Where Is Your Prayer Life Today?

 Where is your prayer life today? I read that question in a handwritten note in a prayer notebook I received at a prayer conference while serving this very Spring Creek congregation as a youth minister. I wrote that note on February 8, 1993. I also made a note that I was to answer that question with one word. What word did I write 30 years ago? "LAZY."

When I look back on those days I recall the weakness of my prayer life. I did not know how to really pray because I did not really pray much. The only real way to learn how to pray is to actually pray. Sure you can learn some things by reading. Just reading about how to hit a baseball will not really teach me to hit the ball when I come to the plate with bat in my hand. It takes batting practice. In the same way, it takes practice in prayer to grow in it. 

When I think back over the past three decades, and the countless hours I spent shut up in the prayer closet, I can honestly say that I have grown in prayer. I have infinitely more growth to learn and experience, but I am not where I was back in 1993. 

If I were to answer that same question of where my prayer life is today, I would answer differently. I would say it is GROWING. I am still learning as I wade my way through reading E.M. Bounds. He mastered prayer. He could write about prayer in a way that is foreign to me because I have not progressed as much as he did. That does not mean that I cannot learn. With pen in hand I read the pages. With prayer journal in my lap I try to pray what I am learning. 

The focus of my prayers this morning was much different than three decades ago. I prayed, "Lord, what do you want me to believe you for today?" One of the key difference in my prayers these days is the greater emphasis on what God wills to do and wishes me to believe Him for instead of my petitioning my endless wants. What God wants and wills to do is much more important than anything I want. 

Two things are critical in learning to pray effectively. One, is to pray with genuine faith. Not wishful thinking but fervent faith. To truly believe. To be assured and persuaded that not only God can but also that God will do the very thing we ask Him to do. Faith gives fuel to our prayers. 

The other critical factor in praying is praying according to the will of God. To put that another way, it means to ask God for things He desires and delights to do. That is the assurance that we will get what we ask for. I am learning to put aside my wants in favor of what He wants. Why waste my time asking God for things He does not will to give me or do for me. Why not maximize my praying by asking God for He already wants to do. 

By the grace of God I am growing in prayer. I am not as lazy in prayer as I was three decades ago. I still have a tendency to drift back into laziness when prayers are not answered like I would like them to be or as quickly as I would like them to be. Not lazy on a continuous basis. I AM NOT WHERE I WANT TO BE AND MOST CERTAINLY NOT WHERE GOD WANTS ME TO BE. With that in mind I must keep growing. 

If I were asked the same question where is your prayer life three decades from now, how would I answer? I would be 97 at that point. I hope I would be able to answer, "PROGRESSING." What about you? How do you answer today? May God teach all of us and we willingly and exuberantly learn those lessons of prayer. 

In Hot Pursuit

 I awakened this morning with a burden for a couple of people. A couple of people that God is in hot pursuit of redeeming and drawing to Himself. He does that. He convicts, draws, opens blinded eyes, and reveals Himself to people who otherwise do not give Him the time of day. 

I am encouraged that because of the burden it is proof that God is working on the other end too. I do not know how. I do not know to what extent. I just know He is working. God is in the seeking and saving people who are far from Him business. He is on mission. In hot pursuit with the hounds of heaven nipping at the heels of those who do not know Him. He loves to rescue the perishing. 

He does it all over the world. He is in hot pursuit of Muslims, Hindus, and those caught up in African witchcraft religions. He chases after the wealthy, the impoverished, the famous, the obscure, the dark skinned and lite skinned. He desires to bring into His fold children, teenagers, and adults. Nobody is so far gone that He cannot reach, so hard that He cannot break, and so depraved that He cannot forgive. 

John Newton wrote those famous words in the hymn Amazing Grace, "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see." All over the world, every single day, people grow weary of running from God. Once He seizes a heart there is no stopping Him. When He sets His sights on a soul it is only a matter of time before they are brought into His family. 

I wonder who are all the people God is in hot pursuit of redeeming. Skaters. Lawyers. Doctors. Mechanics. Police officers. Long shore men. Soldiers. Construction workers. Nurses. Janitors. Chefs. Cooks. Teachers. Coaches. Oil field workers. Stay at home moms. All over the world He is in pursuit of people. 

I am thankful that 40 years ago He set me squarely in His cross hairs and targeted me at a junior varsity football game. He sent a messenger with a gospel message burning in His heart. He shared that message with me. The God who had been in hot pursuit of me all my life broke through. He won my heart and affection. I have not been the same since that October day back in 1983. 

I wonder if God will use this writing in someone's life around the world to hotly pursue their salvation. I pray He does. I pray He does so soon. I also pray He will remain relentlessly in hot pursuit of the ones He woke me up about this morning. There is always room for more in His family.