When we PRAY

Blessed is she who believes.( Luke 1:45)

But, in my own strength, I’ve failed to believe.

But the Bible tells me, “There is incomparably great power for us who believe”. (Eph 1:19)

I want to keep believing.
I want that power every moment.

I want to know those words apply to me and those I love. I want to believe what I desperately want to happen—those faith-filled, God-ordained, things will happen.

Like you, I’ve read Hebrews 11:1, I know faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

I want that kind of strong assurance ….every day.
Don’t you?

And I’m learning, there is a place in faith where our hearts—and all we hope for, and our minds—and all that we know to be true of God as He tells us in His Word, come together.

It’s prayer.

God helps us be assured and keep believing when we pray, when we talk to our Father, and listen for His voice.

Tim Keller explained we were not meant to “choose between a Christian life based on truth and doctrine OR a life filled with spiritual power and experience. They go together.”

The connector of the two is prayer.

There really is “power in prayer”!

It is so much more than a bumper sticker.

Prayer is power for the battle that goes on in our minds, our doubts, and our discouragements.

And, it is in the “keep asking” work of prayer that Paul tells us, in Ephesians 1:15-19, that we find “incomparably great power for us who believe.”

As we pray, all those truths we’ve read in our Bibles become solid-ground blessing to our souls.

I love God’s Word!! But if all we ever do is study the Word, and never pray those truths, I’m convinced we are missing out!

For when we power our beliefs with prayer, supernatural things happen beyond what we could ever ask or imagine.

Our eyes are opened more fully to God’s work among us. Our hearts become more assured to be joyful always( Phil 4:4) and give thanks in all circumstances (1Thess 5:18).

And when we pray, we can remember our earthly afflictions really are preparing us for an eternal glory beyond all comparison.

Yes, prayer causes us to pause, to reset, to remember to look, not just to things that are seen, but to things unseen (2 Cor 4:17-18).

The better things and The Better One!

As the old hymn says,

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

—What a friend we have in Jesus by Joseph Scriven.

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