Commitment to Christ Involves Prayer – Part 1

Imagine if there was a phone that would connect someone directly with God. Imagine if that phone was offered to you to make a phone call for free. You probably would be extremely excited with the opportunity. With all the challenges and problems that we all face nowadays; it really would be exhilarating. 

Now imagine when God gets on the other side of the line and asks you what you want, and you, having no clue how to respond, start to recite the Lord’s Prayer. Can you imagine how awkward that would be? You have the opportunity to have a conversation with the God Almighty and you just start reading a prayer. 

Unfortunately, our prayer life is very poor. We really do not know how to pray, and this is why we do not have the right answers for our prayers.

In JOHN 15: 1-17, Jesus tells His disciples that prayer is one of the most important aspects in the Christian life. Having a commitment to Christ will involve Prayer. 

1 – Prayer Is Recognizing and Accepting Our Limitations

The biggest challenge that we face in our prayer life is that we believe that we can do it by ourselves. We believe that we can get through without asking for help. Pride is the worst enemy of a prayer life. We do not want anyone to know our struggle, not even God. We resist very well telling God our troubles, sins, and needs.

This is what Jesus told the disciples: “John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”  

Jesus in this verse makes clear for His disciples that apart from Him they could do nothing. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” We pray because we realize that we do not have it, or we cannot do it by ourselves.

Prayer is a HUMBLE experience. It puts us in our right place, of dependency and need. When we pray, we recognize that God is God, creator, and sovereign, and we are creatures, sinners, in need of help, mercy and grace.

We men, and I, a Latino man, particularly struggle with this idea of needing something, or not being able to do anything. We do not like to have to accept that we are impotent, cannot do it, and we need help. We want to show that we can handle the situation, and take care of our own business.

Isn’t that pitiful? Isn’t that sad, and crazy? You probably do not know anybody like that. Yeah, right! Look around, or look at a mirror.

Find someone, and tell him or her, “I need help, can you pray for me?” Not only that, right now, raise your voice to God, yes, He is there with you right now, and He can hear you, say this simple prayer: “Lord, I cannot do it by myself, I need your help.”

This is a first important step in our journey in the prayer discipline, to recognize our need.

Have a blessed week,

Pastor Lucas