The Christian's Prayer Life
by Pastor C. R. Stam
Prayer to God manifestly must hold great importance to those who
would be truly spiritual. While God’s Word to us is always to have first place
in our lives, prayer must certainly have second place; indeed, we must even
study God’s Word with prayer for understanding and willingness to obey.
The Scriptures everywhere exhort God’s people to pray, and
in the Epistles of Paul we find greater cause, greater reason and greater
incentive than ever to pray — to pray “always,” “in everything,” “without
ceasing.” The example of our Lord and of His apostles — particularly Paul — is
a call to prayer.Every need, every anxiety, every heartache is a call to
prayer. Every temptation, every defeat — yes, and every victory is a call to
prayer.
Yet,
merely praying, or even spending much time in prayer, is not in itself evidence
of true spirituality. Many carnal Christians, still“babes in Christ,” and even
many unsaved people, spend much time in prayer. But the truly spiritual
believer will join the Apostle Paul in saying: “I will pray with the
spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also” (I Cor. 14:15). “With the
spirit”:earnestly, fervently, pouring out to God my adoration, my supplications
and my thanks. And “with the understanding also”: intelligently,with a clear grasp
of what the Scriptures, rightly divided, say about God’s will and His
provisions for my prayer life in this present dispensation of
grace.
E-mail this BIBLE STUDY to all your friends
No comments:
Post a Comment