The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Always To Pray"
Part 1 - The Greatest Pray-er
"He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).
Why ought we pray always? Eternity will not fully answer that question. However, some answers present themselves to our hearts and mind, rays of light that must increasingly illuminate the path upon which we walk with God.
First, who declared that we "ought always to pray?" The Lord Jesus Christ uttered the words, the greatest pray-er who ever lived. God the Son, in His human incarnation as the son of man, realized His need for God the Father and prayed accordingly. "The Son can do nothing of Himself… the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works… I live by the Father" (John 5:19; John 14;10; John 6:57). In His humanity, the Lord Jesus recognized His calling to live not by His own devices, but by the leading and enabling of His Father. He prayed accordingly, and His counsel that we must always pray proceeded from His own experience of need, and even more, of His Father's faithfulness to provide. "I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living" (Psalm 142:5).
Allow me to state the obvious: if the Lord Jesus Christ required His Father's provision, and if He accessed such faithful leading and enabling by prayer, how much do we require the same? "Walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6). In fact, God grants to all believers a special dispensation of grace that makes such a special response of faith possible:
"Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).
How vital is prayer? So much that our Father made provision for our communion with Himself by sending the Spirit of His praying Son into our hearts when we believed. Indeed, of all that human hearts and minds cannot do independently (which is everything, actually), prayer may well serve as the first and most significant. "We know not what we should pray for for as we ought" (Romans 8:26). Only through the leading and enabling of the Holy Spirit can we commune with God in a manner "effectual, fervent, and that "availeth much" (James 5:16). So much hinges upon this high and holy calling that our Father sent the praying Christ to dwell within our spirits so that we may be His praying sons and daughters.
Such grace tells us much about why we "ought always to pray." Knowing that we possess no inherent inclination or ability for communion with Himself, God provided for us by way of the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, and the imparting of the Holy Spirit to our hearts. Yes, "I can do all things through Christ which strengheneth me" involves prayer no less than any other spiritual endeavor (Philippians 4:13). What a gift, which bears witness to the enormity of the responsibility. We ought to pray because our Lord suffered, was forsaken, and died on the cross to pave our pathway to the only Heavenly throne we can possibly approach. "Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16; emphasis added). Moreover, we ought to pray because the Spirit of Christ will lead us in our praying as we trust Him. He dwells within us for the task, and He will not fail us as "ought to pray" finds fulfillment in the power to pray through the living and enabling presence of the greatest Pray-er who ever lived.
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit."
(Ephesians 6:18)
Tomorrow - "Not To Faint"
Weekly Memory Verse
I will go in the strength of the Lord my God.
(Psalm 71:16).
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