Imitators of Christ

Rachel Hauck
Church on the Rock - Melbourne

Why pray? I mean, isn’t God sovereign? What can our weak words do? How can we effect the mind and plans of the living God?

That is small thinking. Even wrong thinking. Prayer is the one thing Jesus demonstrated over and over. Prayer is how we get to know the love and heart of the Father. Perhaps, His sovereign will is that we pray, partnering with Him for His kingdom to come onearth as it is in heaven. The outcome of our life and political, economical and social situations may very well be determined by the prayers of the Elect. You and me.

Jesus said, “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” He said to the people, “It is written, ‘AND MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER,’ but you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN.”

House of Prayer. Jesus wants us, His dwelling place, to be a house of prayer. Individually and corporately. Even now, Jesus the God-Man is “…able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Heb 7:25 Jesus lives to make intercession for us. If He’s seeking the Father on our behalf, how can we do less?

Psalm 72 talks about the Righteous King during His Millennial reign. Here’s what verse 15 says, “So may he live, and may the gold of Sheba be given to him; 
And let them pray for him continually; 
Let them bless him all day long.” We will be engaged in intercession for and to Jesus in the age to come. How critical it is in this life to learn the attributes, attitudes and construct of prayer. Prayer is hard. No doubt. It’s a discipline.

Shelley Hundley talks about coming to the Lord in those hard, dark times in her book, Cry for Justice. “…only during my life time on the earth do I have the opportunity to impact the heart of God in the midst of darkness, accusation and blindness. I have a chance only today to love Him in the midst of my current hardship, for this is when my heart feels nothing and sees nothing, but still I move in love toward the One I cannot see. And His heart is most undone. I feel nothing but He feels everything.” We want prayer to be easy, to be about “me.” But prayer is about Him. And in His great mercy and kindness, He called us to partner with Him in love and to work to bring His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Let’s not have a temporal but eternal attitude of prayer. Kind of like saving money. Most of us want money when we retire from our jobs, but find it hard to not spend and save now. But if we would just set aside so much money per paycheck, and leave it alone, no matter what, over time, we will see the fruit of our labor. Same with diet and exercise. Or any life discipline. Guarding our tongue. Controlling our emotions. It’s easy to do when we are feed, rested, satisfied, happy, when life is going our way. Harder when we are famished, tired, weary, feeling beat up by the world.

Prayer connects us with heaven. With the heart of God. Prayer changes us. Let’s not stand before Him one day and give an account for a prayerless life.