“POTENTIAL AND PRAYER” By John Gipson

“Men ought always to pray” (Luke 18:1) said Jesus. It is more than a privilege; it is an obligation. But evidently Jesus was aware of some power in prayer than many of us have overlooked, for He prayed always. Just think of it: He was without sin; the only begotten Son of God; clothed with power; yet He prayed constantly. Jesus prayed: after baptism…..during His personal ministry…..in the garden of Gethsemane…..and as He hung upon the cross.

There is no question about it. Jesus believed in prayer! To Him, God is the Father and responds as a Father would to his children. In explaining this to His disciples He said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?”

Yet despite the preaching and practice of Jesus, not many of us are “battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer.” We tend to cynically ask, “Why should we serve the Almighty? What is the good of us praying to Him? (Job 21:15, Moffatt) Permit Jesus to answer the question:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8, RSV).

What ever you ask in My name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:13-14,RSV).

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith (Matthew 21:22, RSV).

If you abide in me, and my words in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7, RSV).

The next time you are tempted to think of prayer as just so much wasted motions, remember the words of Jesus.

Borrowed from John Gipson of Little Rock, Arkansas