How Good It Is To Pray

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. So today, we're going to talk about how good it is to pray.

Shocker! Why would we want to do that, James? Well, that's a good question, Rodney, because isn't it true that we sometimes make prayer out to be this dull thing, you know, something we know we're supposed to do, but it's kind of like, I don't know, dieting or exercise? If we're honest, we have to admit that we struggle with it sometimes. Oh, it's so true.

I've often thought that's why the word Israel means wrestling with God. And you're right, it helps me to think about how good it is to pray because, you know, it'll encourage us to do it more. You know, so where should we start?

Let's start this way. What do you love about prayer? Well, you know, it's really cool. One of the things I love is the opportunity, right, just to be with the Father, literally in His arms. That idea of connecting is like any relationship. It gives you that feeling like you're not alone. Oh, I love that. I mean, that's everything, isn't it?

If your life is caught up in His love, you're blessed forever, and there's no other place to be. And we have to go there every day, you know, and as we do, man, what a difference it makes for us. Yeah, every minute of every day.

So if we can figure out how to do that. So how about you? I love that question, you know.

How about you? Yeah, well, I mean, first of all, again, all of this is about prayer, not as something that we have to do, but as something that we get to do. And I think if we change our perspective that way, it just opens everything up for us in some beautiful ways. So besides being with God, I love what God does when we pray. Sometimes we talk about prayer and we say, Oh, you know, I've prayed and prayed about something and it hasn't happened.

And I think we can overemphasize that. What about the times that we've seen God move? There are so many and think of the privilege that it is. We get to talk with God and he allows us to even get this move his hands when we pray. It has been said that prayer moves the hands that move the world. I think Ian Bowne said that, some others have as well. And I love that because, again, it shows us what a privilege it is. And I've seen some breathtaking answers to prayer in three and a half decades in ministry and, you know, they can come so quickly and yet at the same time, you know, as you look at them, you see, wow, God must have been working on that one for a while.

Right. Care to give us any examples? Oh, yeah, yeah, I think of one and I've talked to our listeners about that before, I think, but it was years ago when we were first planning Peace Church. And I was at a meeting at River Oaks, a church near you there in Clemens, North Carolina. And River Oaks is a great example of how to plant a church. I mean, you know, it was started out of Rinaldo Church there with a great plan and a great team. God was clearly behind it and just blessed it and, you know, the church grew quickly.

And so here I am at the meeting in this beautiful facility that they have, and I'm looking around and, you know, at the same time, Little Peace Church, you know, we had just gotten started. We were kind of a great example of how not to plant a church. We just, you know, didn't have a mother, didn't have a lot of support.

And so we had written letters to people that we knew, you know, asking for support if that was something, you know, that they'd like to do. And we prayed a lot about that. But what happened on this particular day was, I just, I'm looking around this beautiful church and I just get discouraged. And as I'm in the car on the way home, I find myself just weeping before God. And was that selfish? Well, yeah, maybe it was. But, you know, I found myself saying the same thing Esau did, you know, bless me too, Father.

I've never heard that that way. That's awesome. So, anyhow, pull up into the driveway at home, and as often happens when you come home after a long day, you know, you check the mailbox. So go to the mailbox, and there is a letter from a family that I had helped when I was at Princeton Seminary years ago.

You know, I'd mow their lawns, paint rooms for them, that kind of thing. So I had written them a letter. And inside this letter were two things.

One was a check for $5,000, which, I mean, our church was just, you know, I mean, our church was just scraping by. And another thing was this little, I don't know how to explain it, it was like a little peel-away card. And inside of that card, you know, you don't, there's a verse, and you don't know what the verse is, you know, you have to peel it away to see what it is. And so, anyhow, along with this check, here's this little peel-away verse, and I open it up, and it's out of Daniel, and it says, as soon as you began to pray, an answer was given for you, a highly favored answer. Oh, isn't that amazing?

I mean, it blew me away. Oh, yeah, and God's timing and all of that, right? The letter was placed in the mail long before you prayed, and not only that, I mean, your friend didn't know what verse was inside that little peel-away, I mean, that was just all God, right?

Yeah, it was. And again, it's just, you know, right then, that particular day is when that letter arrives, and with that blessing for the church, and, you know, I mean, I look back on that today, and of course, now we're in our own building on over eight acres, and, you know, it's all paid for by the grace of God, and in answer to prayer, again. So, you know, that brings me to another thing I love about prayer, and that is problem resolution. Oh, I like that one.

Yeah. I mean, have you ever prayed about something, you know, a problem you're having, and suddenly you see it in a whole new light? So, James, you mentioned the mailbox, and I couldn't help but think about the time that we dropped off our son to college, and we didn't have the money to keep him there in Arizona, and I was praying all the way home, praying like, God, it seems like this is what you want, but we don't have that kind of money, and we needed, like, $20,000.

It was a crazy amount of money, and my wife, oh. Anyway, when we got home, after much prayer, believe me, there was a check for exactly that amount. It just, it's amazing, and the source was even more amazing, but nonetheless, God came through just like that. I think we need to pray.

Oh, let's do it. Father, thank you. Thank you for this privilege. Thank you for the ways you meet us. Thank you, Lord, that eyes have not seen nor ear heard nor mind conceived what you have prepared for those who love you, but you reveal it to us by your Spirit as we pray. We love you for it. In Jesus' name. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.