Troublesome Topic: YOU HAVE TIME FOR WHAT’S IMPORTANT. IS PRAYER IMPORTANT TO YOU?
“True prayer demands more of our life than most are willing to give. And therefore, few are those who ever taste of its power and delights. We must practice being still before our God and allow Him to speak. We must train our inner life to quiet itself and focus our attention heavenward.”
Go to footnote number 1“You will need to make time for your King, time to listen to Him, study Him, watch Him . . . and fall in love with Him. Evaluate your sleep habits. Evaluate your leisure time. Evaluate your schedule.”
Go to footnote number 2The Scripture declares in Jer. 29:13 that you will find God and you will become well connected to Him when you seek Him with “all your heart.” Is five minutes a day “all your heart?”
Leonard Ravenhill expressed the same sentiment when he said, “We cannot have big results from our small praying. The law of prayer is the law of the harvest: sow sparingly in prayer, reap sparingly; sow bountifully in prayer, reap bountifully
Go to footnote number 3In my opinion the altar of incense was intended as a representation of us giving God all that we are, every aspect of our lives, however, it is more closely tied toprayer than any other single aspect of the Christian life. In Hebrews 9 the authors of Hebrews place the altar of incense inside the Holy of Holies when in reality the altar of incense stood just outside the Most Holy Place. The authors of Hebrews purposefully described the location of the altar of incense to be it in a more important place than it actually occupied in order to make a point about the importance of prayer.
Hebrews 9:3
Translation
“Now behind the second veil was a habitation which is called ‘the holy of holies’,
Paraphrase
The most important place in the temple is a special room called “the holiest of all holy places”,
Hebrews 9:4
Translation
containing the ark of the covenant and the golden altar of incense . . .
Go to footnote number 4Paraphrase
That holiest of all places contains the ark of the covenant and, in order to give it proper importance, we should think of the pure altar which sends up to God everything we are and have as being there too.
This “change” gave prayer even greater prominence. He was basically saying, “We cannot overemphasize the importance of self-surrender. In our perception, we should give acts of surrender, such as prayer and worship, the highest level of esteem.”
The next lesson in this series is CONSIDER SOME HEROES OF PRAYER
Footnotes
1
Eric & Leslie Ludy, Wrestling Prayer, p. 121.
2
Eric & Leslie Ludy, Wrestling Prayer, pp. 121-122.
3
Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, p. 119.
4
In reality the altar of incense stood just outside the Most Holy Place. The authors of Hebrews purposefully described the location of the altar of incense to be it in a more important place than it actually occupied in order to make a point about the importance of the ways we offer ourselves to God, such as prayer, worship and other related acts. This “change” gave prayer and its companions even greater prominence. He was basically saying, “We cannot overemphasize the importance of self-surrender. In our perception, we should give acts of surrender, such as prayer and worship, the highest level of esteem.”