John Wesley On Prayer

"You need not utterly despair even of those who for the present "turn again and rend you." For if all your arguments and persuasives fail, there is yet another remedy left, and one that is frequently found effectual when no other method avails. This is prayer. Therefore, whatsoever you desire or want, either for others or for you own soul, "Ask, and it shall be given you."...........John Wesley

We wring our hands in despair.

We spend vast amounts of energy worrying.

We talk endlessly about problems we are facing.

Rarely do we fall to our knees and seek earnestly the face of God.
Why not?

Why do we seem to categorize prayer as the behavior of last resort?
Do we want to expend ourselves trying to solve or fix whatever thing looms over us?
And then, at the end when no resolve has taken place, take our petition to the throne of God as if to say, "O.K. Lord, it's yours. I've done all I can so now I'm going to need a little help from you."

I think for myself, the root of my own "doing" at the neglect of prayer is one of not trusting God.

Not trusting him that he would come through on what I pray to him.

Not trusting him in that a false sense of ego and ability comes up in me with pitiful battle cry of "I can do this!"

I have found that God desires for us to pray and release to him every area of our lives.

There isn't anything I am to hold back from him and it is in my prayers that I find the ability to trust and leave with God the things that seek to draw my attention away from him.

I remember a person who made the comment that "they only took the big things to God in prayer." My thought, when I heard this, was "What do you have that would be big to Him?"

Take everything!

Phil. 4:6 (Amplified)

Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.

Prayer........the heart to heart communication that God desires between me and him.

I really do want to learn how to pray!

God on you......

mb