By Pastor Anthony L. Scott
In expounding on prayer, Oswald Chambers said, “it is only when a man flounders beyond any grip of himself and cannot understand things that he really prays.” It is not part of our natural life to pray because it is an interruption to our personal ambition.
When we are born from above, the life of Jesus Christ begins in us and we can either starve that life or nourish it. God has so ordered our spiritual lives that the life of God in us is nourished by food or the Word of God along with prayer which is communication with God.
Powerful praying begins with believing God to be our provision. Our tendency is to have a big view of our situations and a small view of God’s sovereignty. We tend to see God through a microscope and our problems through a telescope. This should be the other way around. Our problems are miniscule compared to the vastness of God.
When we are in real distress, we pray without reasoning. We don’t stop to think things out, we simply spurt it out. In a tight place our logic is tossed out the window. It’s often only during these times that we believe God has the power to meet us at the point of need.
It is in prayer that we get a spiritual adjustment. Many people have regular appointments with a chiropractor or massage therapist. During those scheduled visits they will check the person’s spinal alignment, working out the spots where the patient’s back and body are resistant. Similarly, when we pray, we are aligning ourselves with the purposes of God and identifying any areas of resistance.
It is in prayer that we get our spiritual nourishment. Jesus taught that prayer is essential to the health of our spiritual life. He taught the discipline of prayer as the means to squeeze worry out of our lives. It is not so much true that prayer changes things, but prayer changes our view of God, which in turn changes us, then we can change things.
It is in prayer that we get spiritual intervention. Talking to God invites Him into our desperate situations. When God comes in we remember His Word, we remember the Lord, and we meditate on His promises. Our cries then turn into praise and our despair into hope.
Blaise Pascal once wrote, “There are three kinds of people: those who have sought God and found Him, and these are reasonable and happy; those who seek God and have not yet found Him, and these are reasonable and unhappy; and those who neither seek God nor find Him, and these are unreasonable and unhappy.” Seeking God in prayer is simply foundational to the life we all want and the life God intends for us.
