October 13, 2019

All Scripture from NIV unless otherwise documented.

Ephesians 6: 18 – 20 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. 19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” Every now and then I am asked about the topic of prayer. If we admit it, most of us either don’t know how to pray, or what to ask for in prayer, or in some other way struggle with our prayer life. And when I am asked, there is a book that I recommend that I believe is very helpful when it comes to some of the questions that we have about prayer. This book isn’t one of the latest and greatest, treatise on prayer. It is by no means a new release with surprising new information about prayer. As a matter of fact, it was written about a century ago by a man named R.A. Torrey. There isn’t a date inside the cover, but Torrey was born in 1856 and he died in 1928. Torrey graduated from Yale Divinity School in 1878 and became the superintendent of what is now called Moody Bible Institute in Chicago in 1894. My assumption is that this book was written sometime after 1894.

In the first chapter of Torrey’s book, titled “The Importance of Prayer”, Torrey lists ten reasons that prayer is important. I assume that Christians believe that prayer is important. And I believe that there are many Christians that practice a private prayer life, even though they might be uncomfortable praying in public. I remember how difficult public prayer was for me when I became serious about my participation in the church. But I also believe that many Christians don’t look beyond some of the basic prayers that they pray to other reasons that it is important to pray. So what are the ten important reasons that Torrey gives for praying?

The first reason has to do with the fact that there is a devil. We don’t like to think about or talk about the devil. Angels, we can handle, but demons and Satan, we don’t want any part of. And yet, the Scriptures are clear about the fact that the devil exists. Fallen angel cast down to earth, tempter in the garden, accuser of Job, tempter of Jesus in the dessert, deceiver of the nations in Revelation and one day a resident of the Lake of fire, also in Revelation.
Ephesians 6 tells us that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” So, one of the reasons that it is important to pray is because we are in a daily battle with the devil. Paul called it a struggle, but he then went on and told Christians to put on armor so they can stand their ground against the devil’s schemes. That armor includes the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And then, in verse 18 Paul gave them the last piece of the armor, which is prayer. Paul said, pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer. He said to pray for “all the Lord’s people” and pray for Paul himself, that he could declare the gospel fearlessly.
Have you ever had a dream that you were doing battle with Satan? I have, and believe me, it was terrifying. And although it was just a dream, it was a reminder to me that I need to pray and bind Satan’s power through the name of Jesus. How many souls have been lost to Satan because of Christian’s lack of prayer on behalf of the unsaved? We need to get up every morning and put on our spiritual armor, and we need to pray that we will have victory over the enemies of Jesus Christ.

Second, Torrey said that “Prayer is God’s appointed way for obtaining things.” I know that sounds somewhat trite, but James said: “You do not have because you do not ask God.” James 4: 2. Jesus put it another way. He said, “Ask and it will be given to you. . . For everyone who asks receives.” Matthew 7: 7 -8 I’m one of those people who hate to ask someone for something. I don’t like to ask people for money. I don’t like to ask people for favors. I don’t like to ask people to do something that needs to be done. And I find that this un-willingness to ask sometimes carries over into my prayer life. I don’t like to ask God to do something for me that I feel I should be able to do for myself. Does that make sense? But I wonder after reading these verses, what blessings do I miss out on in life because of my failure to ask. Jesus said to ask, and James said that I do not have because I do not ask. I do find that when I pray and ask God for something specifically, He usually answers in a way that I know that He said yes or He said no. You know, He didn’t say that He would give a blanket yes to all of my requests, but He doesn’t give a blanket no either. So, I think that I am going to put God to the test and start asking more often and see if He doesn’t answer. As we continue to study in this series on prayer, you are going to find out some of the reasons that God says no, but in the meantime, I encourage you to start asking, and be specific, so you will know what God’s answer is when you receive it.

The third important reason Torrey gives for prayer is directed at the elders of the church. He stated that it is the most important business of the leaders of the church and he gets that from a passage in Acts from when the church was growing and expanding in Jerusalem. There arose a complaint because all of the widows were not being taken care of in the daily distribution of food. The true blue Jewish widows were being served, but those of Grecian descent were being overlooked. The solution to the problem was to elect deacons to take care of the daily distribution of food. As this relates to prayer, the deacons were taking care of the physical needs of the church, freeing up the apostles to pray and preach. The word deacon translated means servant. The word elder translated means overseer and part of the responsibility of the overseer is to pray and minister to the flock. The elders, as leaders of the church need to pray for the programs of the church. They need to pray for the finances of the church. They need to pray for the lost people in the community. They need to pray for revival. They need to pray for God’s direction for the future for the church. They need to pray individually, they need to pray corporately, they need to pray privately, and they need to pray publicly. The leaders of the church simply need to pray if the church is going to be an effective tool for God in this community. And of course, you need to pray for your elders and other leaders in the church and, if you are a deacon, step up and help take some of the load off of the men and women who are striving to serve you.

A fourth reason why you should pray is that it was the example of Jesus. Prayer was important to Jesus. The Scriptures often speak of Jesus prayer life. Mark 1:35 says; “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” In Luke 6: 12 we read; “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” In all there are at least 25 references in the Gospels to Jesus and prayer. Stop for a moment and think about your best friend. It might be a spouse or a child, a mother or father, or just a really good friend. Whoever it is, put them in your mind for a moment. How often do you talk to them? How do you feel when you haven’t talked for a while, whether it’s because you didn’t call or they didn’t call? When you have a really good friend, you want to talk them. You want to tell them about your day. You want to share things with them and hear what is going on in their lives. That’s the way it was with Jesus and His Father and that’s what Jesus wants from us. Daily, intimate conversation with the one who is supposed to be our first love.

A fifth reason that Torrey said we need to pray is again related to the prayer life of Jesus. Torrey stated that it (prayer) is the most important part of Jesus present day ministry. Today Jesus is at the right hand of God and a big part of what He does, according to the Scriptures is to pray for us. Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.” 1 John 2: 1 say: “If anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” Jesus is constantly interceding with God on our behalf, for salvation, and for forgiveness of sin. Can you think of one or more people in your life that you need to be praying for? Someone that maybe needs an intercessor to lift them up because of sin or sickness or trials and temptations. Like I said before, the devil is constantly waging war for the souls of those we know and love. Shouldn’t you and I follow the example of Jesus and pray for other people?
So, these are the first five reasons that Torrey says that prayer is important. Because of the devil, prayer is how we get things, it is part of the ministry of church leaders, especially elders, it was the example of Jesus, and it is an important ministry of Christ today. Next week we will look at the next five reasons that Torrey says that it is important to pray.
For those of you who are interested, you can download this book on Kindle from Amazon for .99. I have found it on other sites, and you may be able to download it for free. I highly recommend it for anyone who would like to know more about prayer and would like to enhance their prayer life.