I BEG YOU—DON’T MISS OUT
I had just landed in Europe for the first time. I was grateful to be there to meet some of these Christians, and minister to their spiritual lives. We had a meet and greet, and it was a joy to get to visit with them and find out a bit about their lives. I would be doing a mini retreat. One of my main topics was prayer. I gave it all I had, expounding on the tremendous blessings and power of prayer, giving many examples of answered prayers from my own life experience. I shared about the privilege we have as Christians to come into the presence of God, assured of His glad welcome, His receptive heart, and His promise to answer our prayers. I expounded on the profound necessity for the practice of disciplined, daily prayer and instructed them how.
During our lunch break I had the chance to visit with one of the believers attending, a highly educated young man who was influential in this group of believers. I actually got to know him quite well. He said to me, “Pastor Mark, thanks for your passionate teaching on prayer. Personally, I do not feel the need to pray as you described. Since God is sovereign over all, and has predetermined everything, and will do whatever He pleases, I see no use in praying. God’s will will be done no matter what.”
I was stunned. Seriously, I could not imagine someone making this statement or believing such a thing. This was the first time I’d actually encountered this, but over the many years since, I’ve heard it again and again, particularly from Calvinist/Reformed believers, which this man was.
One of the great flaws of Calvinism/Reformed is the belief that “What God fore-knows, God fore-chose!” God does indeed reign over His entire creation, and God knows all things, but that does not mean God chooses every single thing in advance for His entire creation. He certainly does not choose in advance every single circumstance of every single person for every moment of their entire lives.
This is why many Calvinist/Reformed believers struggle with prayer. They conclude–Why pray? Since God chooses it all anyway, and will do what He wants anyway, and knows my needs anyway, why should I even ask or pray? As a Pastor, this breaks my heart for believers who think this way. They misunderstand God. They misunderstand prayer, and as a result miss out on this incredible gift God has given to us, that God himself exhorts us and pleads with us to use!
Just think of all the things a believer could have had, could have seen answers to, but never received or experienced because they did not ask! Do you really want to get to heaven only to find out all you could have asked for and received, but didn’t? You have not because you ask not!
Think of all the wisdom you could have had, but you didn’t ask! If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men freely!!
Over and over again, Jesus himself implores us to pray! He implores us to ask, promising we will receive. He implores us to knock in prayer, and He will open the door. He implores us to seek for our needs in prayer, and we will find. He tells us the fervent prayers of the righteous man have great power! He commands us to be devoted to prayer. To be alert in prayer. He tells us in the prophets, “I looked for a man to stand in the gap before me so I would not destroy the land, but I found no one!” Clearly implying that had a man done so, God would have changed his mind and altered his plan! Which is exactly what Moses did in his time, interceding in prayer for the Israelites. As a result, God did not destroy them.
Have you never read David’s words in Psalm 116:1-2? “I love the Lord because He hears and answers my prayers. Because He bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath!” The vast majority of Christians remember David as a great warrior, as a great musician, writer and singer of Psalms. But did you realize David was actually a great man of prayer? David was a mighty man of prayer above all else! When have you ever heard anyone teach or preach on David–the mighty man of prayer?
Hear me now, Christians. Don’t let flawed beliefs and conclusions, or your own laziness, rob you of this extraordinary gift of prayer that allows you to ask God for all of your needs, all of your concerns, all that is on your heart and mind, with God’s promises to act and answer. This is why, for decades, I’ve devoted much time to prayer every day! Only a very foolish person would waste such a gift! I beg you–don’t miss out!
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
