Thursday, February 5, 2015
Our guest blogger is Jimmie Davis, who serves on staff at FBS as a Ministry Assistant and is on the Women's Ministry Team. Jimmie is the wife of Sam Davis, the Associate Pastor
Praying Mightily or Not
at All
When God has a plan, it is amazing to see how He begins to
stir the hearts of His people. God has been drawing my heart toward a deeper
prayer life with Him for some months now. He has impressed on me to pray more, to
pray more effectively, and to pray more seriously. When discussing this with my
husband some time back, I found that God had been doing the same in his life. All the while, without our awareness, God was
drawing our Pastor and his wife, Karyn, to call our church into “Forty days of
prayer and fasting.” It seems everywhere I turn there it is again…a focus on prayer. In our staff devotions on Tuesday mornings…we
have been studying “The Lord’s Prayer.”
In our staff meetings on Tuesday afternoons…we have been studying
prayer. Karyn has called the women of
our church to pray every Friday morning at 6:00 a.m. in The Parlor of our
church. She is also calling the women of our church together to pray on
Saturday, February 28, 9:00-10:00 a.m. Everywhere I turn, the focus is prayer.
If you are like me, your prayer life has been erratic at
times. Most of the time I pray, but sometimes I don’t. I tend to pray more when I feel fearful or
when someone I love is sick or in trouble. Often I pray when I need a miracle
or when I have done and tried everything I know to do. Recently I was at a political prayer event
and heard a clergyman say, “When everything else fails, go to God in
prayer.” I wanted to stand up and shout,
“No, go to God first!” But…then the Lord
pierced my heart and I had to face the hard question… Am I guilty of this very thing?
Honestly, I had to confess my sin of trying to do it myself instead of
depending on God.
I am learning that prayer is serious business. Lives depend
on it at times. Mountains can be moved when we call on the name of Almighty
God. I believe prayer is a real struggle for most of us simply because the
devil doesn’t want us to do it. He knows that our prayers summon God to work. E.M. Bounds, the great preacher and writer on
prayer says this, “Mighty evil forces
surge around the closets of prayer.” He goes on to say that we must pray
mightily or not at all.[1]
Dabbling in prayer can be a dangerous habit. When we halfheartedly pray, it can
be likened to taking one or two pills of an antibiotic. You may get better for
a day or so, but before long the infection comes back with a vengeance. Mighty
evil forces don’t give up easily. The Lord has been teaching me that I must
pray mightily and never cease. It is amazing when I give God my full attention;
He gives me a deeper understanding of spiritual things. The words of Scripture
jump from the page and I “get it.”
Praying mightily doesn’t mean eloquent speech. It means that you submit
your will to His will and pray from the depths and groaning of your heart to
God It is a deep and intimate relationship, not simply a “wish list.”
I encourage you to find a “prayer closet” somewhere to spend
time alone talking to the Father. It may be your bathroom, your clothes closet,
or simply a chair in the corner of your bedroom where you can be alone with
God. Pour your heart out to Him and listen to what He says back to you. I am also inviting you to join our women every
Friday morning at 6:00 a.m. in the Parlor and to attend the Women’s Prayer time
on Saturday, February 28 from 9:00-10:00 a.m. in the dining hall. As we approach this “Forty days of Prayer and
Fasting” on March 4, 2015, I urge you to ask God now how He wants you to be
involved. Once you’ve tasted mighty
prayer with God, you will never want to just dabble in pray again.
Jimmie Davis
[1] Bounds,
E.M. “The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds
on Prayer” (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House 1990)563
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