Ten years ago, I was attending a small Assemblies of God church in Texico, New Mexico. It seems like such a long time ago but I have a vivid memory of that church. I still remember the people, the hymns that we sang, and the great moves of God that occurred in that little church; however, that isn’t what stands out to me the most. As silly as this sounds, it was something small that probably most people really didn’t pay much attention to or had forgotten about over the years. Nailed to the wall behind the pulpit, were large wooden letters painted in gold. Those letters spelled out three simple words that made a bold yet true statement. Those words have resonated with me throughout all these years and is something that has been heavy on my mind in recent months. Those words were “PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.”
Lately, God has been showing me the importance and the power of prayer. Prayer is not only important; but it is a necessity. Scripture instructs us to devote ourselves to prayer. Colossians 4:2 says “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” For the past several months, I have been attending weekly prayer meeting at my church. To no surprise, I am the only millennial and the youngest person who attends prayer meeting. There is a 23 year gap between me and next youngest person. Besides me, everyone who attends prayer meeting are well over 50 years old and the oldest is 96 years old! The real tragedy is, the total number of people who attend prayer meeting can be counted on both hands. Even though I boldly speak about problems within my church, I truly believe this is a common issue in many churches around the world today.
Unfortunately, prayer has become the most neglected spiritual obligation and responsibility of the church today. The reason is because prayer is a low priority for many Christians. The majority of Christians today devote themselves to other things of lesser importance which they believe is more worthy of their time. Watching football games, catching a movie, hanging out with friends, or scrolling through social media often take precedence over prayer. Christians have reduced prayer to a mere ten second ritual that we do before meal time or in closing. As a result, most Christians have been rendered powerless and ineffective while the enemy has silently grown stronger. Prayer-less Christians is the reason churches aren’t growing. Prayer-less Christians is the reason God doesn’t move in services. And prayer-less Christians is the reason the church has lost its influence in this ungodly world.
The reality is, there is a spiritual war raging and without prayer, we are unarmed and losing this battle. Ephesians 6:10-18 instructs us to equip ourselves with the armor of God but the most important verse is found in verse 18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and request…” This is the ‘last but not least’ statement in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. How could we forget to do the most important thing?! 2 Corinthians 10:4 says “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” There truly is power in prayer!
Recently, I was reading 2 Kings 13:14-19 and God revealed a truth to me.
Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.” Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
After reading this, God spoke to me that the arrows Elisha gave to Jehoash are like prayer. Like arrows, prayer is a weapon but a spiritual one. Many Christians are like Jehoash in the sense that they never get the victory or the answer they need in their lives because they don’t put enough effort into prayer. Do we spite the ground relentlessly with passionate and persistent prayer or are our prayers weak and nonchalant?
“He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God who is a consuming fire if there is no fire in our prayers.” – Charles Spurgeon
“Our praying, however, needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails.” – E. M. Bounds
Perhaps our prayer lives need attention and recalibration. I will be the first to say that mine absolutely does! I haven’t always devoted myself to prayer and some days my prayer life can be lacking; however, I try to make it a habit to pray every morning on my way to work, here and there throughout the day, and right before I go to bed. Even when I think it’s enough, the Holy Spirit will convict me to devote more time to prayer. Image if every believer was burdened to devote more time to prayer. How different this world would be! Prayer does indeed change things and it’s time for God’s people to humble themselves and return to their knees.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV
If you liked this post on the topic of prayer, feel free to check out my post entitled The Heart of Prayer.
Joshua Hawk 