ESOCS Devotional 12 August 2023: Prayer Needful For Evangelism

ESOCS Devotional 12 August 2023

MEMORY VERSE: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.” Philippians 4:6

TEXT: LUKE 11: 1-13 (KJV)

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

²So He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
³Give us day by day our daily bread.
⁴And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

A Friend Comes at Midnight

⁵And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; ⁶for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? ⁸I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

⁹“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? ¹³If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Read Yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here

Prayer is an act of communication by humans with the transcendent realm or supernatural powers. In our context, with the sacred or Holy God, it is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a good rapport with God through deliberate communication. It is an expression of faith in God’s power, fueled by the desire of more of Him. Prayer helps you to develop a relationship with God just like your earthly parents. Your heavenly father wants to hear from you and talk to you more closely and continuously.

As a means of communicating with God, we first have to praise Him, thank Him for what He has done and is doing, and having faith, He will do more in the future. In prayer, we confess our sins committed knowingly and unknowingly, then ask Him for your needs or make your requests. Ask God for the Holy Spirit, guidance, direction, wisdom and continuous victory.

In the above text, Jesus took His time to teach the disciples how to pray. First, He made them know the need to acknowledge God as our heavenly father, who dwells in heaven. Then, He recapitulated to remind God that His will should be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Then comes your requests. Also acknowledge that we are sinners and ask for forgiveness of our sins. It is important that diverse temptations could be avoided by the lead of the Holy Spirit. He rounded up by asking the Father to conquer all forms of evil for His children.

While teaching them how to pray, He added another dimension through the word importunity which means insistent solicitation and entreaty will leave God no alternative but to agree and grant us our heart’s desire. He capped His teaching up by saying, “Ask, and it shall be given unto you, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” The reason being that no earthly father will give his son stone when he requests for bread, nor give him serpent for fish, or scorpion for an egg; how much more our heavenly Father who is righteous and loving. He will give us our desire up to the Holy Spirit.

In summary, when we have followed the right procedure to pray, all we need is consistently asking, seeking and knocking, which will definitely produce the right result. This is the product of faith without which no one can get anything from God Almighty. This simple principle is applicable in different types of prayers such as prayer for provision, healing, victory, deliverance, favours, mercy, forgiveness and the rest of them.