While listening to a ton of the sermons on this site I constantly hear of INSERT NAME HERE praying for X hours per day.There is one person that I've never heard mention his own prayer life: Zac Poonen. Although I know that he prays much because of the revelation that the Lord entrusts him with, he just doesn't use it as a Pharisaical badge of honor.In fact you have to pay attention to what 'you don't hear' from Zac many times, and this is one thing that I have noticed, and I'm very thankful for it.To be honest with you it's really not anyone's business how long you pray, it's between you and the Lord (let this not be an excuse to a lame prayer life). It can become a snare to try to emulate anyone's ministry, we should not be praying because some saint did and we think that's a great pattern. This is when prayer becomes a work of the flesh and starts to lack any power. Our goal is to be like Christ, no one else, however, I'm very thankful for the Godly examples that have went before us.In the life of Christ we see him praying all night twice, once before He chose the 12 and in the garden of Gethsemane. Another time He prayed well into the night and then walked on water to catch up with the disciples.Again, we have to look at what 'is not said' in the New Covenant and we can't really see that Jesus woke up early every morning or stayed up late. One thing that we do know, He never lacked power!One thing that I have noticed is when I just pour out my heart and I'm 100% honest with the Lord, I see wonderful things happen. If I don't have faith, I confess my unbelief, tell Him that I don't have faith, and He gives it to me. If I lack boldness I tell Him that I'm lacking boldness, and He gives it to me. If my heart is hard as a rock, I tell Him and He softens it. If I love some sin, I confess it to Him and ask Him to change me to where I don't love it. From there He will change my love of this sin to hate and then I'm cleansed because He changed me on the inside, He changes our desires and I no longer desire to sin. This is the promise of the New Covenant and how wonderful it is!As I grow older and closer to the Lord I'm finding out that quality is way more important to the Him than quantity and this is a good thing.Just wanted to share this with you :-)
Indeed brother. Jesus spoke very favorably about secret prayer in Mat.6.Blaine
God bless your heart, brother!
Ah Learjet, your post was a breath of fresh air.Such simplicity, no complications, just being like little children in need. They ask and expect it to happen.
