1 Thessalonians 1:2
2 We give thanks [eucharisteo] to God [theos] always [pantote] for [peri] you [humon] all, [pas] making [poieo] mention [mneia] of you [humon] in [epi] our [hemon] prayers; [proseuche] KJV-Interlinear
2 We give thanks to God always
for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; NASB
When times are good,
prayers are as absent as rains in the desert.
And when times grow worse, then prayers are as empty clouds in the
middle of a famine.
This is due to the lack
of knowledge, the lack of understanding, and the lack of wisdom in people who
have failed in their spiritual lives.
When times are good, the
spiritual learning process should be intensified such that the bad times will
be avoided or postponed. And then when times grow worse, then prayers will
cause a flood of relief, shortening the bad times and restoring the good.
One of the missing
links in the spiritual lives of most folks, is their prayer abilities. Failing to learn Bible doctrine, means
failing to develop prayer skills.And
failing to learn prayer skills, means a short-circuited spiritual life.
All prayer must be
offered while one is in fellowship.The
fellowship status exists when you confess your sins to God the Father. Any prayers offered while out of fellowship
is like an empty rain cloud.No benefit
comes from it.
All prayer must be
directed to God the Father.He is the
only authorized recipient of prayer.
Prayers are never offered to Jesus, never offered to any human
being.Certainly never offered to Mary,
or Joseph, or ancestors, or angels, or animals, or fish, or birds, or natures
forces, or suns, or moons, or planets, or anything else.
All prayer must be
consistent with Bible doctrine.You cannot
be disobedient in doctrine, and expect answers to prayers. Repeat, you cannot be disobedient in
doctrine, and expect answers to prayers.
God has roles for us all, and in those roles, we must look first to Gods will, and not our own.
When your eyes are on
your own ideas, when your eyes are on your own prejudices, when your eyes are
on human enticements, human controls, human endeavors, human desires, then your
prayers will be empty and useless.
You must first seek
God.And you accomplish that by pursuing
a daily Bible study, by learning Bible doctrine, by applying doctrine to your
daily life, by understanding Gods principles, and by coming into possession of
Gods wisdom through that learning process.
You must learn Gods purpose for your life, and the role He has set out
for you in your life.Charting your own
course will get you nothing but disaster.
One of your mandates
from God is to pray.Prayer is the
artillery of the spiritual life.Without
artillery fire from a distance, no enemy can be defeated when in close. And anything that lacks Bible doctrine is the
enemy of God, and the enemy of your spiritual life.
Man is but a speck of
dust, and dust cannot defeat anything.
However God gave us prayer, and through prayer, everything can be
accomplished through the power of God.
Now the most important
aspect of prayer.It must be offered
through Christ.We have no access to the
Father except through Christ, and therefore, only believers have the right to
prayer, and only believers in fellowship will be heard.
Your prayer life is the
ship that remains afloat in troubled seas, and this life is trouble from birth
until death.
Therefore, prayer must
be daily and nightly and as often as you can muster your thoughts. Prayers do not have to be lengthy, nor even
in writing, nor even voiced into spoken words.
The best and most powerful of prayers are those which are spoken from
the heart in the silence of your own thoughts.
People do not need to hear your prayers.
Only God needs to hear them.
We had a study some
time ago regarding Moses holding up his arms.
When the arms were held high, the battle went well for the Israelites.
When his arms became weary and began to fall, the battle did not go so well. Your prayers are your arms held high. Pray and pray often and keep on praying while in
fellowship and while in obedience to Gods will for your life, and your
spiritual life and your life will go well.
Slip away from this practice and your life will slip into difficult
times if not defeat.
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