The Ability to Pray

         The older I get the more things I can't do. These are the simple things of life that were once so easy that I never even thought about them such as changing a light bulb. My two light bulbs went out over my sink in the kitchen. It requires you to stand on a step stool, reach behind the window curtain, remove the cover and change the light bulbs. My legs get a little wobbly on the stool so decided against trying to do it. The bulbs are those kind that if you break one you almost have to call a hazmat team to come and do a cleanup after you immediately leave the house. When I go down into the basement, I try to think of all the kinds of things that would requirement to go down there and do it all in one trip. I don't want to go down the steps more than once if I can help it. I can change most of the clocks except two that again require the use of the three step ladder. Anyway, my list seems to grow each day as I keep on aging. On the positive side, there are still some things that I am able to do. Acts 2:42 says, “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

        The words “pray,” “praying,” and “prayers” are mentioned over four hundred times in the Bible. Prayer is an important activity when it comes to the Christian life. Now, I don't use a set of beads of any kind when I am praying and I don't see that type of praying mentioned in the Scriptures. If anything, that type of prayer is against what God had intended in regard to prayer. We can learn much about the matter of prayer when we look at God's Word. Obviously we learn from the Lord Jesus Christ Who found it necessary to be in prayer to the Father. We also learn of devout men and women who were involved in prayer including names like Hannah, David, Solomon and the early apostles especially Paul, Peter, James and John. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us a good example of how to pray in the Lord's Prayer that we find in the Gospels. It gives us a good outline of how to pray and then we learn that the Lord Jesus Christ prayed and have John 17 recorded as one on His prayers. There is ample testimony as to how to pray and that we should pray that we have no excuse for not praying when needs arise and arise they do almost every moment of every day. When a person says, “Pray for me.” do it right then without waiting for a convenient “time of prayer.” The Apostle Paul reminded us to “pray without ceasing.” This means that we should be in prayer continually throughout the day as needs come to mind. You or myself might say, “Well, at least I can pray.” That is a good thought, but our lives should be permeated with prayer from the moment we get up until we lay down again at night. Prayers before meals is one thing that is indeed important, but it should not be the only time that we pray in any given day. So often the Scriptures remind us to “pray for one another.” Can you think of any needs of your family and friends that have asked you to pray? Have you thought of someone that needs to have prayer but you put it off or just forgot about it? Do you have a prayer list? Do you keep a prayer journal? It is sometimes advantageous for us to see how God has answered so many prayers that we have made in the past. God's answers might be “yes,”, “no” or “not yet.” He does, however, answer each and every prayer according to His will and not that of our own. While I may not be able to run up and down the basement stairs, or change the ceiling light bulbs or get the gutters cleaned from a ladder, or make long road trips, there is still one things that I can do and that is “pray.” You know what? You should be doing that even if you can do all of the other things. After all, what is more important? Praise God in prayer today for the ability to be able to pray to Him at any given moment and in any place.