Prayer: A Release

These days the Lord recovered my prayer for many new ones on my prayer list. For many of these, it was a burden on my side. And I have no solution as to how to help them effectively in their many complex situations. Many of them seemed to be embroiled into their own matrix of problems; sometimes it made me wonder why on earth there are too many problems, especially to these ones whom I care for.

But a definite time of prayer and presenting these ones one by one to the Lord was such a great release. I felt like every one prayed for is also being answered already. Such a release in prayer was so soothing; the act of prayer itself is the answer to the prayer itself. What a blessing to be able to pray for others!

Besides, there are famous and high profile people in India whom the Lord burdened me to pray for. These ones have been flashed in the national news almost everyday. My only prayer for them is for their salvation at the moment. I have no idea what would befall them. But praying for them as the Lord leads is quite a release in my spirit. By the way, I have not voluntarily picked up these names for prayer, it was the Lord's burden bestowed upon me at different times for the past seventeen years of my Christian life. And I find joy in praying for them. Now and then, I would pray for them, leaving the timing of the answers to the Lord's sovereignty.

Personally and corporately as a church, I would encourage all the saints to pray and pray and pray. To this effect, I would even encourage them to maintain a schedule for daily prayer and even record the quality and length of prayer. Some vaguely say "pray unceasingly" but never prayed even intermittently. Some even spiritually say, "pray in spirit all the time" but never maintain a scheduled habit of prayer life. Some even carelessly say, "how long a prayer is least important, but the quality" but these ones hardly know even how to pray continuously for a mere one hour. 

Prayer must be practical, not doctrinal. We must get into the "business" of prayer where time is solidly invested and our spirit exercised and released. Quality always comes from quantity. Therefore, I would insist on the time/length of prayer too. If the time spent is not important, Moses and the Lord Jesus need not spend forty days and forty nights in the presence of the Lord, and that is 960 hours! Can't they shorten it into just few minutes and get the quality answer likewise? But the Bible did not say that, nor God did not do that. Time spent is definitely important, not just for an answer to the prayer, but to be in the presence of the Lord! If Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ had to spent so much time, how can we excuse ourselves? Well, it may not be forty days and forty nights, but at least an hour a day, minimum, the more the better.

Lord, make me a man of prayer.