Earley discusses the boldness of prayer in in chapter seven. Hebrews 4:16 states, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (KJV)." It is interesting that the author of Hebrews makes such a statement after describing Jesus as the Christians High Priest. He has passed through the heavens, he can be touched with our infirmities, and was in all points tempted just as we have been or will ever be. The author is giving us a depiction of the high priest in the Old Testament and how they would intercede on behalf of the Jewish people, but now this Jesus is different. Jesus is unlike those priest in the Old Testament because He was sinless, sits at the right hand of the Father, and regardless of how bad our sins or infirmities are we can touch Him unlike the Old Testament priest. An example of this can be found in Luke 8:43-48. A woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years which was considered very unclean in the ancient world touched His garment. He confronted her about it and she confessed to Him about it. She also exclaimed that she was immediately healed. He told her that her faith has healed her and to go in peace.
That is boldness of faith and prayer. It takes boldness to come to throne of God to receive from Him what He has promised. The woman as well as many others knew that Christ could heal them. That is the same boldness that Christians should be praying in daily knowing that we have a Great High priest that is interceding for us regardless of our infirmities. Earley wrote, "Spurgeon implores to accept the promise personally "as one's own." After doing so, the believer must pray." (1) The Christian must search for the promises of God and pray those specific prayers as going boldly before the throne of grace.
The tree applications that I can add into my prayer life from chapters six through ten are: to be specific, ask big, and supplication. I believe that I do a really good job in my daily prayer life except for my ministry especially when it comes to these three areas. Before I read these specific area it was as if I was praying like a vessel in the ocean that was tossed to and fro. I prayed more like I was casting a net out to just catch something and that is how my teaching and evangelistic ministry has been since retiring from the Army too. Therefore, I am going to apply these three applications.
In speaking of being specific I am going to do something much like Dawson Trotman did in ask big like praying over a map, but I am going to start with a U.S map. I plan to outline a general area around the state that I live in and start praying from there. Earley quotes Finney as saying, "Prevailing prayer is specific. It is offered for definnite object. We cannot prevail for everything at once." (2) I believe that as my ministry is starting out this is a good start of asking big. Mentioning Trotman Earley wrote, "Trotman determined to pray over a map of the world two hours Earley every morning for forty days. (3) I want to start out specifically just as in the Finney observation, but eventually I would like to make an impact like the Navigators make; all over the world. The final aspect that I plan to incorporate is supplication. This final one is one of the most important. I have worried that I have taught enough nor have I evangelized enough which I have been busy at times. I am not praying prayers of supplications for financial gains or notoriety, but that I will have the opportunity to spread the Gospel especially in times such as these.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Dale Griggs
References:
1. Dave Earley, Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders, (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Living Ink Books, 2008), 113.
2. Ibid., 117.
3. Ibid., 121
No comments:
Post a Comment