Marc, who is one of the elder canidates at my church, has taken on the ministry of prayer at Kaleo. For many of us (christians), prayer is one of our weakest points, yet is one of our most powerful tools. It is the one thing we are told to do continuously and yet we probably do it the least. Below is an email message from Marc reminding us of the importance of prayer. It is especially helpful because we often wonder “If everything is in God’s hands and we can’t ‘make’ Him do anything, why should we pray?” I think this starts to answer that very question.
Kaleo, Just thinking about the message on Sunday, it would be good for us to take these truths from Sunday to prayer, John Bunyan Said, ” I never know a thing well till it is burned into my heart by prayer.” He also said, “The truth I know best I learned on my knees.” It is true, our land is desolate, but take courage from Ezekiel 36:35 “And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate cities are become fenced, and are inhabited!” The story goes on to tell how this all will be achieved in verse 37. “Thus saith the Lord God; ‘I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.'” Back in verse 36 God said it is He who builds the ruined places, but vs.37 says that it’s us who must enquire that he do so, prayer is to enquire for the promise, and all the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yes and amen. Prayer is the forerunner of mercy, for there we ourselves find that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Ps.41:1).
Kaleo, I pray that your prayers would be so bold and so loving and so filled with Christ glorifying faith that they could be the very shadow of God’s blessing, the trumpeter (as Spurgen says) of the very mercies of God. Those who have been entrusted with the Gospel have the great and beautiful pleasure of enquiring of the Lord.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. Ps 27:4
