Praying Men :: The Great Need Of Our Day :: Part 2

Leonard Ravenhill wrote,

"No man is greater than his prayer life.  The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.  The pulpit can be a shop-window to display one’s talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off. Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer.  We have many organizers, but few agonizers;  many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters.  Failing here, we fail everywhere."

The great saints of God labored in prayer.  George Whitefield said, “Whole nights and weeks have I spend in intercession before God.”  John Wesley would rise every morning at 4 AM to seek God for the first four hours of his day.  David Wilkerson “tithed” his day to the Lord by spending the first four hours of his day alone with God in prayer and studying His Word.  Martin Luther would pray for up to 2 hours a day.  David Brainerd, the great missionary to the American Indians and son-in-law to Jonathan Edwards, would often lie on his face before God for hours crying out for the souls of the Indians.  John Hyde, the great missionary to India, was known as “Praying Hyde” for his hours in prayer.  E.M. Bounds was known to pray for 8 hours a day near his death.  David Livingstone, the great British missionary and explorer of Africa, would pray for hours next to his bed and he died there.

Yet what about us?  We know the Word.  We know that Jesus said that we would pray if we are His disciples (Matthew 6:5).  We know His promises to hear us and answer us if we pray in faith (Mark 11:22-24; John 14:12-14).  We know the example of the early Church (Acts 2:42; 12:5; 16:13).  We read the commands to pray in the Epistles (Romans 12:12; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6-7; Colossians 4:2-6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Hebrews 4:14-16; James 4:2-3; 5:16; 1 Peter 3:12; 4:7; 5:6-7) yet we don’t pray.  We know the promise of Romans 8:26-27, that the Spirit helps us pray but we don’t pray.  We show our lack of faith by our prayer lives.

Ravenhill also wrote, “The acid test of devotion is our prayer lives.”  What does your prayer life or mine say about our faith in God?  Let it not be said of the pagans and those who worship false gods that they are more devoted to their false gods than we are to the one true and living God.  The Muslim bows before Mecca crying out to a false god five times a day.  Can the disciple of Jesus not say that we pray more than five minutes a day?  The Buddhist sits alone in meditation for hours seeking a false reality.  Can it not be said of the disciple of Jesus that we don’t get alone with God and meditate on His Word (Psalm 1:1-3) and seek His face who is true?  The cults are known for their zeal.  Should not we be more zealous for the truth of God?

I have no doubt that God is merciful but our lack of faith in Him must disturb the angels.  No doubt God is sovereign but He has called His people to prayer and yet we would rather sit and watch television or waste time than to seek His face.  The prayer closet offers no rewards, no applause from men.  The prayer closet does offer this: the promise of Jeremiah 33:3.  I urge you saints of God to labor in prayer.  Seek His face at all times.  Our God will hear and He will restore and He will move in power as we cry out to Him.  He is more than able (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Article taken from the title, "Our Lack of Prayer Shows Our Lack of Faith" written by The Seeking Disciple