Quote from Forum Archives on August 28, 2000, 1:03 pm

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

I like this description of prayer and its purpose. One thing I
particularly like about this description is that it helps me to
sort out what can be accomplished through the power of prayer.
For the most part, it is NOT any aspect of manipulating God, as
if God is sitting there, waiting to say "Yes" to every possible
thing I ask or demand. Instead, prayer is one method God uses to
communicate with us, and one of the tools to reveal Himself to
us. (Other methods include the Bible- the definitive Word of
God, the Holy Spirit- the person of God who dwells within us,
when we allow Him into our being).

Isn't is interesting that Oswald specifically mentions that we
must be at our wits end before we realize the need to pray, and
to "turn away" from our "wicked ways", seek Him, and find Him?

One of the things that often exasperates me, even about Christian
music lyrics, is that they mention that when we seek God in times
of trouble, He will hear us and answer us. Well, that is
certainly true, but why wait until we are at the very END of our
options before seeking God? I anger myself when I fail to seek
God FIRST, and instead go about, doing my own thing, until
finally, I see the folly of whatever I have been doing, realize
it, and turn back to God. How foolish of me!

Well, my friends, such is the way of many of us. If you were
really honest about it (privately or publicly) could you say
anything different? I even know these things about myself, yet I
struggle with them.

Dear Lord, help us to honestly admit our need for You today, and
openly seek You FIRST in all things. Amen.

Brother Brian

August 28

The Purpose of Prayer

"... one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to
pray...' " (Luke 11:1).

Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We
hear it said that a person's life will suffer if he doesn't pray,
but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of
God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a
person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is
born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life.
Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our
common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament.
We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for
ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get
to know God Himself.

"Ask, and you will receive..." (John 16:24). We complain before
God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but
we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a
magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, "... unless you...
become as little children..." (Matthew 18:3). Ask and God will
do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The
problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits'
end. When a person is at his wits' end, it no longer seems to be
a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get
in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be
yourself before God and present Him with your problems--the very
things that have brought you to your wits' end. But as long as
you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for
anything.

To say that "prayer changes things" is not as close to the truth
as saying, "Prayer changes me and then I change things." God has
established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption,
changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter
of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a
person's inner nature.

Authorized By The Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd.
1997 RBC Ministries--Grand Rapids, MI 49555-0001

=====
--
Brian Masinick, "The Mas", mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/
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