THE RIGHT ATTITUDE FOR PRAYER (Part II)

Scripture:  Luke 18:1 (NKJV) - Then He spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart….

A wise preacher of the gospel was quoted as saying, “Prayerlessness is a spirit of independence from God.”  It’s one thing for a Christ follower to become slothful about prayer and to neglect frequent returns to God’s throne room, but I’m convinced that doing so forfeits a great privilege to embrace one of the greatest privileges ever extended to a child of God!  It is comparable to deliberately disregarding His command to pray often and fervently for those matters about which we profess to care greatly.

In this matter of requirements of a proper prayer attitude, let’s not forget about persistence.  Let’s face it, if someone wants something urgently enough, they can morph quite quickly into the proverbial “squeaky wheel.” Jesus drew upon the fact of this universally understood principle when He shared the parable of the persistent widow and the judge, told in Luke 18:1-8.  Who hasn’t read that parable and been immediately convicted about how FICKLE we can be when our Savior God doesn’t “bring the answer we desired within our preferred timetable?

I’ve been known to “faint” along the prayer path, thereby proving to myself—though not informing my Lord—the true flimsiness of certain prayer petitions of which I believed myself initially to be quite earnest. (Have you been there?)  Let’s get serious about prayer, family!  Let’s embrace with new VIGOR the command given us in Luke 11:9, 10, which says “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it be opened.”  The Lord is not being “tricksy-falsy” with us, dear reader; He merely waits for us to show Him by our persistence how earnest we are in those petitions that are I keeping with His will.  So for those matters that you have filtered through your understanding, as to being within God’s will, we must commit to an attitude of persistence in our prayers. When it comes to petitioning God, “KEEP on, KEEPING ON!”  Stated differently: P.U.S.H.! (Pray until something happens).  

Prayer:   Dear Lord, as we practice persistence in our praying, please help us to persevere, knowing that You, Yourself, have not left us alone in our pursuit of Your divine assistance; for You ever live to make intercession for us.  Thank You, Abba; in Jesus’s name; amen!

(By Denise Diggs)