The Prayer Project - No. 12

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.”- Colossians 4:2 ^{New Living Translation}

            This is another verse meant as an encouragement to pray continuously. Never give up when it comes to praying. If the answer doesn’t come immediately does that mean prayer is no longer effective? Scripture says, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” ^{[James 5:16 NLT]} What does the word ‘earnest’ mean? It means “serious, sincere and/or determined”. 

            We shouldn’t be praying only out of dire need. We should be praying a prayer of thanksgiving for answered prayer or a prayer of thanks for who God is and who we are in him. There are a multitude of things we can pray for. It shouldn’t only be when things go wrong. We also shouldn’t allow our faith to die when answers don’t come in a timely fashion. It would be human nature to get tired of praying for the same thing over and over and over again. Let’s face it, we either believe God hears us and answers our prayers or we don’t. Our trust in God may be tested by delays with regards to answers to our prayers, but many times the best things don’t come to us when we want them. God knows best what is needed and exactly when it is needed most.

            Our persistence in prayer will speak loud and clear as an expression of our trust that God will answer said prayers. We are to be thankful that God exists and that he always hears us when we speak to him in prayer. If there was no God and we had to rely on our own intellect and resources we would be doomed, because our abilities are inherently inadequate. Our intellect is an acquired thing thru study and hard work, but all resources are limited, based on their original source. But we do believe in the existence of a God who creates, loves and is merciful to the point of sending his own son to, by his own actions, remove our sin permanently. There is no true freedom, no true life without God in our lives. Trust God and that trust shall be rewarded. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries