To Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk
Prayer in its purest form is truly a gift from God. It is a wonderful way to communicate with our Father in heaven by means of expressing our innermost petitions and praises. It provides a tremendous opportunity to feel the closeness of God and to be cognizant that He loves us just as much in return. Prayer can liberate us from feelings of shame, guilt, or despair. It can also be a gateway to truth, great wisdom, even miracles in some cases.
Yet for so many, prayer is nothing more than a futile exercise in rote repetition. We mumble and bumble our way through the same basic prayers day after day without regard. As a result, our prayer lives become an afterthought or virtually non-existent.
But why?
Prayer is such a critically important component of our spiritual walk. However, for most Christians it is a highly personal and private area that we would rather keep to ourselves. There are numerous reasons for this but the one that probably rings the most true is that we feel like we are just not good at it.
You may feel like, ‘Why should I exploit an area of spiritual weakness. Rather than embarrassing myself in front of my Lord and Savior, I just won’t do it at all.’ Sadly, it is that mode of thinking that eventually leads us to question how spiritual we really are. And then the drift begins.
I would like to share a story with you today from my own prayer life. It occurred during a period when I felt my prayers were nothing more than parched driftwood wilting on the beach beneath a blazing July sun. But God taught me a very important lesson through this experience about the power of prayer.
Occasionally, CBN employees have the opportunity to serve as telephone prayer counselors. I usually look forward to this with a high degree of anticipation but as this particular day grew closer my excitement quickly dissolved into a sense of high anxiety. Call it human nature but by the time the bell tolled “prayer time” I was a pathetic bundle of self doubt and shyness.
For whatever reason, I was experiencing these feelings by an exponential factor of ten. In fact, as I sat down beside my assigned phone I actually prayed silently that I would not receive any phone calls during my shift. And for the longest time I believed that God had not only heard my prayer but had answered it. Well, he did but in a different sort of way.
The seconds ticked away ever so slowly but eventually pooled together to form minutes. Minutes ebbed, my mind flowed, and the clock inched toward the top of the hour. Just seven minutes remained before my shift would be over.
Six minutes.
Five minutes.
Four minutes.
I was home free!
Ring.
What? I looked around to see if anyone else had heard my phone. My fellow phone counselors were all busily praying with other callers. Maybe it was just my imagination.
Ring.
Doh! It was ringing. What should I do? I can just pretend I didn’t hear it. Then it will stop. No, that wouldn’t be right. I have to answer it.
Ring.
Fine, fine, fine. I will pick it up. My hand actually trembled as I reached for the phone.
“Hello, you have reached The 700 Club. This is Chris. How may I help you?”
Sobbing, a woman’s voice rasped, “My name is Nancy. Will you pray for me?”
“Of course,” I quivered, “what can I pray with you about?”
Nancy began to cry uncontrollably on the other end of the phone line. She tried to utter her request through her tears but the only word I could decipher was “drugs”. Based on that one word I felt that the Lord had impressed upon me that I should pray for her drug problem.
Words cannot describe it but I prayed for Nancy with a fervency I had never felt before. I prayed passionately with great conviction. And as I prayed I felt the Lord impress upon my heart that I should share a certain scripture verse that could provide comfort in these obviously troubling times she was going through.
As I finished praying for her I quickly thumbed through my Bible to find the appropriate verse. It was if I was a champion Bible sword drill player. I opened my Bible to within three pages of the verse I wanted to share with Nancy.
“Nancy, if it is alright with you I would like to share a special Bible verse that I think could provide you with great comfort during these troubling times,” I offered.
Through sniffles, she replied, “I would like that very much.”
I proceeded to read her the scripture verse. When I had finished I waited for a reply. Nothing. A few sniffles here and there but not a comment to be heard.
In a gentle voice I finally said, “Nancy, do you understand what Jesus is trying to say in that verse in relation to your problem with drugs?”
“No.”
I was dumbfounded. How could she not understand? I looked down to re-read the verse again. There was but one simple problem. I had read the wrong verse. Instead of reading a passage from the New Testament, I had actually read her a verse from the Old Testament. In my nervousness I hadn't even noticed that I had read the wrong verse. I was horrified. But in a moment of human weakness I tried to explain the scripture to her and how it could help her.
“Nancy, you may not understand what this verse means right now but it will eventually make sense to you and have a very clear meaning in the future.”
“Sir,” said Nancy, in a near whisper. She struggled to continue through her increasing tears but was able utter the following words. “That verse you read to me has nothing to do with my drug habit but it has everything to do with another problem that I was embarrassed to tell you about. My boyfriend got me pregnant. I am going to remember that verse. Thank you.”
Huh? What had just happened here? If I was not mistaken, God had just used me to minister through what I thought was a botched prayer to a desperate young woman in need. Praise God! But if you remember, I had been filled with self-doubt regarding my ability to pray effectively. But God used me anyway.
In
it says, “Now it came to pass, as He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’”Apparently the disciples weren’t so sure of themselves either when it came to prayer. These great men of God who would become the founders of the early church were also a bit hesitant in relation to their prayer life. You are definitely not alone.
The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah galvanizes the importance of prayer in relation to our spiritual growth as individuals. In
he says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”Simply put, any time you spend with God in prayer is quality time spent with Him. It is a spiritual exercise for growth. You may feel that your prayers do not make a difference in the grand scheme of life as we know it but I am here to tell you that they do.
Prayer is a form of divine worship. It cleanses our inner selves and makes us right with God. Prayer is not only a specific time spent with Him, but an ongoing attitude of our hearts toward Him. Through prayer we learn to adopt God’s ways in our lives and His principles, His knowledge, His understanding.
No one is a prayer failure. In fact, any time spent in direct communication with God is time well spent.
Information contained within this article from The Purpose Driven Life and the Transformer Study Bible.
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