Thinking about prayer on Wycliffe's annual DAY OF PRAYER

Most of the following text is from Wycliffe USA's website. Today is the Wycliffe World-Wide Day of Prayer and I've been thinking about why we pray...why I pray. Folded into the text from the web are some of my own observations... ideas... wonderings... questions.

God has called us into a relationship with Himself. Relationships require communication. Prayer is communication between a holy God and a beloved you and me. Throughout God's Word we're taught the significance and role of prayer.

GOD COMMANDS US TO PRAY.
“In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for Me in earnest, you will find Me when you seek Me” (Jeremiah 29:12,13, NLT).

God wants to be in relationship with us. And He knows we need what He can give. Through prayer, we experience life-transforming, life-renewing intimacy with the Creator of the universe.

Life-renewing. I need that today. I could stop right there and have more than enough reason to be praying. As much as I will tell you (and I won't be making it up when I do) that I'm loving the work/ministry I've been called to for this season of my life, it wears me out. And it isn't the kind of weariness that is renewed by sleeping in on a Saturday morning. It requires a renewal that is deeper and that comes from a supernatural source. I am so desperately in need of God. My "independent, American, self-sufficient" self fights against that neediness sometimes -- but I'm growing in my willingness to submit myself to God's way. That means relying on HIM for everything.

GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH PRAYER.
“Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing” (Psalm 143:10, NLT).

We learn more and more about His character and how His perfect will is working itself out in our own life. Deepening our understanding of God also deepens our faith and desire to worship.

I love the way that spending time with God does not lessen my desire to spend time with Him.

GOD INVITES US TO BRING OUR BURDENS AND NEEDS TO HIM IN PRAYER.
“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NLT).

We have a Heavenly Father who is more than able to bring victory to any challenge we face. God is a spiritual and physical healer. Like any healthy relationship, we must keep a line of communication open.

It amazes me that the God of the Universe -- the Creator and Sustainer of life -- the Holy One who is King and Priest and Prophet -- the Perfect and Beautiful Sovereign of all invites me to bring all of myself and all of my need directly to Him. He provides the mediator in Himself -- through Jesus and the Holy Spirit who lives in me. Only God would even think of such a way.

GOD RESPONDS TO THE PRAYERS OF HIS PEOPLE.
“The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results” (James 5:16b, NLT).

It is through prayer, that His work is accomplished on earth. The apostle Paul continually asked for prayer in his missionary endeavors and saw prayer as vital to his success.

I have been catching myself saying things that many of us say about prayer. "All I can do is pray" we say -- almost apologetic that we can't do more. "Well, let's just...ask God," as if this is not enough, but it's all we can muster up the strength to do. Are you kidding me? I'm trying to let God change my thinking about prayer -- to alter my own sense of it's priority and place in living. I want it to be the FIRST thing I do, the MOST I can offer in support of others -- not as some religious excuse to not get involved, to not roll up my sleeves and sweat a bit when there is work to be done.

GOD IMPARTS WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING THROUGH PRAYER.
“If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask Him, and He will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking” (James 1:5, NLT).

As we become increasingly aware of our limitations, we can rest in the knowledge that our God is omniscient. Availing ourselves of God’s counsel is a blessing of prayer.

Ask Him. I need to do more of that. I don't want to get into a habit of charging on ahead of God as if I somehow intrinsically know what He wants me to do all the time. Then again, I don't want to sit around sipping prayer-tea in a closet where I am safe and warm if there is work to be done with the praying -- that is, if God's intention is to use me to accomplish what He wants to accomplish. This, for me, is what makes it so important that I am in constant communication with God. I need to be listening all the time to what He says.

GOD EXERCISES HIS AUTHORITY AND ABILITY TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE THROUGH THE PRAYERS OF HIS PEOPLE.
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22, NLT).

Our hearts pound with great confidence as we take mighty tasks to our exceedingly mighty Lord.

Recently I have experienced this great confidence as we are taking steps of bold obedience as an organization in launching the Last Languages Campaign. I must confess that I have also experienced a host of emotions that fight against this confidence -- fear, loneliness, anger, self-righteous frustration, and on it goes. I am so aware of my own weakness, my own tendency to take credit for things that God has done through me, my own leanings toward loving comfort and ease, my own sin-nature and too often I forget that it is CHRIST IN ME that is the source of hope. Not ME.

GOD EXTENDS HIS POWER TO US THROUGH PRAYER SO THAT WE MAY RESIST TEMPTATION.
“Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak!” (Matthew 26:41, NLT)

With prayer, you always have a proven shield of protection available. Just say the word.

...and yet, how often do I delay saying the world because I like sin. Momentarily. I like to grumble when others are not cooperative or when circumstances challenge my plans. Grumbling feels good. I like to turn to food (especially certain foods) when I am needing comfort. It is easier to tarnish someone else's reputation and take the spotlight off my own issues through a well-turned but cutting remark than it is to own my shortcomings and build others up. But in the end, destruction. We don't have to live that way. God promised.