BBD 02.25.09 Sweet Moment of Prayer
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
The Burning Bush websites have received visits from more than 150 countries.
Celebrating 11 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more
than 11,000 subscribers across the world.
The Burning Bush Devotional
Welcome to the 229 new subscribers since January 1, 2009!!
02.25.09
Sweet Moment of Prayer
Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter,
"What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter
into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." -
Matthew 26:40-41.
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of
Him. - 1 John 5:14-15.
We sometimes sing the hymn "Sweet Hour of Prayer." The words of the hymn
were written by William Walford who lived 1772-1850. It is a beautiful old
hymn with great expression of a mature Christian's love for communing with
God. Here is the first verse:
"Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
That calls me from a world of care
And bids me at my Father's throne
Make all my wants and wishes known!
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the tempter's snare,
By Thy return, sweet hour of prayer."
But how many Christians in the 21st Century really pray for an hour a day?
How many have ever prayed even once for an hour? How many pray for 30
minutes? How many pray for 15 minutes? How many even pray for five minutes?
How many pray nothing at all?
At a prayer conference, I was once told that the average evangelical
Christian prays only four to six minutes per day. Maybe we should change the
words of the hymn to "Sweet Moment of Prayer, Sweet Moment of Prayer." It is
no wonder we are powerless Christians with so many "enter(ing) into
temptation." It is no wonder that our world has so many problems with so few
Christians actually spending any substantial time in prayer. The hymn in our
hymnal immediately after "Sweet Hour of Prayer" is "Take Time to be Holy,"
which seems to be appropriate. E. M. Bounds wrote, "Prayer and a holy life
are one. They mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone. The absence
of one is the absence of the other."
As we can see prayer is a vital necessity for the child of God. It may be
that we do not know where to begin or even what to pray about. The apostle
Paul gives us a starting point when he says "Therefore I exhort first of all
that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for
all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet
and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4)."
Let us pray..
Copyright © 2009. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Prayer Requests: Please pray for Malachi, Cody, and Mica who are young boys
with cancer. Many prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the
Prayer Request page. You can also post your prayer requests there and they
will be forwarded to the Burning Bush Prayer Group (Of course, I am always
in need of prayer - please pray for me.).
If you are not my friend on facebook or myspace you can be, just add me. The
devotionals are posted in my blogs on those two social networks and you can
leave comments, feedback about them there. There are other social networks
designed just for Christians, however, this is an outreach project to reach
those who may not know the Lord or may have wandered away. You can help me
reach out to them.
If you enjoy the devotional please recommend it to your friends. They may
subscribe by sending a blank email to
burningbushdevo-subscribe@welovegod.org
Two videos of my sermons are posted on GodTube at:
http://www.godtube.com/Wrather
You can listen to services at my son, Clark Wrather's church (First Baptist
Church of Broken Bow, Oklahoma) live on Sunday mornings at 10:55am CST
http://www.kkbifm.com/
There is a complete devotional archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here
is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/33.html.
You can unsubscribe to the pure text version of the devotional by sending a
blank email to burningbushdevo-unsubscribe@welovegod.org and then respond to
the confirmation email.
You may subscribe to the html text group by sending a blank email to
burningbushhtml-subscribe@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-unsubscribe@welovegod.org and then respond to
the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.