Praise God ,and please continue to trust God's Holy Spirit to help fan the flames.
I will like to extend the conversation further. many have said that the reason for the failure or disarray of our prayer alters as believers is because there is always delay in answers,or we are too busy making life happen to pray. To all these my answer would ,they are just excuses. We do not pray when there something wrong with our relationship with God. How many married people will not speak with our spouses ,children and family members that live under the same roof with us?. No matter the trouble you have with them you find ways to communicate to end the impasse ,because you know it's not good for the relationship. So how come we call ourselves God's children ,His bride,and we do not take the time ,make the effort to pray. To pray is more than talking with God and giving Him a shopping list. To pray is to have an intimate relationship with the lover of your soul ,your creator ,your savior and Lord.To pray my brethren is to develop, ,further and strengthen your relationship with God.
Prayer is the expression of your love for God. when you love someone on the natural level you want to be that person always.If it is not physically possible because of distance ,you run up your telephone bills each month because you want to always talk with the person,the object of your affection. That's what david is speaking about all through the Psalms.when he was running from saul ,and hiding in caves he wrote all those psalms,expressing his desire to see God in His tabernacle.what david missed most all those years was not being able to worship God .see the following,psalms ------26vs7-8,27vs4,,42,,63.so many of the psalms were david's yearning to be with God
Therefore if your desire is just to ask God for stuff then you will never find prayer a delight,a joy, a blessing. Because our generation has too many alternatives, so for many prayer and God is the last resort. Prayer is communion with God, asking for things is just a small part of that communion .I ask myself this question as i read about abraham's incredible walk with God.If God were to come to my house on His way to take care of the bussiness of creation ,say in my neighbourhood,would He find the attention, love,care,the worship and service He met at abraham's house.
This is what it means to be a friend of God,an intimate relationship with Him. Because of this relationship abraham was bold to ask God anything under the sun .Moses was so bold before God,he said to Him ,you can not destroy Isreal,remove those thoughts from your heart.Israel is your people ,and you will lead us to the promise land,if you will not go with us then we are not going. And God answered him.Jacob grabbed God and said i will not let you go,and God blessed him there.
God was not being partial, these people have an intimate relationship with Him.Elijah's famous words are God before whom I stand,-----i declare there shall be no rain for one and half years,and heaven said amen. when Jesus was on the earth, this was the major problem the jews had with Him,that He will dare to say He is the son of God and He speaks with Him.To them it was blasphemy.How can a mere man ,not even a priest say He speaks with God or that He was God's son. They could not comprehend the concept of intimacy with God.
Hebrews4vs16 says to all those of who have been saved ,blood washed, new creations in christ Jesus,''' let us therefore come boldly unto the the throne of grace ,that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need'''. Jesus said in john's gospel,"I no longer call you servants but friends''.mathew7vs7 says, ''ask and you shall receive , seek and you find, knock and it shall be opened unto you''.
Friends there is no excuse for not praying,every one who asks ,receives'
Those are not my words ,they the words of your Lord and savior ,the one who gave His life so you can come and have a relationship with the God of the whole earth. Friends it is a sin not to pray. The church of God is not doing well ,because we doing every thing but pray.Prayer has literally been taken out of the churches calender.The average church has once a month prayer meeting,with 5 munites prayers on sunday. so many of us do not know how to pray anymore . ''my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,but you have made it a house of merchandise----''
Friends we need to repent of our failure in this area,and like elijah repair the alters of prayers that have broken down,and left in disarray.Instead of fire what we have is ashes.when elijah repaired the alter ,the fire of God fell,and Isreal saw the manifestations of God again as they declared ''the LORD He is God,the Lord He is God'' 1kings18vs30 ---39.
I challenge us this week,go and repair your alter do not wait for your church to do it.,and watch the fire of God fall again in your life ,you my friend will be the spark God will use to lite your family and friends and church.
First,lets repent of our prayerlessness,,remember He waits to forgive us and draw us close again to Himself.
Then lets repair our alters.what so ever represents ashes in our life ,take it away.
Ask God for fresh fire in your life ,and in your prayer room.
I see God do something new in our lives,i see holy boldness arise in us ,and a hunger and thirst for God,drawing us into His Presence.
so until next time,see you at His feet ,in the prayer room.
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