Today, 5/6/2021, is the 70th National Day of Prayer, a day when we are all encouraged to turn to God in prayer. I hope that you will turn to Him and, as you do that, I want to challenge you, and me, to think about a few things.
I am a very big believer in the power of prayer. Our ministry, Scott Duck Ministries, has a dedicated prayer team, composed of 12 people, who have committed to pray every day for the work that God is doing through this ministry. They pray for everything our ministry does. I have just asked them to pray for God to work through this article. My wife and I have no illusions about where the power comes from to do what we do through this ministry and it isn’t from us. Only God has the power to truly change lives and it is prayer that calls down that power. Let’s imagine that our nation, the United States, has a dedicated prayer team, composed of every follower of Christ in the nation. Let’s assume that you are a Christian and so are on this prayer team. Let’s talk about that. As a member of this hypothetical national prayer team, I want to ask you to think about some of the types of things that I asked our ministry’s prayer team members to think about as we started this year. I reflected on some of these things in my quiet time this morning, about how I am doing in my own life in some of these areas, and I found myself lacking in some of them.
We Christians are quick to talk about how our nation needs prayer and we’re right about that. Talking about it is easy but what kind of job are we doing when it comes to actually doing it? Let me ask you something. Have you prayed for our nation today? How many days have you prayed for our nation in the last week, in the last month, in the last year? There are some specific things you should be praying for, our president and other government leaders, our spiritual leaders, our children and their educators, our medical personnel fighting the COVID battle, etcetera. Have you been praying for these things? Did you pray specifically, giving attention to each thing you could think of, or did you say something vague like “god please help our nation”? Did you pray a single prayer or did you pray multiple times? Did you pray a 5 second prayer or a 5 minute prayer? How would you say you are doing in your role as a member of this national prayer team?
Let’s take a step back from specifically praying for our nation and look at the broader picture of your overall prayer life. How is that going? First of all, do you really have a prayer life? If so, what does it look like? Do you pray every day or just occasionally? When you pray, do you just ask for things or do you also spend time confessing sin and asking Him to help you to repent? When you pray, do you just talk or do you take the time to listen to Him talk? Speaking of Him talking, do you regularly spend time in His Word, seeing what He has to say there? Getting to truly know Him through His Word, confessing sin, listening to that small soft voice talking to you, all of these things are necessary to have a meaningful relationship with Him and to have an effective prayer life.
1 Thessalonians 5
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray without ceasing,
18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Pray. Pray every day. Pray often. Pray about everything. If you want a real relationship with God, don’t just pray every now and then, when you need something. Do you have a friend who you only hear from occasionally, when they want something from you? Do you feel like you have a real relationship with them or do you just feel like they are trying to use you? You feel used, don’t you? Why would we think that our relationship with God would be any different?
Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. I don’t think he meant for us to literally never, for one second, stop praying. The way I think of it is keeping the channel open. If something happens that you’re thankful for, take a minute and thank Him. We are all very blessed and I think most of us need to do a better job of expressing our thanks to Him. If something happens that scares you or that you aren’t sure how to handle, take a minute and ask Him to help you. He will give you comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-7) and wisdom (James 1:5). Certainly there’s a time to be on your knees before Him but you can do these things, without stopping, just as you go through your day. I can tell you, from a whole lot of personal experience, that prayer does work.
Don’t just talk to Him. Listen. He does talk to us primarily through His word but He also speaks to us in other ways. Listen for that small soft voice of the Holy Spirit in your soul. When you feel it telling you to do something, something that is consistent with Scripture, do it, for the Christian life is not just a life of prayer, but a life of action (James 1:22), and that action is first and foremost about showing His love to a lost and hurting world (Mark 12:31).
I am not saying that you, specifically, do not have the kind of prayer life that you should, either in general or concerning our nation. On the other hand, there are millions of us on this hypothetical national prayer team and I am not blindly assuming that all of us do have the kind of prayer life that we should. In fact, I’m certain that many of us don’t. If we did, our nation would not likely be in the mess it is currently in. I think this is something we all need to take a good hard look at occasionally. Are you praying the way you should and, if you are, are you in a position to get God’s attention with your prayers? I would ask that you take a spiritual inventory. Ask yourself the questions that I have asked. Ask God to help you to answer honestly. When the answers are not what they should be, ask God to help you to make things right. If we don’t do this regularly, it’s very easy to let life distract and harden us and, without meaning for it to be that way, we end up not being a very good prayer team member.
I asked you to imagine a hypothetical national prayer team that, as a Christian, you are on. This should not require imagination and should not be a hypothetical scenario. This should be the reality of the Christian church. In order for that to be the case, we have got to make this the reality in each of our own lives.
I am not worried about the future of our nation. Whatever the future does or does not hold, God is in control. We, as Christians, have an opportunity to influence that future, by letting Him work through us. Actually, it isn’t just an opportunity to influence, it is a certainty. We will have an influence, either positive or negative, either by our action or inaction. Our nation is experiencing turmoil deeper than it has experienced in a very long time. I firmly believe that everything we are experiencing right now is the result of the increasing absence of God in our culture. Everything else is just a symptom of that. More and more people are turning from God. More and more people who proclaim the name of Christ do not live as though He is truly their Lord. People have got to hear His truth and truly take it to heart but right now many of our hearts are too hard to really hear Him. Hard hearts can only be softened by the power of God and it is prayer that calls down that power. Our nation needs your prayers. It needs your fervent, specific, persistent prayers. Does it have them?
The National Day of Prayer is a good thing but we need more than a day of prayer. We need a lifetime of prayer and, more than just that even, we need a lifestyle of prayer. Just a few things to think and pray about on this National Day of Prayer, and every other day too, if we really want to make a difference and, for that matter, if we want to truly live as followers of Christ.
