“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

As we continued in our series on the topic of prayer this week at The Rock PW,  I was blessed to come across this verse in God’s Word. As I studied this passage, I was drawn to the first call of action in the verse- “humble yourselves and pray.” The more I meditated on this and studied other parallel scripture passages, I realized prayer is extremely humbling to a person. When you think about it, the action of prayer is showing God that you need him. An arrogant or prideful person is typically someone who thinks they know what’s best and can handle it on their own.

As we went over reasons why we often don’t pray enough or as often as we’d like, the underlying reason is that we arrogantly think we don’t need God for daily guidance, direction, and support. There’s no doubt that we don’t forget to eat meals or drink water because we know without hesitation that we NEED these to survive. If we approached prayer with the same mindset, I feel the world around us would benefit greatly from it.

In almost every chapter in Acts, you find a reference to prayer, and the book makes it very clear that something happens when God’s people pray. God did not do a single thing in the New Testament without it first being prompted by prayer. Here are some examples of how God uses prayer:

  • Prayer is the way you defeat the devil (Luke 22:23)
  • Prayer is the way the lost are saved (Luke 18:13)
  • Prayer is the way you acquire wisdom (James 1:5)
  • Prayer is the way an unrepentant Christian gets restored (James 5:16-20)
  • Prayer is how saints get strengthened (Jude 20, Matt. 26:41)
  • Prayer is the way to get laborers out to the mission field (Matt 9:38)
  • Prayer is how we can cure the sick (James 5:13-15)
  • Prayer is how we accomplish the impossible (Mark 11:23-24)

Basically, you are going to God because you know that you need him. Being convicted at my lack of prayer, I was challenged by this passage because the Lord showed me my arrogance in thinking I don’t need Him. If Jesus, the perfect Example needed God daily in prayer, how prideful am I to think I don’t! I’m glad the students responded well to God’s Word this past week and I covet your prayers for this upcoming weekend as…

1. A lot of the Junior Highers at The Rock will be attending Junior High Summer Camp
2. Nate Keeler, the Frontline PW Campus Pastor, will be continuing the series on prayer (“How to Pray”) this Sunday in my absence.



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