Monday, November 23, 2009

The Wonderful Gift of Prayer

Would it seem strange to you if I were to say to you that God answers prayer for His own benefit?

For so long, I have prayed asking God to answer thinking that it was solely out of His grace that He would answer the prayer of one as undeserving as me.

This week things changed.

I was reading in the Book of Ezekiel (more on that later) and I ran across something that fascinated me.

Later while I was searching for a particular scripture for another reason I ran into John 14:13&14 "...whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."

This brought me back to the thing that caught my attention earlier in the Book of Ezekiel.

Beginning in the 20th chapter an interesting series of statements are made about God's people and God's response to what His people are involving themselves in.

verse 8 says: They rebelled against Me and were unwilling to listen to Me..
verse 9 says: But I acted for the sake of MY name...

verse 13 says: The house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness...
verse 14 says: But I acted for the sake of MY name...

verse 16 says: they rejected my ordinances...
verse 17 says: My eye spared them rather than destroying them...
verse 21 says: the children rebelled against Me...
verse 22 says: I withdrew My hand and acted for the sake of My name...

So do you see a trend here? Over and over and over God acted to protect His name!

Is there any reason why we should shy away from praying or for avoiding immediately praying for anyone that asks us for prayer?

Take heart people; your prayers are giving Almighty God the opportunity to once again glorify His wonderful name!

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