pray without ceasing,
(1Th 5:17 NKJV)
There is a hymn that says: “What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and grief’s
to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Oh, what peace
we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!”
This week was a very difficult week for me. We had a death in our family and then
it just seemed like there was all sorts of things that went wrong. I couldn’t figure
out why things were going wrong or what was I doing or not doing that caused
these things? Then a still small voice said to me you haven’t been praying like you
need to. So I sat back and thought about it. Now I get up at 6am to pray and study
the word every morning. But this week I was busy with work and life that I never
made the sacrifice to get up and pray. There is an old saying that says 7 days
without prayer makes 1 weak. But, even one day without prayer makes one weak.
Now, because this week I wasn’t prayed up as usual I left myself vulnerable to the
enemy. It was like I went into a blizzard with a swim suit on. I wasn’t covered. The
song says Oh what peace we often forfeit oh what needless pain we bear all because
we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Because this week I didn’t pray like
needed I to I forfeited my peace. Chaos was all around me and it seemed like I
couldn’t break.
Think about your life for a minute. How many unnecessary things have you gone
through just because you left God out of the equation? Or made an extremely bad
decision because you never asked God what should you do? Prayer is the
foundation of your relationship with God. Any relationship counselor will tell you
in order to have a healthy relationship you have to communicate. So how can we
be in a relationship with God with no communication or very little
communication? It’s impossible! In order to get closer to God you must
communicate with him and he will communicate with you. He hears every word of
prayer that you say and he will act on your behalf.
Confess your trespasses [23] to one another, and pray for one
another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much.
(Jas 5:16 NKJV)
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so
that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful
and effective.
(Jas 5:16 NIV)
There is power in your prayer. So make prayer your foundation!
Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will
show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who
dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood
arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not
shake it, for it was founded on the rock. [48]
(Luk 6:47-48 NKJV)
Prayer is the foundation and God is the rock. So the more prayer and
communication you have with God the more you are digging deep the foundation
in the rock! So it’s very clear what God is saying to you “Pray without ceasing”. So
that when life isn’t going the way you want or it’s not treating you kindly you have
a sure foundation that is dug deeply in the rock so that you won’t be moved. The
song says what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. My prayer is that
you and all of us would increase our prayer life to strengthen our foundation and
grow closer in our relationship with Christ.
May the grace of our lord Jesus Christ be with you,
Pastor Jonathan Roundtree Sr.