[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Friday, June 21, 2013

[Paul]

Well folks, here in the northern hemisphere it's the first day of summer.  Let's hope and pray that this summer won't be as brutal, heatwise, as it has been for the past few summers, at least here in North America.  When temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit as far north as Windsor Ontario Canada, you know that something extraordinary happened, as it did last year.  Anyway I hope and pray that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that your day is going well or went well.

The late Dr. Ralph Montanus (1919-1986), founder of the Gospel Association for the Blind, graces our minds, hearts and screen readers and Braille displays with his article entitled "The Importance of Prayer," rendered as follows:

"And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).

Even a casual reading of the Bible will reveal the large and important place prayer has in its teachings.  One cannot sustain the Christian life without prayer.  Prayer is the Christian's vital breath.  To neglect to pray grieves God and is declared to be sin.

We are told that, as believers, we should continue in prayer.  The apostle Paul writes in I Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 17, "Pray without ceasing." This verse reveals that our life should so be lived that we are walking in the spirit of prayer continually.  In the verse following the 17th, God reveals that such a life is His will for us in Christ Jesus.

The prayerful child of God will accomplish more in a day than a prayerless believer can in an entire week.  "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength," we are told.  Here again, we see the secret revealed as to why many Christians are weak and careless in their service to God.  Lack of prayer brings lack of strength.  Lack of prayer brings lack of power.  You will always find that a powerless Christian will be a fruitless Christian.

The Holy Spirit is evidently so desirous that we get the meaning of Christ's parable in the 18th chapter of Luke that, in the very beginning, He gives the meaning of the parable prior to the parable itself.  He gives us the interpretation and application when He tells us that it was given to this end, namely, "that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." I am afraid today that there are many of us, ministers included, who are falling away from the truth of God's Word through lack of fellowship with the Lord in prayer.

The early apostles considered prayer so vital and essential that they made it their main occupation in life.  If you will carefully read Acts, chapter 6, verses 1 through 6, you will note in the context of these verses that the apostles said, "We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." If most of our ministers followed their example, we would have churches which would be on fire for God.  We would have Christians who would be witnessing with such zeal and conviction that disciples would be made with such rapidity that we would have difficulty finding sufficient room in our now existing churches to house them for worship.

I am thoroughly convinced that, through prayer, we can drive back the powers of darkness.  In prayer, we can accomplish the impossible and have Heaven's resources and power flood our souls until faith will rise up within us for the fulfillment of God's promise to do "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think."

Christian, how is your prayer life today? If you want the strength of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life, then you must pray, pray, pray.  We shall never know the abundance of His power and the still, small voice of His guidance unless we spend much time in His presence closeted in prayer.

And there you have Dr. Montanus's article for today.  Wise words, those, in my opinion.  Those of us who knew the late Pastor Karolyn Phillips, founder of Seasons of Refreshing Fellowship, know that her life was a life of prayer in all its aspects.  I only wished I could have share this article with her while she was alive, but perhaps in a round-about way she read it along with you.  Tomorrow we will present another article on the same theme, but by another author.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last and evil days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul