Many books have been written and dedicated to prayer and there is much to be learned from prayer.
Prayer- being spiritual is hard to explain and reading many books on prayer has not made the journey any easier for me. What I have learned, is that from saints of earlier times relied on prayer and spent much time in prayer and in the Word of God.
Much can be written, discussed, and debated about prayer. I’m not going to try to expound to a degree of depth of any sorts on prayer. Much debate can be said about How, When, Where, Posture, and a big one, How long.
Why does God seem to answer some prayers and not others, can we change God’s mind by seeking and praying enough, do we pray once about something or keep asking?????
As I said, learning from and reading about past spiritual leaders of whom God used mightily, who seemed to have a unique and close relationship to God, has helped me more than reading “about” prayer.
Luther, Muller, and Tozer to name a few, relied heavily on prayer and also much time devoted to it. To say I don’t need it or rely on it seems to me a bit arrogant. Much can be learned from Godly men and women now gone, but living on in spirit and influence.
I desire to have a close fellowship with God, to really KNOW Christ, and commune with the Holy Spirit. To say that can be done by spending a few minutes a day in that communion, to me seems presumptuous. If you don’t agree, that’s fair, we each have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
I just know if I am going to pursue a human relationship, say with one of the opposite sex with intents for marriage. I don’t think that relationship would grow or become very deep by spending five minutes a day with that person, do you?
Another way to look at it. If you are a student in college or your specific job calls for study and further education. If you put little time into studying or research, what do you expect to get out of it?
You may say, that is different, I have to study for school or work. So why is it different? What is more important to you, your career or relationship with God?????
This is taken from a biography on A.W. Tozer titled, A Passion for God. One I have just finished reading. This is from pg. 121.
“Although the author never boasted about his devotional habits, those few who knew him well knew that the angular man with little formal schooling learned much about his Lord and his God in the secret place. Tozer spent incalculable hours in prayer. Most of his prolonged prayer time- with his Bible and hymnals as his only companions- took place in his church office on the back side of the second floor. He would carefully hang up his suit trousers and don his sweater and raggedy old “prayer pants” and sit for a while on his ancient office couch. After a time his spirit would drift into another realm. In time, he would abandon the couch, get on his knees, and eventually lie face down on the floor, singing praises to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah....
pg. 122.
Spiritually alert Christians said the the “bouquet of the Holy Spirit” was all over Tozer. Others used different rhetoric, saying that he had the “sacred anointing” or that is was evident “he had been with Jesus.” Tozer never denied that he spent many hours in prayer out of his increasingly demanding schedule. On the contrary, he maintained that anyone who wanted to know Christ better and love Him more must devote more time to closet prayer.”
pg. 146.
“That this modern prophet was genuinely humble, even if his methods could be acerbic can be seen in his dedication to prayer. Tozer took Jesus Christ seriously when He said, ‘whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.’ To guard against a ministry with works that appear successful yet are fruitless, Tozer did only what he knew could keep him in a place to abide- that is, he spent increasing time in the Scriptures and in prayer. As the years passed Tozer increased his daily time in Bible reading and prayer- at once meditating on the Scriptures, praising the One who inspired them, seeking God’s help in writing words with the power to transform souls, and applying truth to everyday life. E.M. Bounds once said that a preacher who prays little is prideful because he thinks he can minister out of his own strength. Conversely, if an awareness of the need to pray is evidence of at least a modicum of humility, Tozer certainly manifested it.”
Quote from C.S. Lewis as he sums up the drama of human history as one “in which the scene and general outline of the story is fixed by the author, but certain minor details are left for the actors to improvise. It may be a mystery why He should have allowed us to cause real events at all; but it is no odder that He should allow us to cause them by praying than by any other method.” Prayer is a designated instrument of God’s power, as real and as “natural” as any other power God may use.
To sum up I will leave you with this quote from one of Tozer’s best selling little books, called “The Knowledge of the Holy”
Chapter 1 pg. 1. “ What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
Blessing, R.B.
