The Duty of Prayer

I was in the first class of graduating students in Dr. Stephen Olford's School of Expository Preaching, and part of that process was we students had to craft our own sermon and then preach it in front of Dr. Olford. Well, I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, and before it was my turn to preach, I found Stephen Olford out in the hallway, and I grabbed him, and I told him I was nervous, and I asked him to pray for me. I'll never forget it.

He reached up and laid his hands on my shoulders, and he began to pray. Heaven opened. I felt an incredible peace.

God answered his prayer instantly. There was a lightning-like response to Dr. Olford's electrifying prayers, and although Stephen Olford taught me how to preach, the most valuable aspect to knowing him was that he taught me how to pray. I learned how to have a consistent, quiet time with God each day.

Dr. Olford had taught thousands of ministers from all over the world expository preaching, and he shared with me a startling fact. He said it was his observation that the average pastor only spent ten minutes a day in prayer. Ten minutes! Can you imagine that, friends? Well, if that's true, what does the average Christian spend in prayer? Two minutes? Three minutes? Well, over the next few years, I would have the privilege of learning the priority of a daily devotional life through Stephen Olford's instruction and example.

He wrote a little booklet entitled, Man in the Morning, on the significance of maintaining a daily quiet time. How I treasure the memory of praying with him in regard to ministry, in regard to revival, in regard to personal trial. Stephen Olford was a great preacher because, first and foremost, he was a man of prayer.

Dr. Olford taught me that a preacher was only as tall in the pulpit as he was long on his knees in prayer. I believe the most neglected thing in the church today, friend, is the neglect of prayer, or utter indifference to it, or casual approach to it, or laziness in regard to a prayer life. Anything worthwhile in life has a sacrifice attending it, whether it's advanced educational degrees or learning a trade.

Time and sacrifice must be involved. What costs counts, and what counts costs. God gets serious with those who get serious with him.

If you wish to go deeper with God, friend, then it all begins with a regular, daily quiet time. Habits must be formed. Consistency must be realized.

You must find a quiet place to pray. Our example is Jesus. In Mark's Gospel we read, And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Jesus knew the duty of prayer, and his life is an example to us. Do we have a set time each day to pray? Are we lazy in prayer? Are we casual about prayer? Would there be a difference in the life of our family if we got up off the couch and turned off the TV long enough to go into another room where we could drop down on our knees and beseech the great God of heaven to save our lost family members? Are we willing to make a sacrifice in prayer so someone we know won't go to hell? Well, Jesus got up early, before the break of day, to spend time with the Father. For years I disciplined myself to rise early, a great while before day, rising at 4.30 a.m. every morning to get along with God in prayer.

Well a pastor friend of mine noticed this discipline in my life, and he shared with me that he had trouble getting out of bed in the morning, so he asked me if I wouldn't mind telephoning him each day at 4.30 so he could get up to pray. Well eventually his wife put an end to the early phone calls, and he found a different time to get along with God in prayer. The key is consistency.

The key thought is you need to find a time that works for you to have your daily quiet time of prayer. I combine my prayer time with Bible study, and I make notations in my Bible where I feel a verse of Scripture is speaking directly to me. My Bible is all marked up with dates and notes where I've kept a record of my daily quiet time with God through the years.

When God speaks directly to me from his word, I will date it with a seascape drawing of a palm tree and seashore to make it stand out. I can grab any of my old Bibles and find instance after instance where I've kept a record of God speaking to my heart through these long years. Walking with God involves certain conditions.

First, you must be born again. An unregenerate heart will find the Bible a dry book difficult to comprehend. Your spirit must be in touch with his spirit through the new birth.

You'd be amazed how many unconverted ministers lead unconverted congregations. Secondly, you must pursue a life of holiness. In Amos 3.3 we read, Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Well, the answer is no.

I believe a perfect picture of fellowship with God can be found in Psalm 24 on the question asked, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? Psalm 24.4 states, He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. Clean hands speak of our dealings with our fellow man. Have we cheated someone? Have we lied to someone? Have we deceived someone? Clean hands represent our horizontal plane in our dealings with others.

A pure heart signifies our dealings with God. Do we have any unconfessed sin in our life? Is our walk with God consistent? This speaks of the vertical plane, and when the two planes meet, horizontal and vertical, they form a cross. The Christian life is lived via the cross.

If we want to have access to God and power with him, we must maintain a life of consistency with him. We must keep short accounts with him in regard to our daily living. Next, there must be a life of yieldedness, yieldedness to Christ's Lordship.

Christ is Lord. Friend, is he Lord in your life? The Lordship of Christ is a neglected teaching in our modern liberal churches, but if we want to have a life of prayer that brings glory to God and has influence with men, then we must submit to his Lordship in our daily living. The duty of prayer has strict accountability.

The duty of prayer is attended with great responsibility. We see the lament of a holy God in Ezekiel 2230, and I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. I wonder if Lot had been more of a man of prayer instead of a man of the world, and if he'd been burdened for the sinful Sodomites rather than being disgusted by them, and if he'd spent his free time on his knees and on his face before God, praying for the sins of Sodom and begging God's mercy on them, if revival would have come to it like it did to Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah, where God spared that great city.

But God sought for a man among them to stand in the gap as an intercessor in prayer, but he found none. God burned up Sodom for their sins, and I wonder, will God have to destroy our nation for its grievous sins against a thrice holy God? Where are the intercessors? Why aren't you one? Will God hold each of us accountable for our lack of prayer? And yes, the duty of prayer is a sacrifice. I remember years ago, I was in a week-long conference, and I was working 15 hours a day, and I was plumb out, exhausted.

And the last day of the conference, I rushed my quiet time that morning, and I went to my office, and I was in the flesh that day, and I sinned. And as I drove home, I wept and asked God, how could I sin so easily after being on top of a mountain with him all week? Well, what usually comes after a mountaintop, a valley? And as I was driving home, I was praying, and God brought a passage of scripture to my mind of the Israelites in the wilderness, where God fed them with manna, but when they tried to store it for the next day, it bred worms and stank. And God spoke to my heart in the car that day as I prayed.

He said, your prayer life is like that manna. You cannot live today on yesterday's experience of me. You must come to me fresh every day.

And I thought to myself, that's the trouble with a lot of us Christians, our devotional life has worms in it. Well, my devotional life lacks sacrifice, and God delights in sacrifice. Did he not sacrifice his only begotten son on Calvary? Did the Son of God not lay down his life for sinful man? Oh, well, I hope this little lesson on the duty of prayer, friends, has been a help to you as it has to me.

May God grant you much grace as you pursue him in an intimate walk with him.