WHY IS IT HARD FOR CHRISTIANS TO PRAY?

David Wilkerson Today
A Ministry of World Challenge

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2013

WHY IS IT HARD FOR CHRISTIANS TO PRAY?
by David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 - April 27, 2011]

Scripture makes it clear that the answer to everything in our lives is prayer
mixed with faith. The apostle Paul writes, "Be careful (anxious) for nothing;
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6). Paul is telling us, "Seek
the Lord about every area of your life and thank Him ahead of time for hearing
you!"

Paul emphasizes that we are always to pray first and not as a last
resort—going to our friends first, then to a pastor or counselor, and finally
ending up on our knees. Jesus tells us, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and
his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew
6:33). We are to go to the Lord first!

Our ministry receives heartrending letters from multitudes of broken
Christians. Families are breaking up; people who walked faithfully with Christ
for years are living in fear and defeat. Each of these people has been overcome
by something—sin, depression, worldliness, covetousness—and year after year,
their problems seem to get worse.

Yet, what shocks me most about their letters is that very few of these
Christians ever mention prayer. They turn to tapes, books, counselors, call-in
radio programs, therapies of all kinds, but rarely to prayer.

Why is it so hard for Christians to seek God for their desperate needs when
they are in times of crisis? After all, the Bible stands as one long testimony
that God hears the cries of His children and answers them with tender love.

* "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto
their cry" (Psalms 34:15).
* "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all
their troubles" (verse 17).
* "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing
according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him"
(1 John 5:14-15).
* "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall
receive" (Matthew 21:22).

These promises are overwhelming evidence of God's care.





Read this devotion online: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/22287?src=devo-email


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