Monday Morning Devotion-July 29, 2024
Prayers Never Die
Your prayers and gifts to the poor have not gone unnoticed by God. Acts 10:4
Welcome to Monday Morning Devotion #998. Incredible as it may seem, in this changing world we live in, with two more devotions we will celebrate our 1,000th Devotion on this website. It all started in 2005 and we have been posting a devotion each Monday for 19+ years. We have been truly blessed to share these Biblical lessons and personal stories with faithful readers from many countries. I say “we” because my wife, The Lovely Susette, has been with me, reading and editing these devotions all the way.
I thought it might be fun to share some of the devotions that were read by the most people on this journey. So, this week we are sharing the devotion read by the 10th largest number of people in a week’s time. Each week we will share another of the top 10, word for word as it was posted, and countdown to number one.
So, get ready. Here comes the weekly devotion read by the 10th largest number of people. “Prayers Never Die.” It was read by 3,123 persons during the week of October 27,2014.
Prayers Never Die
In a previous devotion I brought up the fact that our church, Good Samaritan UMC, has embarked on a churchwide prayer journey using as its basis a book called "Draw the Circle" by Mark Batterson.
Each day when I get up, I can't wait to rush into our library (grabbing a cup of coffee along the way) and read what will be revealed to me that day. Then after reading and (SOAP journaling) the message I have a few minutes of "centering prayer." I can't tell you how much this has transformed my mornings and prepared me for the day.
So, I have felt constrained to share, from time to time, some of the more striking prayer devotions in my weekly devotions so you may benefit from the author's wisdom as well and maybe even feel compelled to get a copy of the book as well.
Prayer has always played a special role in my life. I couldn't begin, in a short devotion, to reveal the many, many ways that God has honored my prayers and blessed my life through answers to them.
I've read many books on prayer, attended group studies on it, heard many great prayers---some simple, some complex and have heard and prayed short prayers and long prayers. Needless to say, for me to find something completely new about prayer is unusual.
This is not to say that the Lord does not continue to bless me in new and often dramatic ways through my prayer life. God is full of surprises and in one of the chapters of the book it recommends sometimes just asking the Heavenly Father to surprise you.
But today I was struck by this idea. "Our prayers never die! When we pray our prayers exit all four dimensions of space-time. Our prayers have no space or time limitations because the God who answers them exists outside of the four dimensions He created. You never know when His timeless answer will reenter the atmosphere of our lives, and that should fill us with holy anticipation. Never underestimate His ability to answer anytime, anyplace, anyhow. He has infinite answers to our finite prayers. He can answer them more than once. And answers them forever. "
Double Wow! How incredible is that? Stop for a minute and just think about it. Maybe even read that paragraph again because as you can see it's not my original thoughts but is directly quoted from the aforementioned book.
Think prayer isn't a powerful tool? Wrong! It is. Maybe the power of prayer gets underestimated because it is so easy to do. You can pray anywhere. Sitting down, standing up, lying down or a powerful way to pray---on your knees.
Maybe that's why the value of having a strong prayer life gets underestimated. It's too easy. To accomplish big things in life you must struggle, take big actions, study, research, learn and put in hours of hard work. Wrong! Prayer is an effortless exercise.
The only thing required is Faith. If you have faith that God will hear and answer your prayers, He will! It is as simple as that.
Sure, sometimes the answer is different than expected. And I must confess that sometimes these, uh, surprises were so much better than I had anticipated I feel almost like apologizing to the Lord for praying so "small."
The key is to enter into God's presence in your prayer life and just ask Him to show you how He wants you to do it. Sometimes a new idea will pop into your mind immediately upon doing this. It's God's instant answer although you might think you dreamed it up yourself because He works without a lot of fanfare many times in our life.
I love this next paragraph from the book. "Like a parent who collects their children's elementary art and displays it prominently on a refrigerator door, the Heavenly Father loves our prayers. Each one is a keepsake. Each one functions like a memorial that jogs the memory of the Almighty." Neat, huh?"
Well, if you like that picture how about the following paragraph. "If our prayers are that precious to God, shouldn't they be more significant to us? Aren't they worth collecting like the snapshots in a family photo album? Shouldn't they be treated with respect and dignity?"
There was a Roman army officer named Cornelius who was a devout man and strong believer in God. The Bible says that Cornelius "gave generously to charity and was a man who regularly prayed to God. "
God said to Cornelius, through a messenger (an angel) that he had noticed his kindness, how he gave to the poor and wanted him to know that his prayers had not gone unnoticed.
What the angel told Cornelius next comes vividly alive in my mind because of our trip to the Holy Land earlier this year.
The angel told Cornelius to send some men down to Joppa (now known as Jaffa). We visited Jaffa and saw the house where Simon Peter stayed, on visits, at the house of Simon, the tanner. It is on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. About 30 miles from Caesarea. The modern city of Tel Aviv was founded on the outskirts of Jaffa.
The men brought Peter back to the home of Cornelius in Caesarea. When he arrived, it became evident this was a man sent by God and was the answer to the prayers of Cornelius.
Through this visit, in answer to a prayer of faith, Peter was able to share the Gospel message with Cornelius, a Gentile, as the Lord began to pave the way for the Gentiles to learn about Jesus and what Christianity was all about.
To sum this up: "Our prayers don't die when we do. God answers them forever."
Monday Prayer: Lord thank you for the way you continue to bless and use our prayer life to accomplish great and mighty things. Amen!