Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray!

Ephesians 6: ¹⁸ Do all this in prayer, asking for God's help. Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God's people. ¹⁹ And pray also for me, that God will give me a message when I am ready to speak, so that I may speak boldly and make known the gospel's secret. ²⁰ For the sake of this gospel I am an ambassador, though now I am in prison. Pray that I may be bold in speaking about the gospel as I should.

 

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Being on my own, I chose to stop praying. “What good is saying the LORD’s prayer anyway?” I said to myself. I wanted to just have “fun.” As things got worse and worse, I revisited prayer.

 

• I only prayed when I wanted something.
• I had stopped believing in prayer, because things were not going “my” way.
• I did not feel the need for prayer when I was in the middle of doing what “I” wanted to do.

 

Paul gives everyone several reasons to pray. He ties prayer to “building up your strength” and “Standing ready” as he mentioned earlier while urging us to put on the whole armor of GOD. Do all this in prayer.

 

My Observations

• Prayer helps me communicate with GOD to place my desires before HIM.
• Prayer guides me to a better place when led by the HOLY SPIRIT.
• Prayer gets other people involved to ask GOD to reveal HIS mighty power.

 

Usually prayer is the last resort when it should be the first. I mean, asking GOD for permission, direction and success seems like the right thing to do. Unfortunately, I have the tendency to start doing what “I” want to do and when it is a mess, ask GOD to fix it.

 

Prayer is a time to change “my” mind versus trying to get GOD to do something HE does not want to do. HE gracefully reveals the “gospel’s secret” and enables anyone who asks to become an ambassador for HIM. HIS SPIRIT shows me that HE can never be constrained. I am thankful GOD wants to communicate with me all day every day.

 

Challenge

• What different ways to pray do you see in the writers words?
• How is the SPIRIT leading you?
• Have you validated your desires by asking GOD “Is this what YOU want me to do?”
• Will you place every situation, thing and person, including yourself, before GOD in prayer today?