[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Saturday, March 23, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good morning, afternoon or evening wherever in this world you happen to live.  I hope and pray that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you had a good day today or are having one.

The late Dr. Ralph Montanus (1919-1986), founder of the Gospel Association for the Blind, graces our screen readers and/or Braille displays today with his article entitled "When Should We Pray?, as follows:

It is important to know what the Bible teaches regarding the reasons for prayer.  It is equally important to know what the Bible teaches on the subject of how we should pray.  But it is also important to know what the Word of God teaches as to when we should pray.

Our Lord has given us some excellent suggestions, by example, as to when we should pray.

1.  The first of these is found in Mark 1:35:  "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." From this text, we note that our Lord chose the early morning hours for prayer.  Many mighty servants of God have followed our Lord's example.  It is a known fact that our minds are at their best in the morning hours.  They are not filled with many distracting thoughts.  In the morning hours, our minds are fresh and clear and apt to be more alert than at any other time of day.  The hymn writer penned:

"I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses; And the voice I hear, Falling on my ear; The Son of God discloses.  And He walks with me, And He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known."

2.  The second suggestion as to when we should pray is found in Luke 6:12:  "And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." At the end of the day, after all the toils of the day have passed, we find our Lord spending an entire night in prayer.  How different our lives would be if we would occasionally set aside a night to spend before God in prayer.  It is an excellent idea to end each day in a season of prayer.  It is also well occasionally to tell God that we are setting a night aside in which we would be willing to spend as much time in His presence as He wills, even if it be the entire night.  Oh, how we need to draw near to God in these last and evil days! If the Lord Jesus needed to spend an entire night in prayer before God, how much more do we need to spend much time in God's presence?

3.  Thirdly, we find that the Lord Jesus always had prayer before the great decisions in His life.  Jesus prayed before choosing the twelve apostles.  He prayed earnestly before delivering the Sermon on the Mount.  If we would only pray before the many decisions in life are made, how different things would be.  To have God's choice rather than our will always brings greater happiness and peace into our hearts.  Let us, therefore, follow our Lord's example and seek God's will in every decision of life.

4.  Fourthly, we find that our Lord gave special attention to prayer when He was unusually busy and pressed for time.  "But so much the more went there a fame abroad of Him:  and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.  And He withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed" (Luke 5:15, 16).  It appears that we do just the opposite when we are busy and pressed for time.  When such an occasion arises, we are apt to limit our prayer time, and God have mercy on us.  Sometimes believers will even skip prayer altogether for lack of time.  This was never the case with our Lord.  It is true that there were times when He was too busy to eat.  There were other times when He was too busy to sleep and take needed rest.  But He was never too busy to pray.  May I repeat that once again.  HE WAS NEVER TOO BUSY TO PRAY.  If we get too busy to pray, then we are indeed too busy.  The busier we become, the more we need to pray; AND PRAY WE MUST!

5.  Fifthly, our Lord prayed before the great temptations of life.  It is true that, at times, temptations suddenly arise and, almost without any advance knowledge, we find ourselves face to face with temptation.  However, there are other times when we can see the temptation approaching us long before it arrives.  We know that there are certain things we must face, perhaps tomorrow or one day this week.  Already we know that the problem we shall be facing will present a great temptation that is going to be difficult to cope with.  We, therefore, should so seek God that, before we ever meet the temptation, we have already won the victory over all the trials and temptation we would face within the very near future.  We also may pray and win the victory in the place of prayer long before we ever come face to face with the temptation.

6.  Sixthly, we see in the New Testament that our Lord prayed before and after the great victories of His life.  Remember when he fed the 5,000 and how they wanted to make Him king? He knew the hearts of men and slipped out of their midst and prayed.

How important it is for us to give God all the glory in the hours of so-called fame and popularity.  How often has God done the unusual and the miraculous for us, and we failed, miserably failed, to thank Him and to give Him the honor and glory that He rightfully deserves.  I am afraid that there are times in our lives when we are about as ungrateful for success when it comes to us as were the nine lepers who were cleansed and never returned to give thanks.  It would appear sometimes that it is harder to bear success than failure.  If Satan cannot defeat us, he will endeavor to puff us up and to inflate us with a human and spiritual pride until we begin to think that it was by our own power or human ability we have won the victory.  Oh, how we must give God all the glory! How we must pray before and after every great victory of life!

If you will endeavor, by the grace of God, to put these six suggestions given by our Lord, through example, into our lives, we shall then truly learn the secret of prevailing prayer.  If we want to know "when we should pray," then let us again go over these six points.

And there you have Dr. Montanus' article written so long ago.  Perhaps some, if not all, of you should save this article wherever you do such things in your computer and review it from time to time.  This is not an order, but a suggestion.

Before I close this message, I pray that, as we in the Americas and Europe go to our respective houses of worship tomorrow, that we would get a good word from our pastors and/or Sunday school teachers as imparted to them by the Lord and, more importantly, that we will apply what we will hear and learn to our individual lives as the gracious Holy Spirit enables.

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