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Developing a Personal Prayer
Life
Wade E Taylor
Prayer should be a natural function of our everyday life,
and at the very heart of our relationship with our Lord.
Our need is not to be better informed
about the methods and principles of prayer, but rather to
be stirred to pray. Prayer is the expression of our love for,
our dependence upon, and our communion with the Lord, for
we were created to look to Him for all things.
Prayer is the means whereby this
dependence finds its expression and its completion. It is
through this union with Him in prayer that the Lord meets
our needs. Thus, prayer is at the very heart of our Christian
experience and growth.
If we are searching for some new
revelation, personality or fad to follow, we will easily be
led into some form of deception, as the foundation of our
spiritual life is not established on a personal prayer relationship
with the Lord.
When Jesus called His disciples,
He said: "Come ye after me, and I will make you (cause
you) to become fishers of men"
Matt 4:19. Note that the emphasis
is on "becoming", rather than on fishing. We are
prone to rush out and at once begin to fish, forgetting what
the Lord really said.
There must be a time of preparation,
before "fishing" can be effective. "Fishing
for men" will follow as the normal outworking of a life
of prayer and communion with the Lord. If this were practiced
as the Lord taught, most of the problems that we have in our
Christian experience would cease.
The enemy greatly opposes anyone whom he finds earnestly
praying. If possible, he would cause them to "do"
something, rather than let them alone to spend time in prayer
with the Lord. The devil knows the value of prayer,
and will seek to hinder it at all costs. The saint who is
determined to pray must discern the source of these hindrances
to prayer, and then rise above all
opposition and distraction.
At this critical hour in which
we live, the Lord is calling His people to serious prayer.
Throughout the Body of Christ, the glitter and charisma of
personalities and special ministries is fading. At the same
time, the door of the prayer closet is opening wider for those
who desire something more from the Lord, and are willing to
enter and pray.
"But
you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have
shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret: and
your Father which seeth in secret
shall reward you openly" Matt
6:6. It is here that the battle must be won. All
else has failed to bring the Body of Christ to its desired
maturity.
Comparing Isaiah 50:4 with Mark 1:35 reveals to us that
Jesus began each day in prayer alone with His Father. His
disciples noticed this, and were stirred with the desire to
pray. "And it came to
pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He
ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord teach us
to pray" Luke 11:1.
The answer that He gave to them
was very easy to understand: "When you pray, say..."
In other words, Jesus said to them, "You do not need
to be taught how to pray, but you are to pray. You will learn to pray by praying."
Prayer
is not our telling the Lord what we think He should do,
and all the wonderful things that would happen if only He
would do as we ask. Real prayer begins when we enter into
such communion with Him, that the Holy Spirit can pray the
will of the Father through us.
This
is a discerning and a taking hold of the willingness of the
Lord, not us in our flesh seeking to overcome His reluctance.
He may reluctantly give us something that we continually press
Him for, to our own hurt. Note the children of Israel
who pressed Him for meat, rather than being satisfied with
the Manna that He had provided. He gave them quail, but Scripture
tells us that it brought "leanness" to their souls.
There are no shortcuts or push-button methods of entering
into His presence. "Prayer" means spending quality
time with the Lord.
When the Lord's people come to
an understanding of the value of this place of prayer and
communion with Him, they will be on their way to a life of
fruitfulness in His purposes.ve
