Dave spoke tonight from Isaiah 62:6-7 on the importance of prayer. Prayer is not an optional extra for the Christian; it is an essential part of our life with God. In fact, all people pray (even if it’s only in times of distress), but for the Christian, prayer is as natural as breathing. Prayer changes situations and changes us; the devil works hard to keep us from prayer, for he knows the power it contains. In this passage, we are reminded that prayer needs to be persistent and fervent; we need to be the watchmen whom God appoints.
The Objective of Prayer
Our true goal in prayer must be to see the will of God accomplished (‘not my will, but Yours be done.’) In Isaiah, the objective was to see Jerusalem established and God’s glory made visible. We too need to pray to see God’s glory established (Eph 1:12), and seek to be fruitful and do good works which will honour God. God desires to see people saved and we need to seek God to know how He wants to use us in this aim.
The Provision for Prayer
God tells us He has posted watchmen on the walls whose job it was to cry out to God. We are called to remind God of His promises as we pray – not because God is forgetful and in that sense needs reminding, but because we forget those promises so often and need to remind ourselves of them. God is looking for intercessors, for people who will stand in the gap and pray for others.
The Responsibility for Prayer
God wants each one of us to become people of prayer. He has linked His will being accomplished to our prayers; why this is so or how it happens are beyond our understanding, but the truth is that God longs for us to pray. He is looking for those who will stand in the gap (Ezek 22:30) and who will learn to pray persistently (Luke 11:9-10). We have to plan to pray and must then pray so that God’s house becomes a house of prayer. This can be done individually, but there is also the need for corporate prayer. Join us on Thursday evenings to pray together and to seek God’s face.