Is Prayer A Mere Formality?

“Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24 (AMP)

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Wesley Grove Chapel in Yardville, NJ. I had been there to attend a Pastor and staff day of prayer retreat.  Pastor Don Shoemaker of First Wesleyan Church in Jersey City gave us a brief devotional on his thoughts on prayer. The one thing he said to us that struck me was we seem to treat prayer as a mere formality.  Is our prayer life the basic “Before I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take” kind of prayer life.

If this was really our daily prayer life he suggested that we pray transformationally. This would be to pray outside of our comfort zone, after all; you need to pray so that you can strengthen yourself in The Lord. This would mean exercising that faith muscle. For those of us who have been called to serve at a higher level we have to really understand that it is a privilege to pray. If you have a wanting to hear His voice, even if you think it has to be audible, you need to have vertical conversation constantly.

When we bring ourselves into the presence of His throne of grace we should be asking our Creator to do these three things in our daily walk…

Search Me!

Stretch Me!

Send Me!

Even though Pastor Don empathized that it may be a dangerous thing not to ask God to search our hearts, I would venture to say to not ask to be stretched and sent be as equally dangerous. It gives the impression that you have something to hold on to and it has the appearance to you that it can’t be surrendered.

Psalm 139 ends like this…”And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” David already knows that he shouldn’t be thinking himself free from wickedness so he asks YHVH to search his heart. David is also asking to be stretched for any grievous way; anything that would wound and grieve his own soul, grieve the hearts of God’s people or to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

Then David asks to be lead in the way of the everlasting…SEND ME!! When Pastor Don brought this point up he backed it up with Isaiah 6:8…”And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” When David pen’s “in the way everlasting” he could have been thinking in the way of the old, the good old way, the ancient path in which those patriarchs before and after the flood. I will stretch this to say in the perpetual way, in a way that endures forever; to walk the path that Jesus gave direction to walk upon. In closing brothers I would challenge you to pray transformationally. Ask to be searched, to be stretched and to be sent so that when you lay yourself down to sleep, YHVH will hear your prayers as more than just a mere formality…Amen? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and frequent Freedom Fighter Blogger

Team YOU: Jeremiah 7-8; Proverbs 24; 1 Timothy 4

Motivations: “Just like the sound barrier, there is a faith barrier. And breaking the faith barrier in the spiritual realm is much like breaking the sound barrier in the physical realm. If you want to experience a supernatural breakthrough, you have to pray through.”—Mark Batterson

Practice to Remember: Level 1:James 2:5; Level 2: James 2:1-5

Powered Up:  The prayerless life cannot cope with the attacks of corruption within and the crushing blows without. – Leroy Eims