorts of questions about our lifestyle
and habits, he even weighs our heart.
Our Heavenly Doctor knows and sees part of you no one else has…not even
yourself. He is going to find the
problem and when he finds it he’s going to tell you what must be done about
it. Sometimes the solution is something
he will do (healing, intervention, blessing, etc). Sometimes it’s something you must do
(confession, repentance, changes).
We learn about our God
Psalm 63 is a great example
of this. As David sought God he learned
a great deal about the one whom he pursued.
We learn about our need
Have
you ever prayed for some you need God do and then found yourself as you pursued
God for an answer that your request for the need changes?
As we embark on the pursuit of prayer our prayers often change
In
Matthew 15:21-28 we see a great
example of a woman who pursued Jesus asking for him to heal her daughter. By the end of the pursuit we see that her
prayer changed to “Lord, help me.”
PRAYER DOESN’T CHANGE GOD, IT CHANGES US.
C.S. Lewis said this, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all
the time – waking and sleeping. It
doesn’t change God- it changes me.”
Prayer
is probably why we aren’t effective day.
When I look at the influence of the church in America today and especially in my community something is missing. When I think of the power that is my life and the lives of many people I worship with weekly, something is missing. We are weak, diminishing, and worn out. Why? Because we are in great need. We need his power, his presence, we need God to do what we cannot do. We need prayer! "Well, then let's throw a prayer meeting together" we often say. Unfortunately, in my experience most prayer meetings that I've thrown together have not been well attended. Throw a fall festival, have a concert, give something away and people show up in droves, but when a prayer meeting is organized there are plenty of available seats. I think we are missing something. We’ve reduced our prayer to a moment and meeting rather than a
movement. A necessary box to check
rather than a lifestyle. We are making a
point before God, but we’ve not made a pursuit of God. Now, don't get me wrong prayer
meetings can be great, but only if they as they are part of our journey and pursuit
of God in prayer.
Prayer
is something we pursue and we don’t stop until He answers. Treat your prayer life like a marathon, not a 40 yard dash. Take a voyage with God through prayer, not just a quick trip around the corner. Ask, seek, and knock...He will open the door, you will find Him, He will answer.
