The devastating reality of a failure to pray constantly - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Timothy 1:3,

"I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers."

Here is a surprising reality: because God may do things he otherwise might not without his people asking in prayer, Paul has a clear conscience in regard to Timothy because he had been praying for him.

I realize that the notion that prayer may move God to do things he might otherwise not does not comport, does not "fit", many people's theology. Because they refuse to leave their theology at the door when they enter into the Scriptures, they are unable to handle some very simple truths - certainly this one.

Listen to what the Lord told us concerning prayer and our heavenly Father's potential response, "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: 'In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, "Grant me justice against my adversary." 
For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!"'

And the Lord said, 'Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?'"

The faith Jesus spoke of was the faith which would prompt people to pray continually. The point of the teaching was not how God the Father is like the judge, but that just as the woman persuaded the judge, so we can persuade our heavenly Father with those things that align with his purposes.

Here is quite a sobering thought: we have a responsibility to bring one another before God in prayer. If not, we cannot maintain a very important attitude toward God and one another - a clear conscience. If I can aid you by praying for you, enlisting God's resources for you, and if you can aid me in praying for me, enlisting God's resources for me, to not do so makes us culpable before God and one another. If we neglect such a wonderful resource for one another, how could we maintain a clear conscience? How could we say we love one another?

There is one reason alone we might not be praying for one another. It has nothing to do with being too busy, too tired, not enough time in the day or any of the usual things we tell ourselves. It is simply due to the question Jesus asked at the end of his teaching on prayer: if we are not praying for one another, we lack faith. There simply is no getting around it.

Faith in the believer will prompt him to pray. It is no more complicated than that. So, what does my prayer life really tell me about my faith? 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com