Begin the Day with Prayer
Good Morning Friends,
Christians who realize the necessity for prayer and yearn for it but who find their prayer unconvincing and unsatisfying might benefit from working in the fields of Psalms as dynamic tools for prayer. Imagine walking with the songs as a vibration of the Holy Spirit as it cultivates our inner life. Breathe in the Spirit. Get tuned up privately then pray together as a community. Live a praying life. But friends, know that like singing in a choir, prayer takes practice. Today we meditate on prayer and the first thing we are asked to do is to affirm our faith by acknowledging that we pray to a Holy God. It starts here because without this foundation there is nothing to pray. Here we engage in the most humbling… the most important work of a Christian, for prayer teaches the folly of worry and the wisdom of faith. Prayer teaches us the joy of obedience in seeking…asking and finding a relationship with the divine. Prayer teaches us that we are in a spiritual battle for our very life and that we are unworthy in the fight. Friends, to be effective in the Kingdom of God we must pray. Any hope of revival demands it. Spiritual authority comes through it. Know that God uses the time of our praying and struggling together to create an atmosphere of friendship where we join alongside each other…striving together. We are laboring, but the yoke is easy if we Begin the Day with Prayer.
Scripture: Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always wrestling in his prayers on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in everything that God wills. For I testify for him that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.
Colossians 4:12-14 (NRSV)
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,
by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.
Romans 15:30-32 (NRSV)
In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together. They say, “Pursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver.” O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed; let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace. But I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more.
Psalm 71:1-14 (NRSV)
Message: Paul’s praying carried Paul’s converts farther along the highway of sainthood than Paul’s preaching did. Epaphras did as much or more by prayer for the Colossian saints than by his preaching. He labored fervently always in prayer for them that “they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Prayer marks spiritual leadership. Prayer is more powerful than we typically acknowledge. There is much to learn. Oh, we could go to the greatest prayer of our Lord in John 17 or study the prayer known as the Lord’s Prayer but instead today I am drawn to a Psalm as a lesson in prayer. It teaches us to let God be the champion in the fight when the battle comes to things spiritual. It teaches us never be too busy to pray….that we can pray in all things at all times in our life. It helps us to realize that prayer is a means of getting nothing but God’s will done on earth. Friends, the Psalms help us to receive Holy Spirit prayer that empowers us to discard our garbage before we are prepared to receive the abundance of life in God’s grace. E.B. White writes, “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” I have the same problem but have in the discipline of writing these devotionals a kind of prayer that is both a retreat of solitude and in a way an act of corporate worship that is anything but sentimental escapism and I have found it to be a necessary preparation for entering the day in a wholeness of faith. Yes, I am thankful. You see reading the Psalms instructs in the wisdom of God, but praying the Psalms begins to transform us. Here prayer ends the anarchy and allows and guides us in communion with God to shape the world. What is amazing is that I have come to a peace with the tension, for it is no longer a struggle to pray, though it is still work. It is both seductive and productive not primarily to change our situation but to change us. Prepare your hearts for prayer.
Pray that we have the right attitude and altitude in prayer….pray that we are tender with our words. Pray that we approach God with reverence and respect. Pray that we come humbly to prayer with a devotion to advance God’s kingdom. Pray that we have the right relationship in our prayers. Pray that we are not only thankful and forgiving but also aware of what God is already doing to address the sin in our lives. Pray that we realize that we are as helpless as children…that we must be without pretense. Pray we persistently rely upon prayer to get done what only God can do and in this be bold…be passionate…be expectant of God’s provision. Pray that we would talk to God each day, asking Him for our needs and praising Him for the creation and blessings we have received. Pray that our words be put together with wisdom and insight so that they might do some good. Pray that our faith would grow each day. Pray that our love would grow each day. Pray that we start each day with the right focus and retain it throughout the day seeking ways to forgive. Pray that we find treasure in Christ as we forgive others. Pray that prayer would be our first resort not our last. Pray that in prayer we would learn how to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. Pray that in prayer we would discover that we receive no power from God until we realize that we have no power of our own. Pray that we would hurl our lives into the subject of our prayers with abandon…that we would praise God for grace we have received and especially give praise and thanksgiving for the Lord of Grace… Pray for Jesus who prays for us even now.
Pray that Jesus would join us in our prayers and that His presence would be the prelude to peace, the prologue to power, the preface to purpose and the pathway to perfection. Pray we realize that prayers have no death but live on forever in the harmony of the Trinity with the law of love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 