If I try to live by a rule of thumb, I may as well say goodbye to my prayer life. God is never interested in delivering me from trouble if I am going to be delivered by natural means anyway. It is only when I dare to dream about the unheard of, and trust God for the incredible, that I begin to understand the power of prayer. “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3). Is that not an invitation to become spiritually daring? Is it not the kind of prayer giant that God loves to bless?
Prayer is the most unpredictable and unexplainable of all my spiritual responsibilities. God never promises to answer my large requests my way, only the way. A father prayed that his sons might become Christians, and God seemed to ignore that prayer. His death came with great agony and suffering. Afterward, his children said, “If Father, who was a Christian, died like that, what about us who are not Christians?” That led them all to make the very decision for which their father had prayed so long. It is the mark of trust as well as sense to leave the method of answering prayer entirely in God’s hands.
I must remember that prayer is not an option; it is a command. But do I need the command? If my tears, my shrinking strength, my stricken land, my sorrowing loved ones, my hardened neighbors, my indifferent fellow Christians, and my calloused world are not enough to drive me to my knees, there is little hope for them—or for me—as a disciple. I must immediately “call” to Him in order that He may answer with “great and mighty things, which [I] do not know.” God, enable me to call!
“Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken” (Psalm 55:22).
Daily with the King 