Lord, teach us to pray
In Luke 11:1 we read, Lord, teach us to pray. The disciples knew, and we know, that we need to pray.
Today I want to share part of the introduction from an article written by Rev Dr Stuart Robinson in 1992 (the full document is on the front desk at the Greenhouse, or online at the Renewal Journal Blog):
“In 1952 Albert Einstein was asked by a Princeton doctoral student what was left in the world for original dissertation research? Einstein replied, ‘Find out about prayer’.
English preacher Sidlow Baxter, when he was eighty-five years of age, said, ‘I have pastored only three churches in my more than sixty years of ministry. We had revival in every one. And not one of them came as a result of my preaching. They came as a result of the membership entering into a covenant to pray until revival came. And it did come, every time’ (Willhite 1988:111).
Chaplain of the United States Senate, Richard Halverson, advised that we really don’t have any alternatives to prayer. He says, ‘You can organize until you are exhausted. You can plan, program and subsidize all your plans. But if you fail to pray, it is a waste of time. Prayer is not optional. It is mandatory. Not to pray is to disobey God’ (Bryant 1984:39).
Roy Pointer, after extensive research in Baptist churches in the United Kingdom, arrived at the conclusion that wherever there was positive growth, there was one recurring factor: they were all praying churches.”
Lord, teach us to pray.
Only Jesus,
Dony
Reference: 1992, ‘Praying the Price’, Renewal Journal 1: Revival, accessed 5 October 2018, <https://renewaljournal.blog/2016/02/27/praying-the-price-by-stuart-robinson/>.