Powerful Prayer

At our last gathering, we talked about the conclusion of Ephesians where Paul is encouraging the church at Ephesus (and us) to "be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people" (Ephesians 6:18).  We had a great discussion about  making time for the Lord and barriers that sometimes hold us up. 

God tells us in Scripture that He wants us to pray to Him. He gives us story after story both in His Word and in the testimonies of prayer warriors around us, that He is faithful in His promises.  And yet, do we truly believe in and participate in prayer?

If we want to draw on the power of God, it is worth considering the current state of our personal prayer lives. 

I recognize that there are times when I become complacent and only "talk to God" in between "life". This means my prayers sound more like a laundry list than a conversation.  Am I doing all the talking or am I leaving room to listen? And if I am being honest, I still experience doubt that God actually wants to answer my prayers.  My little prayers?!  Doesn't He have better things to do? 

But, the reality is that He uses every little bit of prayer both to increase our faith and to give glory to God.  When we pray, He gets to answer. What a testimony!

John 15: 7-8 says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

It WILL be done for us and it is to the Father's glory!

 Am I praying with a submissive trust to God's will expecting that He will respond?

I'll leave you with this parable that Jesus told his disciples "that they should always pray and never give up" (Luke 18:1).  We are praying boldly for all of you and our community and can't wait to gather again.

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” (Luke 18:1-8)