“Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honors God and brings him into active aid.” -E.M. Bounds
In the Beginning… man and God had conversations. All was deemed “good” and Adam and Eve enjoyed fellowship with their Creator.
Then sin showed up and ever since the Fall, a Great Wall of sin separated man from God: that is, sin.
The two kingdoms, the Kingdom of God, adorned with righteousness, goodness, and God himself, and the Kingdom of Man, wherein darkness inhabits, sin is praised, and none seek God (Psalm 14) have been separated by this Great Wall of sin.
But the few who are chosen to choose God (Eph. 1:5-10), that Great Wall of sin is broken down, and a Door between God and man is established (John 10:9), and the key to that Door is faith in the Holy One (Rom. 1:17), Jesus Christ.
The Conqueror who broke down that Great Wall of sin is Jesus. Through his Death and Resurrection he established a New Covenant, one that “made a way” for the Kingdom of God to be established upon earth. Through Christ, the elect are reconciled to God and the hostility that separated man and God is quenched and peace reigns.
For because of salvation we now can pray! Can non-Christians pray? Sure, but God’s not listening. But for those reborn, enlivened with the Spirit of God, they can pray and God is listening! They pray with the imputation of the Holy One: so that in Christ, God now sees Christians as Jesus, and He willingly grants whatever asked in His Name.
Undoubtedly, prayer is above all, a privilege! “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?”(Deut. 4:7). We who have been saved, were once enemies of God, sinners, living in ungodliness, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Rom. 5:8).
Prayer is a means by which we receive more grace, “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith”(Matt. 21:22).
The month of May has been a stretching month, primarily because I made a longstanding commitment to pray everyday. E.M. Bounds was right, “The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it.” After this month I am truly convinced that for those who excuse that they can’t afford time to pray, quite the opposite is true; they can’t afford not to pray. Join me and make prayer your daily habit!
