The Path of Prayer

“I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God” (Nehemiah 1:5a).

Prayer that gets past the living room ceiling is prayer that recognizes first and foremost that God is Sovereign Creator and man is the servant. Proper prayer places God above all and man at His feet. Prayer recognizes that God is seated and He cannot be unseated. He is not a genie that we get three wishes if we rub hard enough on the prayer lamp.

When we learn that God desires holiness then we will seek Him. Prayer is not about our having our way with God–it is God having His way with us. Prayer is God guiding us to do His will. Again, God is not a doting grandfather who has lollipops in His pockets for spoiled children.

We do not pressure God to do anything in our praying. We allow God to pressure us and to press us into His will. God cannot be bribed, cajoled, convinced, or impressed to change. God is unchangeable. Prayer changes nothing of God but everything of us. Therefore, if we do not want to be changed, we will not be praying prayers that effect change.

What is it about our praying that matters? God controls all and yet if He cannot control our actions and attitudes then our praying will be in vain. God moves us to surrender but if we continue to live in our own weather pattern then the storms of life will continue to pour out upon us because of our own lack of reverence and order. God is merciful but we must recognize His sovereignty over our lives. True praying brings us to God!

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  • Learning Right with Might

    “Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand” (Nehemiah 1:10).

    Nehemiah was a Jewish man who served the pagan king of Persia. Nehemiah was living proof of some of the most important leadership principals: You cannot lead if you are not willing to follow. You cannot rule if you have never served. You cannot be over if you have never been under. You cannot give unless you have received. You cannot speak to the people if you have never listened.

    Nehemiah was a man who waited patiently on God through prayer. Intercessory prayer involves waiting on God. When we wait we praise, persevere, and prepare for His ministry through us. Only those who truly wait on the Lord will truly understand the power of prayer.

    Before we attempt great things for God, we must learn to wait on God’s timing. Don’t become impatient with God’s delays for it does not mean that God is denying. God is preparing you and I through prayer which leads to waiting upon Him for greater things than we could imagine. So be like Nehemiah. Yes, he suffered as he waited upon God. But he was learning and he was living and he was loving continually His God and the people before him as he prayed.

  • Stubborn Faith

     

     “At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us (Nehemiah 4:20).fisher of men net

    When your faith begins to wane before the goal is finished and reached, remember the One who:

    * so agonized in prayer that He sweat drops of blood;

    * so despised, rejected, and crucified by the ones He loved very much;

    * suffered so often that He was referred to as the “Man of Sorrows” who was acquainted with grief.

    Remember that our strength is not compared to the enemy, on the other hand, we size up with the power of God. The enemies we have absolutely have no chance against God, the mighty Warrior!

  • King Me

     

    “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

        Remember the game of checkers? Two opponents sit down across from each other and try to move their checkers forward on the board. At the same time you are endeavoring to remove their checkers. But the crowning moment comes when you are able to get your checker all the way over to your opponents side and say, “Crown me.” They place a checker on top of your checker. Now you have the opportunity to move your crowned checker forward and backward. You now have an advantage.

        Every son and daughter desires to hear confirmation from their father. They desire for you to crown him/her. They will not say the words out loud because in many ways they don’t know it themselves. But they desire to say to you, “King Me!” There are no fathers perfect and there are no perfect prescriptions out there. Only the Holy Spirit and God’s Word can lead a father to be a man who “Kings his children.”

        One day we are going to be off the scene and a good father will prepare his son/daughter to take over. It’s our job to get them ready for God and to groom them for this life. That’s what fathering is all about. It’s mentoring and equipping your son/daughter to become a man/woman who will assume their places for the next generation. We have no higher calling in life. It’s our God-given assignment.

        Andre Gide said, “The most decisive actions of our lives–I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future–are, more often than not, unconsidered.” Think that statement through.

  • A Jewish Lady and a Bible

     “He that cometh from above is above all; he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth; he that cometh from heaven is above all” (John 3:31).

    My copy of God’s Word is back with me again. It was in the Christmas year of 1981 that dad and mom bought me a Scofield reference Bible, and I received it as a Christmas gift on the twenty-fifth of December. I have had it rebound once back then, plus other minor work done to the pages over the years. But yesterday I picked up my copy of God’s Word from Susan that had my personal Bible, and once more had an overhaul and completed. She really did a remarkable job.

    My heart was burdened as I spoke with Susan face to face. I told her that I love what the Jewish people have done for the world and for what they have given to us. I spoke of Jesus who is the Messiah and what He did and is doing. I spoke with pathos as I called her attention to the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. I tenderly but hurriedly spoke of how our hearts are wicked and deceitful and how God took My hard heart and gave me a heart of flesh. It is tendered to the touch of the finger of God. It responds to Him.

    She really did not seem to be too impressed but we talked and I went as far as I could in my witness and love for Christ. She said to me that she hoped to see me again, and I said the same. I will continue to pray for Susan.

    When I step up to the pulpit to preach or introduce Christ in private speaking to others, I have asked the Lord to lay the world’s burdens upon my heart that I may care and have compassion. Today there will be around 150,000 people who will die and many will die in their sins. I don’t want people to live without God and to die without God. Will you join me this Christmas season and pray, seek, and “Love One More”?

  • Gallup-Poll Faith

    “Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9).

    God works with a remnant of people who believe. Isaiah speaks of a remnant of real believers among the many with a Gallup-Poll faith. A Gallup-poll faith is a faith that is wishy-washy. It’s the total amount of people who say but do not behave. Their living contradicts their position.

    It takes the grace of God to preserve a trusting remnant among those who identify outwardly with Him. The remnant is not a super-spiritual elite looking down on others, but they do dare to live by faith in God. The rest are careful not to risk too much on Him. The difference does show.

    Jonathan Edwards describes a true Christian:

    “As he has more holy boldness, so he has less self-confidence…As he is more sure than others of deliverance from hell, so he has a greater sense that he deserves it. He is less apt than others to be shaken in faith, but more apt than others to be moved by solemn warnings, God’s frowns and calamities of others. He has the firmest comfort, but the softest heart; richer than others, but poorest of all in spirit. He is the tallest and strongest saint, but the least and tenderest child among them.”

    That beauty marks God’s true people.

  • Tuition

    “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

    There are kids whose parents are spending big time money to send their children to college. I just saw on television about a man who has worked at night as a janitor at Boston college for the past eighteen years. Because of his employment at Boston College he has been able to send each of his kids to Boston College tuition free. But his children had to earn acceptance and keep the GPA up.

    The Lord Jesus paid a big tuition for each of us to get eternal life. One man said, “I want to be spent for God to the very last cent before He carries me home.” God paid a big price for you and me. Are we truly living?

    The Lord God is watching. We best study how we live and trust the rest of the folks we love to God Almighty. Too many kids go to school doped up, drunk on this world, unprepared, and waste their mama’s money. Oh may we not do so with God. Time is too precious. And His blood is too golden.

    There is a mean devil and he hates God and he hates you. He will use us and disillusion us and trick us into thinking that this world is all there is. God sent His only Son into the world to buy us back for a purpose.