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The great promise of prayer – Part 1

By Pastor W. F. Kumuyi
01 December 2019   |   4:12 am
The Lord Jesus Christ was without doubt, the greatest communicator ever. His words were usually simple but sublime. As with the passage, we are reading today, Christ’s statements are not words...

Kumuyi

The Lord Jesus Christ was without doubt, the greatest communicator ever. His words were usually simple but sublime. As with the passage, we are reading today, Christ’s statements are not words to hurriedly read and forget. They are words that open our eyes to heaven’s provision and they disclose the great storehouse from which all our needs for spirit, soul and body are supplied.

Learning from the Lord on prayer as declared in these verses, living as He has taught and practising the precepts without wavering, will bring the supernatural into our natural lives and open both the windows and gate of heaven to us. These verses will make the present and the future much brighter than the past, however, bright the past has been.

Praying to God has been a common practice since the creation of man. Both saints and sinners have always prayed. However, prayer had become a ritual among the heathen and a religious duty among the Israelites (Matthew 6:5-8). Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the world, now throws light on the great privilege of praying.

Christ clears the way to the Father and removes all misconceptions concerning prayer. He lifts us up from the dark lane of beggars pleading for crumbs to the blessed presence of the Father, confidently asking for promised blessings. He has taken away the seat and place of an intermediary and He beckons us to come directly to the Father. He gives each of us a special place in the family and clears the way for us so we can now all ask and receive, seek and find, and knock and gain access to the treasure store of heaven. God has made all-embracing promises to all those who seek God through prayer.

“Seek, and ye shall find. He that seeketh findeth.” Seeking is used in the sense of praying, as the scriptures quoted above show. Praying in ignorance is like seeking for a precious object hidden in the dark. We must turn on the light so we can see clearly while we seek diligently (Luke 15:8,9). Ignorance of the promises of God, the Fatherhood of the merciful and loving God, the faithfulness of God as Father, the relationship of sonship to the heavenly Father, keep us from seeking with faith that cannot be denied (Romans 9:31,32).

God’s promises for all true children of God who pray to Him and seek His face, are all-encompassing. The promises are many and varied; they provide for both our natural and spiritual needs. Our common needs as well as special or peculiar needs are all provided for. Early in life or late in life, when we are young or when we are growing old, even at death when changing our earthly address to an eternal residence, appropriate promises abound. In company of people or in solitude, in the family or in widowhood, while sick or healthy, weak or strong, in adversity or prosperity, in all situations or circumstances, God’s promises are ours to experience.

Circumstances should not embitter our lives when God is our Father as He has thought of all things we would ever need in our pilgrimage until we see Him face to face in heaven. Read the Bible and see the promises. Note the conditions attached to the promises. Keep those conditions as patients keep to the doctor’s prescription. Believe God as much as you believe a loving and faithful earthly father. In fact, you ought to believe God more than any human friend or father. Trust God implicitly without any shadow of doubt. Seek and you will find; pray and God will answer.

Further Reading (King James Version): Matthew 7:7-11; Matthew 7:7,8; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Jeremiah 29:11-13; Ezra 8:21-23; 2 Chronicles 20:1-4, 14-24; Daniel 9:3,4,20-22; Psalms 34:10-19; 69:32-36; 77:1-12; Zechariah 8:21-23.

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