45. The Importance of Prayer
This leads to a consideration of prayer. Prayer
is the means by which we can communicate with, and have communion with, God.
Prayer is the means by which we can find a covering for our sins. It is
indispensable, therefore, to the believer.
Sporadic prayer is not sufficient for the urgent
and recurring needs of today. The tendency to evil is with us always, and if we
are not to succumb repeatedly to its power, God must always be with us too.
Prayer and evil cannot live together; if one is present, the other must die.
Obviously then it is not enough to call God into a situation where our own
ingenuity has failed us, or where we feel particular need of comfort; we must so
order our life that we are constantly in touch with God throughout our waking
hours.
Our first waking thought shall be of our Heavenly
Father, our first impulse shall be to worship Him, and our first action will be
to bow before Him in prayer. We shall be moved to acknowledge His majesty, His
wisdom and His goodness. We shall confess our need of Him and ask for His
promised protection, guidance, and help through an approaching day. We shall
remember before Him His promise never to leave or forsake us, and the assurance
of His Son to be with us always.
To begin our day with God in this manner is to
begin victoriously. We have the confidence, even before we meet the problems of
the day, that “everything that will happen will fit into a pattern for
good”. We shall begin to know the power and tranquility of the promise:
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee.... yea, I will help thee; yea, I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” When we ask God to
take this early initiative each day, the power of evil will be given little
encouragement.
But worship does not end with morning prayers;
few of us would be so bold as to say that our early communion with God will
sustain us in our struggles with the demands, the temptations and the problems
of even the twelve hours that follow it. And yet most of us must confess that
all too often our brief moments with God in the morning are followed by hours of
forgetfulness. However busy we may be, we shall have opportunities of
recollection; sudden temptation will bring a silent cry for help; consciousness
of the need or sorrow of a friend will evoke our unspoken intercession. And to
the discerning eye there will be so many sights that will be a source of
thanksgiving. So amid the worry of the day’s business with all its
confusing noise, we shall be able to turn aside and find inner quietness and
strength in the presence of God.
And when the day is over we can bow before Him
once more in the confidence that He is waiting to meet with us, more ready to
hear than we are to speak. We shall rejoice in the certainty that He is offering
us His blessing and fellowship in spite of our failures. We shall have sins to
confess and forgiveness to seek in the name of His Son. There will be much to
thank our Father for, so many to pray for, and a glorious hope to acknowledge
gratefully. And thus refreshed we can lie down, knowing the peace of sins
forgiven and the joy of a life surrendered to the grace of God.
