Hi, everyone. Today’s blog comes from one of the athletes from my CrossFit box, Scott Fonte. Scott is a worship leader and wonderful songwriter with a zealous heart like David’s to see and feel God’s presence each and every day. He posted a thought-provoking, albeit humbling, Facebook status last night regarding the Boston Marathon tragedy. It pulled at my heart so strongly that I asked him to flesh it out in an article for my blog, and he graciously agreed!
Scott
I hope that by the end of this post you’ll be challenged to take the precious gift of prayer more seriously, especially if you – like so many of us – frequently put it off or doubts its power.
Stay fit, stay faithful, stay prayerful ~<3 Di
I have seen an overwhelming amount of people offering their condolences and prayers in response to yesterday’s horrible events in Boston. A tragedy such as this is not only sad, but it is a call for us to pray. The thing that bothers me, as a Christian, is that I believe in prayer…and a life of prayer; as a whole, I think Christians have forgotten the power and importance of it.
When we hear of a loss or that someone sick, we are quick to offer a “I’ll pray you” or a “I’ll be sure to lift you up in prayer.” But the unfortunate part is that many of us immediately forget the need as soon as such a phrase exits our mouths, and we complete the day without staying true to our word. We have used these phrases so loosely that they’ve lost their meaning.
Prayer is a gift from God. When we cry out to the Lord, lifting up prayer, he hears us! God has given us authority to ask for things in his name, and he said they would be done! (1 John 5:14). That is serious power! We as Christians need to wake up and realize that we have the tools to see our world changed. We have to seek his heart daily, in good times and bad, so that we can have hearts like his, filled with genuine compassion, hearts ready and willing to pray for the hurting around us.
I’m not accusing us of being despicable human beings for saying we would pray only to then go about our day like we never said any such thing. It’s happened to me many times. My point is we mustn’t make a habit of letting this phrase come out of our mouth so cool and casually.
The Bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). That means we – you and me – have the power to create life when we pray. Paul encouraged us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). This may sound unrealistic, but it’s totally doable because prayer is nothing more than conversing with the Father, telling him what’s troubling you or someone you know, casting your cares, and simply asking him to intervene in a situation that he already is concerned about (Phil. 4:6, 1 Peter 5:7).
One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Chronicles 7:14:
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
It’s so clear here: our world is so broken, all we have to do to pray! When you go to ask, you are humbling yourself. You can’t ask someone for help with a prideful heart. So I pray that as the body of Christ, we would go boldly before the throne of grace and pray! I pray that we would lead lives of continuous prayer, not just when times our hard and the waters are rough, but because the Lord is our Rock, our Portion, and the life-giving Vine to which we feeble branches cling.
