Don Nordin - The Audacity of Prayer: Be Inspired to Pray with Boldness, Confidence and Expectation

I N TODAYS CULTURE prayer has been all but forgotten. Like a powerful muscle thatatrophies from neglect, the believer who fails to pray becomes extremely carnal andrife with all kinds of issues. A believer who neglects prayer is like a fish thatavoids water. Prayer is literally the lifeline of the Christian.

The word prayer has become clich in this culture. It has become a term to use whenwe want to provide encouragement but have nothing of substance to offer. Believersand non-believers alike use it freely saying, Ill keep you in my prayers, thennever actually pray at all. The promise to pray serves as little more than a dismissiveend to an uncomfortable conversation to which there are no apparent answers.

When a national tragedy strikes, even those who have had a hand in kicking God outof the schoolsthe government, the courts, and the public arenasuddenly start talkingabout prayer.The truth is, God and prayer cannot be expelled from any of these arenas as longas believers continue to walk the earth. Prayer will never be removed from schoolsas long as Christians are required to take tests!

For a Christian, prayer is the same as breathing is to the natural body. Prayeris absolutely the survival mechanism for Christ followers.

As a pastor I have told people I would be praying for them, and though I diligentlyfollowed through to do so, I left the conversation thinking, I wish I could dosomething more. Like others, I sometimes feel praying is the least I can do, when,in fact, it is the greatest and most productive thing we can do for those who arefacing the battering ram of life. Life has a way of extracting hope from its participants,but prayer reestablishes hope. Hope anchors the soul and allows the fresh sunshineof the love of God to come pouring in. Like the breaking of the day after a darknight of despair, prayer causes the believer to emerge from trouble with a new leaseon life and anticipation for the future.

In his booklet Master Secrets of Prayer Cameron Thompson writes: There comes a time,in spite of our soft, modern ways, when we must be desperate in prayer, when we mustwrestle, when we must be outspoken, shameless and importunate. This statementsums up perfectly what I mean when I talk about audacious prayer. Prayer can takethe impossible and turn it into new opportunities for the future.

Before meeting his brother, Esau, Jacob prayed all night. He was determined to receiveassurance from the Lord that his brother would not kill him the next day. So intensewas that prayer meeting that Jacob emerged with a name change and a limp that wouldmark his every step for the rest of his life.

Have you ever had the audacity to go before the Lord with such passion for the burdenyou were carrying that you decided you would not leave until you were able to emergewith an answer? The desperate cry of the righteous in a prayer closet strikes a chordin the heart of God!

The Bible is a book about fervent prayer and the resulting answers to those prayers.From Genesis to Revelation the power of audacious prayer is emphasized virtuallyfrom chapter to chapter and verse to verse. One would be hard pressed to read theBible without coming to the conclusion that prayer actually does change things. Infact, prayer changes everything. Faith and prayer are the tandem vehicles that movethings from the realm of the spirit to the natural arena. They cause the unseen tobecome reality.

Contemporary Christians will do well to once again pray over their families and livesin an audacious manner. The promise to reverse negative circumstances is only guaranteedto those who pray. If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves,and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear fromheaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chron. 7:14). If we humbleourselves in prayer and turn from our wicked ways, He will heal our land. Whatdoes He mean by our land? Our land is not only our nation and world but also ourlives. He has promised to heal the lives of those who are serious about prayer andrighteous living.

Jesus Himself implored us to pray audaciously. Then He spoke a parable to them,that men always ought to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). Ask, and it willbe given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Foreveryone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it willbe opened (Matt. 7:78). These are not the words of some popular success guru; theseare the words of Jesus! What is promised to those who pray and dont lose heart?

Ask and you will receive

Seek and you will find what you are searching for

Knock and doors will be opened to you

The words of Jesus provide a wonderful assurance to those who will take the timeto be diligent in prayer.

Peter Kreeft, author and professor of theology at Boston College, made this observationconcerning prayer: I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even thetiniest of our prayers to God make, and all the people those little prayers weredestined to affect, and all the consequences of those prayers down through the centuries,we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unableto get up off of our knees for the rest of our lives. What a great admonition concerningprayer! Only eternity will reveal the effects prayer has had on this world and inthe lives of untold scores of individuals through the centuries.

We often make the mistake of believing that prayer is only about getting stuff fromGod. While it is true that prayer is the delivery route for things in the life ofthe believer, it is much more than that. Prayer develops trust in the heart of thebeliever that God absolutely will perform what He has said. For the believer, allintimacy with God is born out of trust that has been developed in times of prayer.Intimacy leads to faith and audacious praying. Faith and audacious prayer producethe miraculous.

Individuals who have a consistent prayer life over the long haul can testify to personallywitnessing the power of the living Christ at work in their lives. They trust Godand they trust His Word. In doing so, these Christ followers become examples of howlife is to be lived.

Praying people become persons of great faith. Thomas Watson, the Puritan writer,said, Faith is to prayer what the feather is to the arrow. Faith feathers the arrowof prayer, and makes it fly swifter, and pierce the throne of grace. For the believer,prayer is the aiming device for our journey. I can personally testify to the factthat numerous times as I have met with God before beginning my day, He warned meof impending danger and directed me around pitfalls that I did not even know existed.

Many times I have gone into my daily prayer time on the verge of making a very importantdecision, and during my time with Him I was made to know that what I was about todo would be a mistake. He gave me new direction and allowed me to navigate throughissues that involved a lot of individuals. When that has occurred, 100 percent ofthe time the new direction was absolutely the right decision. The life of a Christianwho does not pray is like an arrow that has no specific target! A prayerless lifeis dangerous to everyone in its circle of influence.

In the first-century-church miracles were in abundance. When one looks at the behaviorof these believers, we readily discover that prayer was one of the foundational stonesof their existence. I believe God is calling His children back to their prayer closets.If we will begin to commune with Him and possess the audacity to pray, the miraculouswill once again become the norm.