The Principles of Prayer XVII

 Understanding the magnitude, grandeur, majesty, power, authority, and omnipotence of the God we serve should, by all accounts, make us see prayer and the ability to commune with Him in a whole new light. When we get a glimpse of who God is, we are eager to spend more time with Him. We see it as the honor that it is, as the priceless grace He bestows upon those He calls His own, and not as a chore, a burden, or something we would rather skip on a given day if we had the choice.

You’re not calling customer support and getting someone with a thick Indian accent on the other end who doesn’t understand English all that well. You are having dialogue with the God of heaven, the Creator of all that is seen and unseen, the One who spoke the universe into being. That reality alone should make us hunger for time alone with Him. It should make us prioritize prayer in such a way that we allow nothing to stand in the way of having that experience, not once in a while, but daily, even multiple times a day.

How is it that people get more tongue-tied and starry-eyed when they see an actor, an athlete, or a favorite musician in real life than they do about the prospect of speaking one-on-one with the God of the universe? Why is it people will stand in line, brave the cold, and pay their hard earned money to watch grown men throw a ball at each other while others are trying to tackle them to the ground, but when discussion of having prayer time comes around, they’re always busy, have prior commitments, or just can’t fit it into the schedule?

Men prioritize what they treasure, and treasure what they prioritize. That in itself is an indictment against much of today’s church, because what we are prioritizing is anything other than the simple practices, such as consistent prayer, that are proven to grow and build us. They are deemed too dull, obsolete, old-fashioned, and outdated, but try as they might to put a new spin on a proven practice, their results are demonstrably lacking.

If you can’t match the success of those who came before you by doing something new, then perhaps it’s time to swallow your pride and go back to the drawing board, acknowledging that different isn’t always better, and some things that have worked for millennia have stood the test of time because there is nothing that can replace them that offer the same results.

When we come before God in prayer, we must be fully aware of who it is we are praying to. God’s people perish for lack of knowledge, but that knowledge has everything to do with the nature and character of God, and not whether planetary alignments bring about greater natural disasters. It is the knowledge of Him that God is referring to. His people perish because they do not know Him, and the truth of this statement is ever more apparent with each passing day.

How can one place their full faith and trust in someone they do not know? How can someone serve and obey someone they only have a tangential understanding of? Men wander from truth, return to the darkness, and dismiss God’s commands because they have no fear of the Lord. They have no fear of the Lord because the reality of who He is has not crystallized in their minds and hearts.

Knowing who you’re dealing with in any given situation will determine the actions you will undertake. We’ve all encountered the videos where fake tough guys eventually run into a real tough guy, not knowing that the person they’re disrespecting, antagonizing, and trying to pick a fight with, punches men in the face for a living. They find out soon enough when they go too far, and that seemingly mild-mannered individual who was just trying to mind his own business snaps, and they’re staring at the clouds from the fetal position, not knowing how they got there.

When you show more respect to the night shift manager at Walmart than you do to God, who sent His only begotten Son that you may be reconciled to Him, it reveals the limited understanding you have of Him.

The modern-day church narrative of God being your buddy, your pal, or some grandfatherly figure just waiting on you to visit so He can spoil you with candies and treats until you get bored with Him has done incalculable damage within the body. The fear of the Lord has become a rare thing, and knowing that it is the beginning of wisdom, the level of ignorance is no surprise.

Although we have easier access to everything under the sun, we are the most intellectually stunted generation ever to walk the earth, and the next generation will be even more so. Knowing next to nothing yet thinking we know everything is a toxic brew that leaves us unteachable, unmalleable, and beyond correction. Even when God declares and commands that we pursue Him with all our hearts, and that He will accept nothing less than our all, we wave it off as though it were a mere suggestion, or that His command did not extend to us.

That’s for everyone else. We’re special, though. The little people need to spend time in prayer. The peons need to spend time in the Word. We are beyond all that, don’t you know? All we have to do is hum along to Hillsong for a few minutes every other week, and we’re good.

It’s no mystery why the spiritual condition of the contemporary church is where it is. It’s not as though we can’t piece together the clues and come to a reasonable conclusion as to why this has occurred. We have strayed from the tried and true precepts of the gospel in search of other things, newer things, different things, and are now coming to realize that there is no replacing the pillars and foundational tenets of what is required for spiritual growth.

Posted on 3 May 2025 | 11:29 am