Devotionals

The Power of Prayer

Introduction

An important part of the Christian lifestyle is prayer, which can seem senseless to outsiders. People may see prayer as talking to no one since God is not visible, but others find it to be very comforting and helpful in difficult times. As a Christ-follower, how important is prayer? This devotional will start with thoughts from myself and will finish with scattered quotes from Mark Batterson's book The Circle Maker. Let's get started!

I want to start with a piece of Scripture from the book of James. It is probably some of the most popular Biblical advice about wisdom and prayer. "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind" (James 1:5-6).

The Bible has a lot to say about asking and receiving. It can be hard to discuss because some passages can be deceiving. Of course God wants to give us things and longs for us to be happy. However, he doesn't always answer our prayers how or when we want Him to. There are a few things to remember when it comes to asking God for something in prayer. As James 1:5-6 mentions, God won't be upset with you for asking. He allows any and all requests, although that doesn't necessarily mean that he'll grant your request. Nevertheless, feel free to ask God. There's no such thing as a silly question with Him.

Another thing to remember is that God gives wisdom generously without judgement. If you ask wisdom, He will give it to you. You just have to keep your eyes open; God may not give you wisdom in the way you expect it. In prayer, you can ask God for anything and He will make it known to you if you have faith and believe. Hate to say it, but there's a stipulation to receiving what you ask for. If you have faith and believe. We need to seek God's wisdom before anything else as well as learn to take his advice over anyone else's. The key to prayer is to pray boldly, believing that God will provide for you. This is where excerpts from Mark Batterson's The Circle Maker comes in.

In one study involving first-graders, students

were given a difficult puzzle to solve. The researchers weren't interested in whether

or not the children could solve the puzzle; they simply wanted to see how long they

would try before giving up. The American children lasted, on average, 9.47 minutes.

The Japanese children lasted 13.93 minutes. In other words, the Japanese children

tried 47 percent longer.

Researchers concluded that the difference in math scores might have less to do with

intelligence quotient and more to do with persistence quotient. The Japanese first-g

raders simply tried harder.

Translate this into religous terms, and we get the following message: persistence is important when it comes to prayer. Let's read Luke 18:1-5 NLT to see a Biblical example of this.

"One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. "There was a judge in a certain city," he said, "who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, 'Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.' The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, 'I don't fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!'""

The parable of the persistent widow is one of the most pixilated pictures of prayer

in Scripture. It shows us what praying hard looks like: knocking until your knuckles

are raw, crying out until your voice is lost, pleading until your tears run dry. The phrase used to describe the widow's persistence, she is wearing me out, is

boxing terminology. Praying hard is going twelve rounds with God. A heavyweight

prayer bout with God Almighty can be excruciating and exhausting, but that is how

the greatest prayer victories are won.

Praying hard is more than words. It's blood,

sweat, and tears. Praying hard is two-dimensional: praying like it depends on God

and working like it depends on you. It's praying until God answers, no matter how

long it takes. It's doing whatever it takes to show God you're serious.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and there is no more desperate act

than praying hard. There comes a moment when you need to throw caution to the

wind and draw a circle in the sand. There comes a moment when you need to defy protocol, drop to your knees, and pray for the impossible. There comes a moment when you need to muster every ounce of faith you have and call down rain from

heaven. For the persistent widow, this was that moment.

While we don't know what injustice took place, we do know that the persistent

widow wouldn't take no for an answer. That's what made her a circle maker. Maybe

her son was falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Maybe the man who

molested her daughter was still on the streets. Whatever it was, the judge knew she would never give up. The judge knew she would circle his house until the day she died if she didn't get justice. The judge knew there was no quit in the persistent widow.

Let's make this personal to your life. God is the ultimate judge, agree? Are you willing to be like the persistent widow and pray like your life depends on it? If so, does the Judge know that about you? How desperate are you for the miracle? Desperate enough to pray through the night? How many times are you willing to circle the promise? Until the day you die? How long and loud will you knock on the door of opportunity? Until you knock the

door down?

If you aren't desperate, you won't take desperate measures. And if you don't pray like it depends on God, the biggest miracles and best promises will remain out of your prayer reach. But if you learn how to pray hard, like the persistent widow, God will honor your bold prayers because your bold prayers honor God.

Very insightful food-for-thought from Mark Batterson. Thank you for reading this devotional. I hope that you have gotten something out of it and that you may even feel led to share it with someone. My prayer for you is that you are persistent in your prayers with God. Don't give up. Even if you do, don't be afraid to get back in the habit of praying big. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you have an amazing day!