2Ki 4:33 He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD.
Mat 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Luk 9:29 And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.
2Ch 33:13 And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.
Mar 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Job 42:10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Jon 4:2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
Dan 6:10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.
Mar 14:34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.
Luk 22:44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
[i]And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words. And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him. And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.[/i] Mar 14:35-41
Luk 5:16 And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.
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Exo 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Joh 4:38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
[i]Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.[/i] Mat 9:37,38
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Luk 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
[i]Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? [/i] Luk 18:2-8
1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
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No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it. ~Guy H. King
Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. ~E.M. Bounds
Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused. ~ Spurgeon
It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone. ~ Hudson Taylor
[i]To your knees man![/i]
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Brother, I cannot speak for anyone but myself yet everything is only amountable to ruin without true, concentrated prayer. Every single instance of failure, drift, unkindness, compulsion\reaction detached from the Spirit, every waste, every ... anxiety, dis-belief, doubt, uprising of the flesh, ... I could go on and on and on ... When I am "off" spiritually speaking and that is always the root of being "off" in everything that follows, I know the cause. Half-hearted, distracted, ... undisciplined prayer avails [i]little[/i] I have found. It will ruin the best of whatever might be brought forth out of what I tend to think of as 'the reserves', those things that are hidden perhaps in the marrow but the repeating of them, clear as they may be even with a ultimate earnest undergirding them ... even to hear that some may have something of them is purely, accidental or maybe over ridden somehow ... what I am striving to say is it all can be done with a rather sinking feeling that they were borne forth of the flesh, the spirit is\was disengaged largely ... it all comes back to a lack of prayer.
Am speaking out of real time experience, there has been somewhat of a drift and that peculiar 'slow to hear' stupidity that almost could be compared to siting out side ones self and watching him make blunder after blunder all he time knowing exactly what he ought to be doing.
[i]Praying[/i]
The great and only honest answer to not doing so is, [i]because I don't feel like it[/i]. That is not to say there isn't some constant source of underling prayer going on, just that it is somewhat detached ... We ("I") can be so dull as to have to have some major crisis before there is a return to earnest, sustained and concentrated prayer. This unruly beast of the flesh is so dull not to recognize that every form of crisis prevention is inherent in just [i]praying[/i] period. I by [b]no[/b]* means mean that all things will go well in present circumstances, they may, they may not, it is irrelevant. What it does mean is that without prayer and the Holy Spirit up-taking there is nothing left than to be cast back upon ourselves, basically being left alone to fight our own battles. Such rubbish and nonsense! It comes full circle back to [i]"taking my thoughts by the scruff of the neck" (Joni Erikson Tada)[/i] and making them submit, forcing the medicine down the throat ... Do it anyway!
The devil is crafty as can be in drawing off in every subtle way, lessening the import of praying, anything to keep the saint from it. [i]Do not be deceived[/i] has more ramifications than we know.
The last few days have been those where I have had to get just ruthless with all this nonsense and the smiting of my stupidity and conviction largely coming from the seemingly simplicity of;
[i]couldest not thou watch one hour?[/i]
Oh, I am hardly even getting started here ...
;-)
*Edit, replaced the word "do" with "no", something of an important error and omission there.
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Mike Balog
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