REASONS TO PRAY

By Rick Mathes

Luke 11:1 And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

Before I surrendered to Christ you literally would have to break my legs for me to kneel to anything or anyone. Now I look for excuses to pray and I openly plead with others to join me.

It all begins at the altar of worship. I’m not talking about the entertainment shows I call Kentucky Fried Christianity. I’m talking about those quiet moments when you are all alone and you are overcome by our Creator Redeemer who even had the mind and genius to paint our sky blue and the earth green with foliage. I owe my very heartbeat to His grace and mercy and have every reason to prostrate myself before Him and worship His holy name and Triune Being.

This joyful praise is really an open confession of our freedom from the clutches of the devil. Truly you are Satan’s trash that has been converted to our Lord’s treasure.

What did John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, and Paul preach in their first sermon? That’s right! Repentance! Sin killed our precious Jesus. Before you were saved you were not “able to not sin.” Since you received the Holy Spirit, you are now “able to not sin.” The sin you have is the sin you want because if you didn’t want the sin more than you do want the sin, you wouldn’t have it. Duhhh!

Faith is the pipe that His saving grace flows through. It’s like we have an umbilical cord from us attached to Him for His living Word to feed us. It’s all a matter of our prayer making intercession with Him. This special communion escapes words as does the experience of love or contentment.

The bottom line is like a child and his father. We are encouraged to bring our requests before Him. He is a loving “Daddy” that has His arms open wide to receive you and all your baggage. He is always available to take time with you and never tires of blessing His children of the promise that bend their knee to Him.