Too often we downgrade the importance of prayer. “We can’t do anything but pray”, you hear people saying. What? When we pray, we invite God to step into our problems, into our lives. When God gets into the equation, anything is possible. Like Oswald Chambers has said “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. (James 5:16, MSG)

Today I want to dig even a little deeper. What if praying fervently was the key task of every disciple? What if only by praying we could further the Kingdom of God? What if John Wesley was right saying “God does nothing except in response to believing prayer”?

Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. (Phil 1:20, MSG)

What if praying was sowing? If praying was sowing, the mission work would be ours, not just delegated to some professionals. If praying was sowing, we’d better get on with our task. If no one is sowing, there won’t be any harvest!

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth. Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God. (1 Timothy 2:1-8, MSG, emphasis added)

What if we could change the world if we just kept sowing generously? If we can change the world by sowing generously and praying fervently, we are not taking our tasks seriously enough. If no one is sowing by praying, we are not doing what we are supposed to be doing.

Prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out. (Eph.6:18, MSG)

Brothers and sisters, let’s take praying seriously. Let’s sow generously! Let’s commit ourselves to learn what it means to live in prayer. That we’d bring Jesus wherever we go in our prayers. That we’d pray without ceasing. That every breath we take would be for God’s glory.

 

Gracious God,
Forgive us for not praying enough.
Forgive us for not sowing generously.
Forgive us for not knowing how to live in prayer.
Teach us
how to live in prayer,
how to sow generously,
how to embrace your grace so completely
that it would be you living in us,
praying and sowing through us.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Are you ready to commit your life to learn what it means to live in prayer?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you sow generously and pray fervently!

Giving thanks today for
#591 the gift of prayer
#592 the connection with God Almighty
#593 God’s patience to wait us to take praying seriously
#594 the call to work with God through prayer
#595 praying being sowing
#596 standing invitation for God to move in my life
#597 it’s not about our lack of abilities but about God’s power
#598 we can be sowing everywhere through prayer
#599 God does respond to our prayers
#600 we can never overestimate the power of prayer
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Image courtesy of Daniel R. Linking up today with Linking up today with What’s on Your Heart Tuesdays ,  Wordfilled Wednesday, All Things Heart & Home , God-Bumps and God-incidences , Work in Progress .