I Need Prayer

This week I am reading John Piper’s book, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry. I like Piper because he writes with exceptional clarity. He gets to the point, and his points get to me.

Chapter 8, “Brothers, Let us Pray”, begins with a timely quote from A.C. Dixon:

When we depend upon organizations,
we get what organizations can do;
when we depend upon education,
we get what education can do;
when we depend upon man,
we get what man can do;
but when we depend upon prayer,
we get what God can do.

I need prayer. Actually, I need God, and prayer leads me to God. The more I pray the more I depend on God. The converse is true. The less I pray the more I depend on others or myself. Thus, I am back to my original statement, I need prayer.

Chapter 9, “Brothers, Beware of Sacred Substitutes”, ends with a quote from A.A. Baron:

O brother, pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; rather fast and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper—and sleep too—than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber.

I find it comical how I can substitute so many other things for prayer. There are times I rush my prayer so that I can move on to something else—something more important. There is nothing as important as prayer. Nothing can substitute for prayer.

Just the other morning I was rushing through my time alone with God so I could study for Sunday’s message. Thankfully the Holy Spirit reminded me that my sermon study could wait. Then a quote from a seminary friend came to mind: “Ryan, you and I should spend more time talking to God about our people than we do talking to our people about God.” So I prayed more.
I need prayer. What about you? Do you need prayer?