An Article of Faith

There are times when our weakness or burden overwhelms our ability to pray. The weight of a lost friend, a lost child, or a lost world can bury us in despair. But God does not leave us helpless. He has sent His Spirit to reside in us so that we will have the ability to cry out in ways even beyond our reach.
“So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness,” writes Paul, “for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will” (Romans 8:26-27 AMP).
If we would pursue God in prayer we would discover that He has given us everything we need to become mighty in the one thing that moves heaven and earth above all else. Like a mother with her child, God hears the cries of His children. And these cries can do whatever God can do, for prayer is connecting and cooperating with Him. We cannot, of course, manipulate God in prayer. It is just the opposite. In prayer we find ourselves aligning with Him so that His desires become our desires. In such agreement, God allows us the blessed privilege of being involved in that which makes His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
“Delight yourself in the LORD,” sings David, “And He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 NASB95). When you delight in the LORD His desire becomes your desire. And when you desire what God desires you get it every time.
God is listening, the Holy Spirit is empowering, the world is dying... will He find you praying? (Taken and adapted from: OneCry: A Nationwide Call for Spiritual Awakening. Visit www.onecry.com.)
“One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. ‘There was a judge in a certain city,’ He said, ‘who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, “Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.” The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, “I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!” ’
“Then the Lord said, ‘Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to His chosen people who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will He find on the earth who have faith?” That is, the faith to pray?
“If My people,” declares the LORD, “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 will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV).

Jessie J. Charpentier Sr. is pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.