Secret to Prayer:“Just Do It!”
“Now Peter and John went up together into the temple
at the hour of prayer...”
Acts 3:1
“And it came to pass as we went to prayer…”
Acts 16:16
“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
were assembled together...”
Acts 4:31
Browsing through the twenty-eight chapters of the Book of
Acts we quickly see the importance the early church placed on prayer. (Acts
1:14,24; 2:42; 3:1; 4:24-31; 6:4,6; 9:40; 10:2,4,9,31; 11:5; 12:5; 13:3; 14:23;
16:25; 22:17; 28:8) Prayer provided the
basis for the spreading of the Gospel to the known world. The church began with prayer when about one
hundred and twenty gathered together in the Upper Room to await, in prayer, the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost. This
resulted in a ten-day prayer meeting yielding results that are still being seen
two thousand years later. Thus, prayer
served as the launching pad for the birth and growth of the church.
Prayer was a way of life for them and it was a
priority in their Christian walk. Surprisingly, there is very little teaching
on the “how to” of prayer in the
Book of Acts; however, there are a whole lot of examples. Many books have been written on Prayer and I
have read some of them. I have reached
the conclusion that the best way to learn how to pray is to pray. Like the slogan says, “Just do it!” When Jesus walked on this earth, he
really spent a large portion of his ministry in prayer; sometimes whole
nights. He also taught others how to
pray; not by running seminars and special conferences, but by being caught in
the act of prayer. He took his disciples
through the “School of Prayer” by
giving them on-the-job training. He
showed them by example and they then tried it on their own. We must all develop a prayer life; a
lifestyle of prayer.
Prayer isn’t a method…
It’s a way of life.
A pastor traveled by ship to visit a church across
the ocean. While on the way the ship
stopped at an island. There the pastor
met three fishermen. When they found out
that he was a pastor they excitedly said, “We
be Christians too!”
The pastor asked them if they knew the “Lord’s Prayer.” To his surprise he learned that the fishermen
had never heard of it.
“What do you
say when you pray?” inquired the pastor.
“We pray, We
be men, you be God, have mercy on us!”
The pastor was appalled at the primitive nature of
their prayer and spent the day teaching them the “Lord’s Prayer.” The
fishermen were willing students and could recite the prayer with no
mistakes. The pastor was so proud of his
achievement.
On the return trip the ship stopped at the same
island again. As the ship drew closer to
the shore he could see the three fishermen rushing toward the ship. They cried, “Pastor, we come hurry to meet
you!”
“What is it
that you need?” asked the pastor.
“We be so
sorry. We forget your fine, fine prayer.
We say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name... and then
we forget the rest of the words. Please
tell us the prayer again.”
The pastor replied, “Just go back and pray, We be men, you be God, have mercy on us!”
Martin Luther, when he was a monk, had so many
responsibilities that he became too busy to pray. He was supposed to quote from his prayer
books every day. He would “stack up” his prayers for weeks and
then he would take some days and get “prayed
up.” In 1520 he ended up sick in bed
for five days. He got further behind
with quoting from his prayer book and soon he was three months behind with his
prayers. Then, he simply gave up!
Prayer is not a matter of quoting prayers from a
book. It is not mere repetition of words
that we recite three times a day. Some tend to force prayer into a place that
it was never supposed to be. Prayer
should never be a struggle. Prayer is
not a chore; something that is endured.
We have made prayer difficult and painful. It is not a ritual but time we spend with a
friend who hears, and answers our needs.
“Let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need.”
(Hebrews 4:16)
When Jesus walked on the earth, prayer had become a
formality rather than free expression.
There were written prayers for all occasions. Prayer had become a ritual rather than
something that was spontaneous from the heart.
There were set prayer times much like the Muslims have today as they bow
towards Mecca at specified times.
Prayers had become very long, filled with big words. It was believed that whoever was longer in
prayer was heard more quickly. The
louder and wordier the prayer the better.
They used repetitious words and phrases.
(Matthew 6:5-8) These
tendencies should not creep into our churches.
Prayer can become a matter of pride rather than an expression of our
heart and our being in need. Listen to
the brand new Christians pray. They have
not been taught “how to” yet. They talk to God as their friend.
A famous preacher once said, “It is
not that prayer has been tried and found wanting. It is rather that it has not really been
tried.” It is unfortunate and
incorrect for us to look to God as a last resort. We go to him because we have nowhere else to
go. “Then we learn that the storms of life have
driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.”
Mark Foster said in his selected sermon outline, “When God Builds You a Prayer Room” that we should “never make God a last resort.
If you don’t pray now, while you have the chance, He may put you in a
place where you will have to pray.”
The first and only thing that
will work is the last thing that we will try:
PRAYER!
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I have been driven many times
to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”
Why should we only go to God in times of emergency,
when we don’t have anyone else to turn to?
It is common for people to pray in times of emergency. At these times prayer is never far from our
lips. Mother Teresa had a better idea
when she said, “Prayer is the mortar
that holds our house together.” Why
wait until our house is falling apart before we pray? If you want to know how to pray; “Just do it!”
https://youtu.be/hmBTSAQhA1I
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