I was with a friend recently and he said that the first time he went to the UK from Nigeria, he could not pray because there was nothing to pray for, apparently because everything was working. He did not have to pray for power supply, there were little or no uncertainties to form prayer points. He could actually plan the day and watch things work exactly as planned because there were no slow moving traffic jams to pray against and no unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks to squeeze through. In other words, all that he needed God for back at home had been taken care of by the government. So no need to pray!
Little by little and almost without noticing the change, we have turned our Father of mercy and love; the Creator of heaven and earth; the Sovereign God, the Consuming Fire and the Indescribable God into a God of things! In the same way, our prayers have metamorphosed into a time of reading our wish list out to God. Sometimes we add colour to it by telling Him our true life stories. At other times, we sow some ‘mighty’ seeds and tie the answers to the seeds.
Quite often, when we praise God in our meetings, it’s usually because we’ve been taught that if we praise God for what He has done, we are in line for the answers to the next prayer request. We’ve learnt that praise puts a seal on the answers to our prayers and our miracles. And if we don’t praise Him, the blessings will gradually ebb away. In fact, the louder the shout of praise or the clapping of our hands, the bigger the magnitude of the answer to our prayers.
Matthew 6: 31 – 32 says:
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs”
And Matthew 7: 7 – 8 says:
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
In the light of the scriptures above, what then are we supposed to ask, seek and knock for? The good news is that as Christians, we have Jesus Christ as our perfect examples. We are also immensely blessed with a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. Their accounts are clearly written in the Bible. We can study their lives by the help of the Holy Spirit; we’ll see what they prayed for and how they prayed. In this way, we’ll never pray amiss again. Start the journey, God’s grace is sufficient.
Chidi Ukandu's Blog 