It is 4:18am and I just returned from the 24 Hour Prayer Vigil. It is very late, so I will not take too much time. However, I have realized something about surrender that I really must share: Prayer is an act of surrender. Asking God for help is like saying, “I can’t do this on my own.” Prayer is a humbling experience, but it is effective. I am concerned about why we don’t pray more. Consider these things:
Prayer is never left unanswered. I’ve studied church history and realized that every time God’s people have come together to pray in unity, God has done something tremendous (Acts 1-2, The Great Awakening, every revival since the day of Pentecost). Not only that, I’m looking at my own life and realizing that not only are my prayers always answered, but most of the time the answer is “YES.” How many times have I prayed for financial provision and never missed a bill? How often has He forgiven me when I asked for it? He always answers. We keep records of the requests our Prayer Team covers as well as their subsequent answers. And, even there we see God answers every time. God says “yes” to our prayers more often than not. So, why don’t we pray more?
We don’t like to surrender. I can’t say that I know all the reasons why we don’t pray often, but I think it has something to do with our pride. We don’t like to acknowledge that we can’t make it on our own. Prayer is admitting we are weak, and we don’t want to be weak. Interesting that the biggest excuse for not praying is: “I don’t have time.” What are we spending our time doing? We spend it trying to do what we think God can’t. We have this terrible fear that we are holding everything together, that if we stopped doing all the things we are doing, God would let it all fall apart. It is pride and lack of faith that keeps us from stopping to ask for help. Saying that we don’t have time to pray is like telling God that we don’t need Him. We have deluded ourselves and it is time to stop.
I don’t want to see the same results I’ve always seen. I don’t want to keep going to church and watch everybody stay the same. I want to see the lost surrender to Christ by the hundreds. I want to see alters filled. I want to see Life Groups evangelize friends and family in their homes. I want revival and there is only one way to get it: Pray.
What kinds of things are stopping you from praying, and what are you going to do to change them?
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