Devotional Song: Go to this link - Please take the time to meditate on this powerful song and video, the song sung by Steve Green, singing Find Us Faithful, … a prayer, reminding Christians that the tracks we lay in life and the rails we follow through prayer will lead the way – in our faithfulness – for those who come behind us (our kids and grandkids) to follow.
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Highlight Passage: Luke 11: 1 … [Our prayers lay the rails for God’s engine to take us to glory.] … [NLT]
1 Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As He finished, one of His disciples came to Him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
Highlight Passage #2: Luke 11: 9-10 … [And persistent prayer becomes the rails which take us from where we are to where God powers us.] … [NLT]
9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. …”
Highlight reading study of Luke, Chapter 11, Verses 1-13: Go to this link …
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Reference Passage #1: Ephesians 6: 18 … [Persistent prayer provides the rails which take us to God’s will.] … [NLT] …
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
Reference Passage #2: 1st Thessalonians 5: 17 … [Have we lain the tracks of prayer which God can use to get us where HE desires we go?] … [NLT] …
17 Never stop praying.
My Journal for Today: If you’re reading along with me today and you read the title of my blog, I can almost read what you’re thinking: “God’s rails? … What does that mean, Bill?!” Well, maybe you guessed from the photo attached that somehow I’m dealing with prayer today; … and I am! Os Hillman in my devotional for this morning came up with an interesting – and I believe, powerful – word picture to describe the effectiveness of prayer in our lives as Christians. He wrote today, quoting from Watchman Nee’s book, Let Us Pray (New York, New York: Christian Fellowship Publishers, 1977), p.11, …
• “Indeed, prayer is to God's will as rails are to a train. The locomotive is full of power: it is capable of running a thousand miles a day. But if there are no rails, it cannot move forward a single inch. … The engine may be able to travel over great distances; yet, it cannot go to any place where no rails have been laid. And such is the relation between prayer and God's work."
That’s a powerful word picture of what persistent and faithful prayer is for the Christian life. And I hope you have listened to Steve Green singing a prayer to which I linked you above, … the song praying that God would find us faithful; and I believe that living the Christian life without the discipline of faithful prayer (as Paul wrote about in Ephesians 6: 18 and 1st Thessalonians 5: 17) is like having the engine for a train but no tracks on which to travel.
Prayer, especially disciplined and persistent prayer, becomes the rails on which we channel the power God has for us to use His will for His glory. It’s as Jesus taught His disciples in Luke 11: 1-13, linked above to drive us from where we are in life to where HE wants to take us. The question becomes, … have we lain the tracks to allow God’s powerful engine of grace to get us down those prayer rails to His destination (I.e., His will) for our lives?
I don’t know about you; but I’m under serious conviction today … for not laying and using the rails of prayer to let God power me down the way to His will for my life. So, I going to work to lay a few tracks and pray here this morning.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, forgive me for not following your instructions and faithfully laying the rails of prayer often enough to bring me more effectively down the tracks of my life to get me to Your destination. I pray here today for your enabling grace to help me pray more effectively and more persistently … day-by-day … and to move me toward Your will for my life. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online blog entitled Today God Is First [TGIF], authored by Os Hillman. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read Hillman’s TGIF blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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