...The effective, fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much. ~James 5:16 (NKJV)
“Prayer must be aflame. Its ardor must
consume. Prayer without fervor is as a sun without light or heat, or as a
flower without beauty or fragrance. A soul devoted to God is a fervent soul,
and prayer is the creature of that flame. He only can truly pray who is all aglow
for holiness, for God, and for heaven.” - E. M. Bounds
The other day I was in a conversation with a person whose
mind must have been somewhere else. He kept checking his watch, his eyes roamed
the room, and he answered my questions with short syllables. Obviously, he was
not fully engaged in our conversation.
His conversation with me lacked fervency. Sometimes, I
think we tend to pray the same way. We pray out of habit or rote. We put no
feeling or effort into our prayers. We mumble a quick thanks before eating a
meal, or we mutter a few words right before we drift off to sleep. But if we
want our prayer lives to be effective, we must add fervency to our prayers.
I remember when I was courting my wife, Jessica. When we
had a conversation, she would look at me with her big eyes, paying close
attention to every word I said. She spoke with passion and intensity. She was
fully involved in the conversation with 100% concentration. Why? Because she
loves me.
This is how we should talk to God. We should pray with a
fiery fervency, with obsessed passion, with total intensity, with full
commitment, with overflowing love, with a delighted zeal, and with excited
enthusiasm. He is our King, our Savior, our Lord, our Creator, our Healer, and
our Provider. In Him we live and move and have our being. He deserves our full
attention, not some wishy-washy prayer.
So when you talk to the Lord today, don’t just quickly
mumble a sentence or two as you’re pulling up to the Starbucks drivethrough.
Take time to focus on the Lord, giving Him your full
attention. Don’t let complacency clog up your prayer life. Instead, stir up that
passion for God and His presence. Be fully committed to your conversation with
the Lord. As you increase your fervency, you’ll see your prayer life take off
to a whole new level.
( Sources : ‘THE
POWER OF PRAYER’ BY DANIEL KING)
