Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Francis Fenelon
Glorifying His Name
Is there any better reason to pray to God to ask His help in seeking to glorify Him in our lives (Matt 6:9)? I don’t think so, because God seeks glory for Himself, for there is none greater, and He desires that Jesus Christ be glorified in word and in deed in our lives. Praying for that is never, ever a waste of time, but rather, a great use of our time spent in prayer.
Our Daily Bread
Jesus said that we must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matt 4:4), something that was recorded in the Old Testament. We can’t survive long without food (bread), but even more urgent is taking in the Bread of Life, and of course that is Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). This means the bread we eat and the Bread of Life.
Seeking Forgiveness
When Jesus was giving an example of how we’re to pray to His disciples, one of the most important elements of prayer is to ask God to “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt 6:12). This means we seek God’s forgiveness on a daily basis. Imagine I had sinned against my wife and thought, “Well, I’ll get around to asking her to forgive me sometime.” That wouldn’t help our relationship at all, and so in the same way, we need to come to God and clear our conscience by confess our sins to Him and He is faithful and just to forgive them, if we do (1st John 1:9).
Avoiding Temptation
If we’re not careful, we can fall into sin very easily, which is why it’s so important to pray to God and ask His help in avoiding our falling into temptation, because if we don’t flee temptation, we could fall into sin. Thankfully, we get back up, confess our sin, and try to avoid the same temptations, but God knows what’s around the blind corners of time, so ask His help in avoiding areas and situations where we’re tempted to sin.
Deliverance from the Evil One
This prayer isn’t so much that the Evil One, who is Satan himself, will destroy us, but won’t influence us to sin. There are enough temptations in the world that we don’t need Satan’s or his demons help us sin, so pray to God to be able to be delivered from the Evil One. Thankfully, God has supplied every piece of armor to resist the fiery darts of the enemy (Eph 6:10-18).
Conclusion
As you have read, prayer is never a waste of time. In fact, a prayer-less Christian is a vulnerable Christian who can easily be led away by temptation, only to fall into sin, so Francis Fenelon is correct by saying that “Time spent in prayer is never wasted.”
