In Micah 6:6-8, the prophet asks this penetrating question about prayer:
With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings?...Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression?...He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah was convinced that true prayer is more than just words. The Bible is clear that God pays as much attention to the life of the one who is praying as He does to the words of the prayer. And He also urges us to persevere in prayer.
One evening I was in a prayer meeting in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I asked for prayer for my father, who never darkened the door of a church. I had prayed for him every day for seven-and-a-half years. After the meeting, two men asked if they could visit my dad and share the gospel with him. On their first visit, my dad threw them out of the house, but a few weeks later they tried again. My dad invited them in and went over to the sofa and knelt down, weeping his way to the foot of the cross. Six weeks later, he died.
Christian, God is not reluctant to answer our prayers. He simply asks that we walk humbly with Him, pray without ceasing, and never lose heart.
Prayer
Lord, purify my heart, and that will purify my life. Amen.
To Ponder
To be effective, our prayers must be accompanied by a God-honoring life.
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