God is calling us to be his partners in his great work - his plans to bring history to a dramatic, triumphant climax to his glory.
He has given us prayer as the means to carry out his plans. Will we be silent? Or, will we throw ourselves into the mission he has given us?
It has taken me decades to realize that the most important thing about prayer is that we seek what God wants, not what we want. I am still dipping my toes - very tentatively - into this wonderful truth.
Watchman Nee, a great Chinese Christian who died in a Communist prison camp, wrote in his little book Let Us Pray that the one who prays "must allow his will to enter into God's will, his thought must be allowed to enter into God's thought".
"Since he habitually lives in the Lord's presence, such a person is given to know His will and thoughts. And these divine wills and thoughts quite naturally become his own desires, which he then expresses in prayer."
This is important for God chooses to work through us and the world around us as we pray.
"How many things the Lord indeed desires to do, yet he does not perform them because his people do not pray," says Nee. "He will wait until men agree with Him, and then He will work."
In Matthew 6, Jesus gives a model prayer which includes the line: "Your (God's) will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We are to pray that what God wants accomplished on earth will be carried out - just as his command is obeyed in heaven.
The great prayers of the Bible reflect this truth. Nehemiah and Daniel pleaded with God on behalf of his chosen people, prayers that God graciously answered.
And when the early church was under attack in Acts 4, the believers called on God to help them speak boldly about Jesus - not for their own protection. God responded by bringing many new believers into the fold.
Nee refers to a great passage in Isaiah 62 which is a call to me and to you today:
"O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, you who pray to the Lord."
He has given us prayer as the means to carry out his plans. Will we be silent? Or, will we throw ourselves into the mission he has given us?
It has taken me decades to realize that the most important thing about prayer is that we seek what God wants, not what we want. I am still dipping my toes - very tentatively - into this wonderful truth.
Watchman Nee, a great Chinese Christian who died in a Communist prison camp, wrote in his little book Let Us Pray that the one who prays "must allow his will to enter into God's will, his thought must be allowed to enter into God's thought".
"Since he habitually lives in the Lord's presence, such a person is given to know His will and thoughts. And these divine wills and thoughts quite naturally become his own desires, which he then expresses in prayer."
This is important for God chooses to work through us and the world around us as we pray.
"How many things the Lord indeed desires to do, yet he does not perform them because his people do not pray," says Nee. "He will wait until men agree with Him, and then He will work."
In Matthew 6, Jesus gives a model prayer which includes the line: "Your (God's) will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We are to pray that what God wants accomplished on earth will be carried out - just as his command is obeyed in heaven.
The great prayers of the Bible reflect this truth. Nehemiah and Daniel pleaded with God on behalf of his chosen people, prayers that God graciously answered.
And when the early church was under attack in Acts 4, the believers called on God to help them speak boldly about Jesus - not for their own protection. God responded by bringing many new believers into the fold.
Nee refers to a great passage in Isaiah 62 which is a call to me and to you today:
"O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, you who pray to the Lord."
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