“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess. 5:16-18

Brothers and Sisters,

There are a lot of dreadful things doing on right now in the world, in our country, in our communities and churches, and in our personal lives. I’d just like to point out the fact that God eagerly desires us to pray to Him and stay in communication with Him. We’re taught how to pray by the Lord Jesus, mostly focusing on God Himself, praying as a community, for those other than ourselves, and we need to believe that God is there, the “I AM” of the universe. When we pray to God, He is ever present, He IS, and He responds “I AM”.

With all that is going on right now, I thought it would be a good time to remind each other of how important prayer is right now, and always. Jesus, our great Savior and Author of our faith, the one we’re told to ‘walk in the way he did’ (1 John 2:6), spent a great deal of time in prayer to His Father and as the author of Hebrews says “…he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (Heb. 5:7). Shouldn’t that be our attitude and practice as well? A lot of good it does to have faith in God if we don’t act like He is there wanting to communicate with us.

Ask yourselves, how much do you talk to the people you care about the most: wives, best friends, brothers, sisters, other Christians? And how important are those conversations, sometimes very deep, to building your relationships, coming to learn how to trust each other and rely on each other, and knowing each other better and better each day? And yet…

“You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:2-3

How often does this seem to be the telling of our lives, friends? We know how important communication is, we know how important reverent submission to God is, but do we exercise that knowledge as we should?

So, friends, with all that is going on right now, I admonish us to focus on what we sometimes focus on the least: Prayer.

And while we’re at it, let’s not focus on ourselves, but on others.

For our friends, and our enemies (especially our enemies and those who hurt us the most), that wisdom from God would be given to us, that we’d be a light in a dark place, that God would show mercy to the least of these, that God would relent from calamity, that we could live in peaceful times, that the Gospel would always go out from our lives individually and collectively as a whole with ever increasing genuineness and love, all of these things and more. Prayer should permeate through our lives, and touch those around us. It should be a never ending affair. Our lives should be a prayer, as incense constantly lifting up to heaven from these earthly temples God lives in.

More than all of that let’s look to the Author and Finisher of our Faith and remember how He taught us to pray:

“This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:9-15

Let’s follow the Master’s example and make prayer a huge part of our Christian lives, because it needs to be.

I hope that everyone will join me in prayer tonight, and this weekend, for the pressing issues at hand. Let’s join together and pray for God’s mercy with the impending Hurricane, Ike, pressing against the Texan coast, threatening lives and homes. Let’s pray for the rescue workers and others who will be helping out as this affair takes place (myself included, I submit this to you greedily and covet your prayers here)

I also would like to agree in prayer with you all in your community, church, and personal needs. So let’s pray this weekend for the lives of the people who come here, even those in passing who have left no comments.

And let’s always be praying for the humility and wisdom that only comes from the One True God. Amen.

Grace and Peace,

Joe