It the midst of a messy world where Amos had to speak a lot of pain, God gives him a new message, one of hope.
Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is. Amos 5:14 GNT
Redemption and life is a message of hope – I am a person of hope because I know that in and through Jesus there is forgiveness and acceptance.
I want to encourage those I meet with to pray and to do so with the complete knowledge of this forgiveness and hope – may we all “live.”
The reason for constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer is that prayer is the means that God has appointed for our receiving mercy, and obtaining grace to help in time of need. – R.A. Torrey
I could not remember the price Reuben paid for having had sex with one of his father’s wives – here it is.
These are the descendants of Reuben, the oldest of Jacob’s sons. (Because he had sex with one of his father’s concubines, he lost the rights belonging to the first-born son, and those rights were given to Joseph. It was the tribe of Judah, however, that became the strongest and provided a ruler for all the tribes.) – 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 GNT
When a family member falls away and sins, it does not blot the anxious prayers of the family, even of the sinner. We belong to one another. No matter how famous or infamous we become there is a vital defect in our character, if it shows up – we fail to remember all that makes our home the beginning of our greatness.
They put their trust in God and prayed to him for help, and God answered their prayers and made them victorious over the Hagrites and their allies. 1 Chronicles 5:20 GNT
On the contrary, everything can be traced to the immediate action and purpose of God. I love the fact that the leaders of Reuben were part of this story. A little more than 44,000 thousand men, soldiers, and yet they turned the battlefield into a house of prayer. Circumstances give to prayer it’s real significance. It is a shame that sometimes we pray with only words, absent of feelings. For my comfort, I remember God knows all the circumstances under which I pray. I know the quietness of my manner of praying does not impair the passion of my meaning.
God is the one who made the mountains and created the winds. He makes his thoughts known to people; he changes day into night. He walks on the heights of the earth. This is his name: the Lord God Almighty! – Amos 4:13 GNT
In every action that takes place has in its background, character, on which the foundation of the action rests – it is from here the action gets its life and meaning.
If I look at prayer – the action is intense, it is an immediate desire for blessing – the background is quiet, it is a passionate desire that the will of God should be done. As it was in Jesus’s prayer in the garden it is with all true prayer.
There is another reason for constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer that seems if possible even more forcible than this, namely, praying is the most important part of the present ministry of our risen Lord. – R.A. Torrey
My wife found this prayer many years before it became popular as she had her devotions one morning. All I can say is that it changed her life and as a result, mine too.
But Jabez prayed to the God of Israel, “Bless me, God, and give me much land. Be with me and keep me from anything evil that might cause me pain.” And God gave him what he prayed for. – 1 Chronicles 4:10 GNT
Here are some takeaways.
Prayer is calling on God. Giving God permission to deliver him from what life was throwing at him.
Prayer is being passionate about asking for blessing. Yes, for needs and desires, but in praying to Him, I recognize that He is the One who is able to fill all of my wants and needs – and I trust Him to do so.
Prayer is specific – more land or lots of land.
Prayer is asking for God to walking alongside.
Prayer is about asking to be kept from evil – “deliver us from evil.”
Prayer is about avoiding pain.
It was not so much having the right words as having the right heart/character. When I seek to have the right heart, living the way God wants me to live, the right words seem to come out when I pray. It has nothing to do with having the right “magic” words when I pray.
“There is nothing impossible for man, if he will only join himself in prayer to God!” – President Ronald Reagan
Amos might have been saying this but I think I could be stretching it.
Do two people start traveling together without arranging to meet? – Amos 3:3 GNT
It is my desire to walk with God. Nothing is worse than coming together in prayer where everything is forced, where the fervor labours and where prayer is looked upon more as a superstition.
Praying for the sake of praying does not give us the special blessings we may be looking for. Ever notice the numbers dwindling when our prayer meetings lack passion?
I can pray, pray, and pray and see no salvations and no sense of the Holy Spirit moving. Is there any other way to dishonour the presence of God? Would it not be better for me to ask for mercy for is that not why I feel that my sin has somehow become between God and I and has weakened my prayer? To doubt the efficacy of prayer is to injure my spiritual walk and the church will have lost the ability to pray as prayers remain unanwered. How do we encourage one another if people think their prayers are not needed or are useless. The world thinks this way already.
Happy are those who have the God of Jacob to help them and who depend on the Lord their God. Psalm 146:5 GNT
This one thing I do know – God hears a sinners prayer as He heard the prayers of Jacob. My sin does not make me hypocritical when I pray. This teaches me to pray now – I do not need to wait to be a saint in order to pray. It is only by praying that I will ever rise to be any kind of saint at all.
But there is a still weightier reason for this constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer. It is – prayer occupied a very prominent place and played a very important part in the earthly life of our Lord. – R.A. Torrey
In the Old Testament, it would seem that sacrifice played a part as a means of being an open channel to receive God’s favour or, having received God’s favour, a means of saying thank you. Jesus is my point of entry into the presence of the Father. Should I find myself in a place where I rush into His presence and bypass Jesus, He will hear me, and will draw me to Jesus, where my sins can be forgiven and I can be reconciled to Him.
The whole point of what we are saying is that we have such a High Priest, who sits at the right of the throne of the Divine Majesty in heaven. – Hebrews 8:1 GNT
This says it even better.
He is near to those who call to him, who call to him with sincerity. – Psalm 145:18 GNT
Prayer is that which comes sincerely from my heart. It is not only the how, but the why and the what of prayer.
When I pray sincerely I am not praying regarding matters that are here today and gone tomorrow, insignificant, but rather for that which is true and eternal. When I am sincere in prayer I aspire to uncover the inner meaning of my purpose, the very essence of my life’s calling. It is here in my discovery of how I can serve God that my prayer becomes authentic and is a reflection of my soul’s inner desire.
He supplies the needs of those who honor him; he hears their cries and saves them. – Psalm 145:19 GNT
God answers prayers spoken with sincerity.
Those men whom God set forth as a pattern of what he expected Christians to be – the apostles – regarded prayer as the most important business of their lives. – R. A. Torrey
I love the idea of Jesus pleading with God on my behalf and I am strengthened in my faith just in the knowing of this truth – Jesus prays for me.
And so he is able, now and always, to save those who come to God through him, because he lives forever to plead with God for them. – Hebrews 7:25 GNT
I do not see Him continually chanting prayers on behalf of me but rather like He described how He would pray for Peter so that Peter would not fall away. I see Jesus as praying to ensure I am strengthened in my seasons of trials and the times the enemy comes to accuse and attack me.
Here is a prayer from David that I love for my children and one I am praying for my grandchildren.
May our sons in their youth be like plants that grow up strong. May our daughters be like stately columns which adorn the corners of a palace. – Psalm 144:12 GNT
This coming generation may need prayer support more than any other generation. I pray for my son and my grandson that they are like mature, strong plants that are growing up strong. That they may express their godliness openly. I pray for my daughter and my granddaughters that they will make open confessions of faith and have the godliness to back them up.
“Why is it,” many a Christian is asking, “I make so little progress in my Christian life?” “Neglect of prayer,” God answers. “You have not because you ask not.”
“Why is it,” many a minister is asking, “I see so little fruit from my labors?” Again God answers, “Neglect of prayer. You have not because you ask not.”
“Why is it,” many a Sunday-School teacher is asking, “that I see so few converted in my Sunday-School class?” Still God answers, “Neglect of prayer. You have not because you ask not.”
“Why is it,” both ministers and churches are asking, “that the church of Christ makes so little headway against unbelief and error and sin and worldliness?” Once more we hear God answering, “Neglect of prayer. You have not because you ask not.” – R. A. Torrey
The Practice of Prayer 