Pray-ers

                                 A little food for weekend thought...on prayer--
        Can I just admit this right up front?  Prayer is hard...and I'm not much good at it.  To put it mildly.
        But oh how I long to be better.  You too?  Maybe like me, you know that consistent, intimate communication with the Lord is the secret to a joy-filled, God-glorifying, strength-sustaining life.  We want to be prayer warriors who make a difference in this world for Christ.  We want to be a source of blessing to others through our prayers.  We want to enable our families and loved ones to be all that God created them to be and to reach their full God-given potential.  We want to know the Lord more fully and to love Him more wholeheartedly more and more every day of our lives. We want to grow ever closer to Jesus and to resemble Him more and more with each passing year.
        In short, we want to be pray-ers!  I guess that's not a word--but let's make it one!  Because don't we desire to be men and women who don't just say prayers but who are pray-ers.  Powerful, believing, receiving, unflagging, unceasing pray-ers.
        I have some dear friends who are such prayer warriors...and oh what blessings they each are.  How I thank the Lord for such pray-ers who simply Do. Not. Quit. Praying.  Ever.  They pray God's Word back to Him.  They pray in good times and in bad.  They pray boldly, yet humbly.  They pray expectantly, yet submissively.  They don't wait to pray until they've figured out just the right words.
          Nope, they just pray.  After all, God's promised us in His Word that His Holy Spirit will pray for us when we don't know how or what to pray.  "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." (Rom.8:26)  Not only that, but we're commanded to confidently "draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb.4:16)  And Jesus, we're told "is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them." (Heb.7:25)
        What wonderful promises!...which makes me wonder: what on earth are we waiting for?  If the Spirit speaks for us, the Lord Jesus beckons us near and intercedes for us, and the Father loves us and promises to hear and answer us in His (not our) perfect way, how can we lose?  Why aren't we praying?  
         I loved this analogy from Tim Keller (well, actually it was from his wife, Kathy).  "If the doctor said you have a fatal condition, and unless you take this medicine every night from 11:00 to 11:15, and swallow these pills, you will be dead by morning. If that was the case...you would never miss. You would never say, I was too tired, or, I didn’t get to it, or, I was watching a movie, and I didn’t leave time. You never would do that."  His point?  Don't allow the excuses of distractions or busyness or even exhaustion prevent you from praying, because if you truly understand the power of prayer, then you'll shove aside all those excuses and make time to pray.  
        Maybe part of it simply boils down to making a decision that we will pray.  No. Matter. What.             That we will be pray-ers...rather than wish-ers or hope-ers or maybe-some-day-ers.
        That we will pray and trust God with the results, whatever those results might be.  Why?  Because we've got to realize that the Lord God is the only One with all the wisdom, all the knowledge of all the facts, all the justice, all the mercy, and all the love.  We see only a teeny, tiny fraction of the whole picture.  But the Lord sees and knows it all.  Literally--past, present, future, and into infinity.
        And really, God's will is what we would choose if we knew everything that God knows, right?
        So, maybe you've got it all together, and you're one of those mighty prayer warriors for whom I thank the Lord.  If so, thank you, thank you, thank you and keep it up!  As Winston Churchill famously said in the darkest part of World War II: "Never, never, never give up."  We need you--so keep praying!
        But just in case you're not one of those prayer warriors, how about joining me and starting afresh today...and then tomorrow...and then the next?  Let's ask God to enable us to become powerful, persistent, patient pray-ers.  As I recently heard on a podcast, let's ask God to enable us to be "pushy" in our prayers--P.U.S.H.  Pray Until Something Happens.
         "On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night, they shall never be silent.  You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth." (Isa.62:6-7)
         God's calling us--meaning you and me--in our generation, in our nation, in our city, in our church, in our family, in our school, in our workplace, to be those "watchmen" on the walls.  And His Word tells us to keep on praying...to "never be silent" and "to take no rest" until Almighty God answers in His perfect way and His perfect timing.  
         Sure, I don't understand it all.  I feel like I don't know the right words.  I sometimes grow discouraged.  I tend to get distracted.  But here's what I do know: He's commanded us to pray.  His Word gives us promise after promise about the supernatural power of prayer. His Holy Spirit gives us the words.  His Son intercedes for us continually.  And His throne is a throne of not just ultimate power and authority, but also grace.  And forgiveness.  And mercy.  And wisdom.  And love.
          So let's Pray Until Something Happens.  And then leave the results up to our loving, perfect, and omnipotent Heavenly Father.  What a relief--we don't have to produce the results; we just have to pray.
         Father, Help us, teach us, enable us, empower us to be persistent, powerful, patient pray-ers.
        To God be the glory.