A GODWARD MOTIVATION FOR PRAYER:
HE HEARS AND ACTS WHEN HIS PEOPLE PRAY
When we cry out in prayer, God Himself– Creator, Sustainer, Life-giver, Life-taker– puts Himself within range of our voice. He does so not only in a way that is glorious and mighty (though He certainly is) but also in a way that is humble and truly offers us an inheritance and relationship beyond what we could ever dream. Thomas Brooks illuminates this characteristic of our Lord in the context of His wrestlings with Jacob, how He wrestled and because Jacob clung to him, found blessing and was forever changed by the Lord. He wrote of it this way:
When lovers wrestle, the strongest is willing enough to take a fall from the weakest; and so it was here. The father, in wrestling with his child, is willing enough, for his child’s comfort and encouragement, to take a fall now and then; and so it was between the angel and Jacob in the present case. Now in this blessed story, you may see the great power and prevalency of private prayer; it conquers the great conqueror…
Is our Father limited or somehow held captive by our prayers? Not in the slightest! But is He moved by them? Does He sometimes relent out of love? Mysteriously, it seems so. Why, then, do we not pound the door of Heaven day and night? The God of Heaven hears!
Sadly, our lack of desire and our lack of discipline keeps us from regular, deep communion with the Father. View article…
