“Without prayer, it is impossible to please the Lord.” That is the one point in particular on prayer that is still on my mind from Sunday’s sermon.
So simple, so true and so powerful.
As I have reflected on that, God also brought another point to my mind.
I have heard it said that the scariest passage in the Bible is in Matthew 7:23, where Jesus warns his followers about the times to come.
“Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers’ ”.
In order for Jesus to know us we need to be walking and talking with Him. We need to know Jesus in order to do the Father’s will.
Knowing involves connection and intimacy. And those two things make up relationship. At salvation, we enter a relationship with the Lord. But as we all know, any relationship takes two and in a relationship with Him, we speak to Him through prayer and he speaks to us through His word.
Being in relationship with Him allows Him to know us and us to know Him. Nothing pleases Him more than us drawing near to him through prayer. When we are actively in relationship with Him, our actions will please him because they will be done out of a heart ready and yielded to His purposes.
Pastor Pierce uses this acronym for the word pray:
To please God, you must be a person ready and yielded to Him and His purposes. You cannot be ready and yielded with out relationship with Him. To have a relationship with Him, you must pray. Without prayer, it is impossible to please God.
