“Praying Always” is October 15’s entry from Dr. David Jeremiah’s ‘Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions’.
"We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you." Colossians 1:3
The most gifted writer about prayer in American Christian history was the Civil War-era pastor E. M. Bounds, who practiced what he preached and exemplified what he taught in his writings. In describing prayer in the Pauline epistles, Bounds wrote,
“To seek God as Paul did by prayer, to commune with God as Paul did … this makes a saint, an apostle, and a leader for God. This kind of a life engages, absorbs, enriches, and empowers. … This kind of praying brings … Pauline gifts. Pauline praying costs much. … Pauline praying is worth all it costs. Prayer which costs nothing gets nothing. It is beggarly business at best.”
Then Reverend Bounds continued with a simple but insightful comment: “Paul was in the habit of praying, but he prayed not by mere force of habit.”
It’s important to establish habits of prayer, but prayer is more than a habit. It is grappling with the issues of life in the presence of God before the throne of grace. How important to be in the habit of praying, but how vital that our prayers be offered by more than just force of habit!
Let’s learn to pray like Paul!
To end, a quote from E. M. Bounds, “All things are opened by prayer. They could shut up Paul from preaching, but this could not shut him up from praying.”
