"The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." Psalm 34:15
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16
Prayer is essential to the Christian. Just as eating is essential to one's physical well being, so is prayer to one's spiritual well being. When we were children, my second youngest sister hated to eat. Consequently, she was small, pale, and physically weak.
She was subject to every childhood disease that came along. In fact, the school nurse, a bane to my mother, approached Mom, accusing her of not providing proper nourishment for the child. My mother, a nurse herself, said, "Take a look at my other children. Do they look as if they are improperly nourished?" All the rest of us loved to eat; thus, we were healthy. The point is, my sister was undernourished because she didn't eat. (Incidentally, she outgrew this problem.)
It is just the same in our spiritual life. If we will not pray, we suffer from spiritual anorexia. We must read God's Word and pray to remain spiritually healthy.
"People of genuine faith use prayer as an honest means of giving thanks, confessing sins, and asking God for direction and help."
A fallacy that is prevalent, one that I have heard over and over again, is that God is too busy to hear our prayer. "Oh I don't want to bother God. My request is far too small or too silly to ask God for. How can God answer all the prayers of all the people all the time?" How wrong! We are trying to put a human characteristic on God. God wants us to bring our requests to Him.
God is not like a human parent. Have you ever heard a three or four year old asking his mother or dad for something? His mom and dad are so used to hearing their child pester that they sometimes don't pay any attention. I witnessed this the other day in the post office.
A little girl was asking her mother for something. She kept tapping her mommy on the stomach to get her attention. The mother paid no attention to her.
But God is not like that. He loves for His children to ask Him for things, to come to Him in prayer.
"All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
Matthew 21:22.
God's never too busy to answer our prayer,
No matter how small it may be.
He's willing and able our burdens to bear;
All our cares laid on Him sets us free.
Luke chapter eleven, verse nine and verse ten says, "
Ask, and most surely you'll find.
Just knock, and the door will be opened right then.
If you seek Him you'll find peace of mind."
About Helen: Besides having graduated from Bible college in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada, Helen Dowd has received certificates from two international writing courses, and from business college. She spends her time at her computer, writing stories about pets and life and general, as well as poetry, inspirational articles, Bible studies, etc. Her writings can be found on her website: www.occupytillicome.com -- Email address: hmdowd@telus.net
