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Rise And Pray
by Greg Robbins Luke 22:45-46 "And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said unto them, Why do you sleep? rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation." Jesus was a man of prayer. He was all God and all man. He was God made flesh. Jehovah God took upon himself flesh, and lived here on earth in a human body for 33 years. He needed to pray. Sometimes he spent the entire night in prayer. It is recorded on several occasions, that he arose very early, while it was still dark outside, to pray. Jesus set the example for us to pray. He never commanded us to do anything that he himself did not do. Jesus taught that men should pray always and faint not. Deliverance from life's problems and material needs are supplied through prayer. Jesus commanded to, "Have faith in God." This is something that is learned through praying and waiting upon the Lord to answer those prayers. In our scripture reading, the disciples had fallen asleep while praying. Sorrow weighed heavily upon them. The problems of life can either cause us to cease praying, or drive us to our knees to pray more. We need to take care not to fall asleep. The Church today is asleep, for the most part. A lot of prayer goes on, but perhaps it is the wrong kind of prayer. James 5:16-18 "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." We see here some nuggets of truth, for our prayers to be effective. Prayer needs to be fervent. Prayer is not just mouthing words. It must come from the heart. It must be heated, or what we truly feel is very important to us at the time we pray. Prayer is not of the mind, but of the heart. True prayer comes from righteous people. For our prayers to be effective, we need to live in a way that pleases and honors the Lord. Sin causes us to separate ourselves from God in our heart. Jesus said that his own prayers were heard because he always did what was pleasing in the sight of his Father. Elias was subject to like passions as we are, but he prayed earnestly. In other words, he was real with God. He told it like it was and asked God for his help. We won't get very far in prayer unless we are totally transparent with God. Don't pretend to be someone that you are not. God is not the least bit impressed with the religious mask that people put on. He is against hypocrisy in every form that it comes in. Finally, Jesus said that if we do not pray, we will fall into temptation. The only sure way to walk before the Lord in holiness, is to pray much. Think of prayer as an occupation and apply yourself to it diligently. http://jesuswordsonly.org My books on Amazon/Kindle https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Gregory+Robbins Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |