Where Are the Pray-ers?

As Christians, we are called to do many things for the furtherance of the Kingdom and the glory of God. And one of those things is prayer. We are called to pray privately, personally, corporately, effectually, fervently, and most importantly, without ceasing!!! But something I have noticed over time is that the “pray-ers” are conspicuously missing.

We live in a time when prayer is needed more than ever! We are living in a land of spiritual famine and desolation! We are living in a time when most people don’t even give God a second thought much less make Him their main priority. We have Christians, many who have been Christians for years, slipping into complacency and growing slack in the God-commanded disciplines of prayer, Bible study, and Christian service. We have rampant immorality within the “church” as much as in the world. In the words of Spurgeon, we have churches that are more interested in “entertaining goats rather than feeding sheep”. We have talented musicians and singers but fewer true worshippers. We have many polished speakers who motivate people to modify their behavior in order to have better lives but fewer men of God that will stand and preach the whole council of God’s Word, rightly divided and powerfully proclaimed. We look for the latest fad or newest program to solve our problems, but few are willing to do what God commands, PRAY!!!!

God promises in 2 Chronicles 7, "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Where are the pray-ers? Where is the repentance?

I am often saddened by the lack of participation in our Sunday night prayer services! It saddens me that out of 100+ people only 4 or 5 will gather for prayer on a regular basis. Many may wonder why we are not seeing souls saved; why there is so much sin “within the camp”; why we do not see the power of God move as in the days of old; why the people of God are faced with so many family and financial problems. The answer may be found in the many empty pews on Sunday nights.

God's Tools Yesterday, Our Idols Tomorrow

There is no doubt or debate that God’s word tells us to look back on God’s blessings and mighty works and to remember his great power and faithfulness. But as we saw last week, we can dwell in the past to a degree which becomes unhealthy and unproductive. Today, I would like to continue in that same vein of thought.

There have been times in the history of man that God has chosen in His sovereignty to use an object to demonstrate His power or will in a particular manner for a specific time. Some examples would be Aaron’s rod that budded, Elijah’s mantle, and the Ark of the Covenant. These things stood as symbols of God’s power, and God showed great manifestation through them. But as powerful as these manifestations were, these objects were merely objects. They had no real power of their own!

As intriguing and captivating as such God-empowered objects are, they can be dangerous! The hearts of fallen mankind have a great propensity for idolatry, and we have a tendency to want to make these “tools of God” objects of worship. A good example of this is found in the Old Testament.

In the eighteenth chapter of 2 Kings, we read of the account of King Hezekiah destroying the idols and false gods that Israel had begun to worship. Among those objects was a particularly interesting idol. This idol was called Nehushtan, and King Hezekiah had it broke into pieces. 2 Kings 18:4 tells us that Nehushtan was “the bronze snake Moses had made” and that “up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.” The Israelites had taken an object that God intended to be looked upon in repentance and changed it into an object of devotion and worship to which they burned incense.

In this story, we see the propensity of man to make idols out of objects. We easily loose sight of the God who chose to use the object for His purpose for a season, and we become focused on the object itself. We slide slowly yet easily down the slippery slope of nostalgia in to the pit of idolatry. Let’s not forget that although God can use objects for His purposes, He is neither confined to nor represented in objects of any sort.