Let me say from the start, I BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF
PRAYER. Perhaps you’ve heard it said, “Prayer
changes things and people too.” This is
a true statement. I have seen the power
of prayer manifested in my life too many times to count. I have seen miracles, signs, and wonders, in
my own life, as a result of prayer.
The Bible is full of instructions as to the power of prayer. We are taught to pray in faith, pray without
ceasing, pray in the Name of Jesus, pray in the Spirit, pray about everything (all
our decisions, all our actions, all our plans, etc..), pray for one another,
and pray with humility. Prayer is, in my
estimation, is the primary key to living the abundant life for the follower of
Jesus.
While I fully appreciate and practice the power of prayer,
there are times when prayer alone isn’t enough.
If you spend all your time praying without acting on the word of God you
will never see the fullness of all God has for you in life.
I believe you should pray, act on the word, and pray while
you are acting on the word. Scripture
teaches, “Faith without works is dead being alone.” In other words, prayer without action is not
enough. We are to be doer’s of the word
and not hearers only. Action is putting
legs to our prayers.
We will never experience all God has promised in His word if
we don’t act. One thing I have always
found interesting is that almost all the promises recorded in the Bible are
accompanied with an action step. It’s
kind of like, you do your part and God will do His part. Our actions are signs of our faith and
obedience to God’s instructions for our lives.
I have met many people in my life that spend vast amounts of
time praying yet they never see the fullness of all God has promised because
they never accompany their prayers with actions. You can pray until you are blue in the face,
but if you don’t act on the word you will never see the results you could see.
Jesus is a prime example of this. He didn’t just pray, He acted. Think about the feeding of the 5,000 as
recorded in Matthew chapter 14.
Scripture teaches us He took a young boys lunch, blessed it (prayed) and
then began to break it. As He did it
began to multiply and as he continued to break it, it multiplied, so there was
enough to feed every one present with 12 baskets full left over. If prayer was enough, in this case, Jesus
would have simply prayed and it would have multiplied on its own. But it wasn’t. It was as He added the action of breaking the
bread, to his prayer that the loaves and fishes were multiplied.
I don’t know what it is you are praying and believing for,
but my question for you today is, “Are you adding action to your prayers?” Is there something you know you should be
doing but aren’t? What instruction or
principle in the Bible could you act on that would demonstrate your faith in
what God has promised?
Here’s a recent example of what I am talking about. My wife, Holly, and myself, desired to do
something special for people less fortunate than us on Thanksgiving Day. Our older children had several friends that didn’t
have any place to go for Thanksgiving Day.
Our desire was to invite them to our house and throw a BIG Thanksgiving
feast for them. The only problem was we didn’t
have the resources to do it. Holly
prayed about it and then she went to work doing something about it. She shared her desire with some friends, and
on Facebook, and the next thing you know people began to contact us and share
their desire to be a part of it. Before
long, we had enough food to feed around 12 young people with enough leftover’
to make up 10 extra plates that Holly, Chelsea and Diana took and found some
homeless people that hadn’t had a Thanksgiving meal, and fed them. I am convinced that if we had simply prayed
for the young people that had no place to go, and the homeless people that had
no food to eat, nothing would have happened.
But our prayers, accompanied by action, allowed us to have everything we
needed to meet the needs of these people.
Today I want to challenge fellow believers to not just pray
about their situations, but rather ask God what they are supposed to do, and
then do it. Couple action with your
prayers and you will be amazed at what happens.
Blessings
Blessings
G Samuel Verret
No comments:
Post a Comment