Two Points:: Thursday March 4

I have been thinking a lot about prayer in the last few days. So I wanted to make two points this week about prayer.

Point 1: Pray with Importunity. Read Luke 18:1-8 Jesus said, "Ask you will receive...seek and you will find...knock and the door will be opened." When Jesus is teaching about prayer he is always teaching us to be persistent.

::Don Carson says, "In prayer, we are like naughty boys who ring the door bell and run away."
::Andrew Murray says, "God trains us in the school of answer delayed. To teach us perseverance, he does this."
::Isaiah 30:18 says, "Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him."
::Read Psalm 130 here

All of these things are pointing to teaching us to wait on God, to pray with perseverance. We live in 2010 America and we want things to happen quickly. Comfort is important to us. As we learn these lessons of prayer not just in a scholastic way, but also in a practical and personal way, we learn to depend upon God.

We also learn that comfort for today is really quite over rated. This life is not about you and your comfort. Each day can be seized to attempt to bring more comfort or for deeper communion with God. Prayer can be a great teacher of this truth.

Point 2:Prayer is based on God's promises. Read Jeremiah 29:11-12 Many times we read Jeremiah 29:11 and get all excited about the promise that is there. We put that on coffee mugs and bumper stickers. But verse 12 brings more to the table. Meditate on verse 12.

I have heard people ask if God is all knowing and all powerful , isn't prayer redundant or what is the point of praying if God does what he likes? Terry Virgo said, "Praying not redundant, it is motivation to seek God. God's statements of promises are invitations to move."