When You Haven't Got a Prayer - Pray
Hope Discovery of the Day:
When you haven’t got a prayer, pray anyway.
Scripture of the Day:
Colossians 4:2-4
“Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time pray for us too, that God may open a door for the message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may make it known as I should.”
Ephesians 6:18
“With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.”
“You haven’t got a prayer” is a well-known condemning phrase alerting us that things look hopeless. It has a sort of sarcastic bent to it, mocking any chance of success. But for the Christian, there is always hope. There is always a prayer because our Savior lives and He lives to intercede for us.
The reality is we are in a spiritual battle whether we know it or not. There is a spiritual battle of epic proportions at work in our families, churches, everywhere. All around us, things are happening in the spiritual realm and sometimes we are just too tired to pray. Or lack the discipline to have a consistent prayer life.
Prayer is available at all times and we need to pray, but sometimes our flesh resists this spiritual discipline. Even the disciples could not stay up and pray when their Savior asked them to. There, now that we have that out of the way, (ouch!) there is great encouragement even in our lack. God has us covered when we fall short. More than that, He has called faithful brothers and sisters to cover one another in prayer, too.
True confession: My prayer life has sometimes been fervent, sometimes haphazard. That is, formalized consistent praying through requests is not something I have achieved yet. But God has shown me the value of being in the mentality of constant prayer. I might not have a perfect list hanging on my wall, but my heart is poised to pray as the LORD leads, throughout the day. When I hear of a need, I pray. I cannot put it off for later because later might not ever happen.
It used to bug me that I was not more organized in how I prayed until I realized that our lives themselves can be offered up as prayers to God. In everything I do or say, I can invite God in for counsel and keep the conversation going.
Perhaps when the chips are really down is when we tend to be a little more fervent in prayer for ourselves or others. When we need a miracle from God or we need for God to move in a powerful way, our desperation can lead us to despair or to prayer. God’s faithful promises motivate us to pray, for His promises are certain. When we might feel like praying is not accomplishing much, promises from Scripture encourage us to continue to pray without ceasing. Here are 21 verses about prayer to help us stay the course in our prayer life.
Christian, God hears us when we pray. God. The Creator of the entire universe. Hears us. May we not forget how awesome this privilege is and remember that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much. Much more than we could ever think or imagine. One more thing – today’s Scripture tells us to be alert – we need to be on the watch for what prayers we need to offer – and we need to be thankful at all times, even when it seems we have nothing to be thankful for. God is always at work.
John Piper has an excellent free resource on prayer that will fuel your prayer life in amazing ways. Here is a link to the free download. Years ago, I wrote a couple of songs on prayer that will refresh our fervor to bow our knee before our sovereign God. One of them, “Praying for You” was inspired as God placed on my heart to pray for a missionary I did not know. The next morning, a little girl, a daughter of a friend of mine, called me to say she had been praying for me and was led to call and tell me that. What a God. He inspired the song and demonstrated the truth in it that we are each to play a part in intercession alongside Him and He appoints us to pray for others in their time of need, too. Another song I wrote, “Why Should I Pray?” is also an encouragement to pray even when things seem impossible. All things are possible for those who believe in God.
When you haven’t got a prayer, pray anyway. God has already interceded on your behalf. And He already knows the end. He is sovereign over all our days – all our praises, needs and burdens – and He is for us!
Lord, thank You for interceding on our behalf. You are our faithful God and know what we need before we do. Help us to pray to you at all times and to not grow weary in seeking You in all things.
