Scripture References: Luke 18:1-8

I have always given thought to prayer, especially as a tool that the Lord has graciously given to His children. That doesn’t mean, I have always availed myself of it. Like too many people, flawed and oft-times weak in the spirit, I have neglected to pray as I should have.

For a long time I thought of prayer only as a privilege, as so many others do, a privilege to be exercised when we choose or to be put off when we choose. Most of us exercise the privilege only when we need something from God. When everything is going along nicely and smoothly and the sun is shining, when we are happy, when the family is all well, and all of our physical needs are supplied, we have a tendency to push prayer into the background and forget.

Now prayer is one of the greatest privileges ever accorded God’s people. But prayer is more than just a privilege. Jesus said, “Men always ought to pray,” and with the word “ought” comes a sense of obligation.

Why is there an obligation resting upon us in the matter of prayer? The truth is that it is because it is in the plan of God for the forces of righteousness to prevail in the battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil, against sin and the hosts of wickedness; that we prevail when we pray; that we have power as we pray; that the work of the Kingdom progresses as we pray; that our churches prosper as we pray; that the Gospel reaches souls on the wings of prayer; that the Holy Spirit endues the preacher and the people of God with spiritual power as they pray.

Souls are saved when God’s people pray. Oh how important it is that we never forget what the Lord has said! When Zion travailed, sons and daughters were born. It is a part of God’s plan, and when God’s people fail to pray, men’s souls go to Hell, a place that was never created for mankind, the work of God languishes, the power is removed from us, and we become stale. We are formal and cold, apathetic, careless, indifferent and worldly when we fail to pray.

Now if God has made it a part of His plan and if souls are saved when God’s people travail in prayer, if the power of the Holy Spirit comes only as God’s people pray, if the work of the Kingdom of God prospers and the forces of God prevail only as God’s people pray, then one of the greatest sins of which God’s people are guilty is that of prayerlessness.

Wake up Christian brothers and sisters! We, and thus the world, are in a terrible plight because we have quit praying. We have gotten so busy with this, that and the other, so absorbed in the affairs of life, in such a hurry, in the headlong rush of the world after things, that we haven’t taken the time to pray.

When the people of Israel sinned, they came to Samuel saying, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God . . . for we have added to all our sins” (1 Samuel 12:19). The answer of that great old man of God was, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23). In other words, if the time ever came when he failed to pray for them, he was essentially saying to them that he would be sinning against God.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.