Daily Devotional For Thursday, March 27, 2025
Good morning Southside. Prayer is an important part of our relationship with Christ. While most Christians know this, surveys sadly reveal that the most common time of prayer for most Christians is saying grace or the blessing at meals. And even with that, it seems that it is more of a ritual or like an item on a “To Do List” that gets checked off.
Prayer is as essential to the Christian soul and spirit as breath is to our physical bodies. Prayer is God’s gift to us. It’s a gift, which means it's FREE! Free as the air we breathe. Most people love things that are free, so why is this free gift often ignored, rejected or not received? Probably because most people, including many Christian are so self-sufficient they do not think in practice they really need God for the day-to-day things. God is for the big ticket items, but prayer is simply a conversation we have with our heavenly Father.
The Apostle Paul wrote this in Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving” (NASB). Being an advocate for the Kingdom of God does not require a theology degree or a platform with a microphone. You simply have to be able to say to someone, “Let’s pray!” and follow it with a one-sentence prayer and an amen. For example, if your neighbor shares their concern for a parent’s health, say, “Let’s pray.”
Then bow your head and say, “Lord, please give my friend’s parent’s health and strength today. Amen.” This works in a company break room or boardroom. It works while sitting in bleachers or standing in a produce aisle. I can only imagine the spiritual breakthroughs we would witness if followers of Jesus became willing to intercede for their friends, neighbors, and coworkers in this way. People would begin to wonder why you care about their problems, and you would have an opportunity to tell them about the love of Jesus and what He means to you. People would change. Churches would change. Then, communities would change. Let’s do it! Let’s pray!
Prayer was so important to Jesus that He did it early every morning of HIs life. Look at Mark 1:35, “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there” (NASB). The Greek structure in this verse lets us know that this was a spiritual habit for Jesus. If Jesus needed to do this, how much should we? We need to pray. We do, but do you believe that for yourself? Someone years ago took the word pray and made it an acrostic of it: P = Praise, R = Repent, A = Ask, and Y = Yield.
This is a great way to pray. We first focus on who God is – holy. We then second focus on who we are – sinners. Third, we focus on what we are not – totally self-sufficient. Fourth, we focus on what we are to do – submit, surrender to our Lord. The Apostle Paul reminds us to alway be in an attitude of prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing” (NASB). Jesus taught us how to pray in The Lord’s Prayer or now called The Disciples’ Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.
I hope and pray you are beyond prayers of grace and “Now I lay be down to sleep . . .” prayers. Many people view prayer similar to rubbing a genie bottle, out pops the genie, God in this case, and you get your 3 wishes. They see prayer more as God meeting our needs without us conforming to His will for our lives. In a recent research, researchers found this very true with Millennials and Gen-Z. Read below:
“Researcher Christian Smith's book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, concludes that many young American adults have a faith characterized by "moralistic, therapeutic deism." According to this view of God, if we live good lives and if we're kind to others, then God will provide "therapeutic benefits" to us like self-esteem and happiness. Other than that, God is not involved much in our world.
This view of God has a profound effect on prayer. Smith found that American teens personally prayed frequently; 40 percent prayed daily or more, and only 15 percent said they never prayed. However, their motivation for prayer largely focused on meeting their own needs. Some of the teens interviewed said: "If I ever have a problem, I go pray." "It helps me deal with problems. … it calms me down for the most part." "Praying just makes me feel more secure, like there's something there helping me out." "I would say prayer is an essential part of my success."
But Smith also found that many young Americans' prayers lacked any sense of repentance or adoration. Smith writes, "This is not a religion of repentance from sin." Again, Smith concludes that this "distant God" is "not demanding … because his job is to solve problems and make people feel good. There is nothing here to evoke wonder and admiration” (Source: Adapted from Tim Keller, Prayer, p. 294).
Praying invites the Creator of Heaven and Earth into our lives and circumstances. When we pray with others, it displays our trust in God and that we believe He is willing to intervene and help them. And when we pray with repentance before asking and when we pray yielding, then God will do more than we could ever possibly dream, think or ask.
Questions To Consider
- How active is your prayer life from “grace” at meals? Why?
- What are your challenges to prayer? Do you ever deal with these challenges?
- Do you live a life that conveys you believe you are more self-sufficient or do you live a life that shows you are totally dependent on God through prayer?
- When you do pray, are your prayers more like “rubbing a genie in a bottle” or do you confess your sins, repent from your sins, and ask God to show you where you need to yield to Him?
- If you talked to every single person the same length you talk to God, how deep and intimate would your relationships be? What does this say to you about your relationship with God? What and when are you going to change about it?
Scripture To Meditate On: Romans 12:12, “Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Heavenly Father, thank You for calling me to be an advocate for Your Kingdom. Give me eyes to see the people around me who need Your help and healing—then help me to be diligent to pray with them and invite You into their circumstances. Lord, help me to follow the P.R.A.Y. acrostic in my prayer life. Please convict me to talk to You daily about everything. I don’t want to just say, `I love You,’ if I am not going to follow it by spending time with You In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly