Many parts of the country have been hit by heavy snow fall. It started out as a positive: the beauty it gave to the earth with robes of righteousness, teaching the kids how to make snow angels, then came the igloos and tunnels, then the dangerous roads, stuck cars, and back breaking shoveling. After a while it wasn’t beautiful and it wasn’t fun.

Sometimes our faith, prayer life  and abstinence follow the same pattern.

Everything and everyone is beautiful until that one person causes us harm, or that one prayer seems unanswered, then our once active prayer life becomes a periodic prayer life. Our actions reveal an attitude that “God is gonna do whatever He wants weather I talk to him or not.” Not true.

Remember Abraham’s discussion with God about destroying Sodom in Genesis 18? Abraham was addressing a very real situation, talking with God and learning about God- learning about His mercy and the importance of our intercession, both for ourselves and those we intercede for.

Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the LORD, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
Then he said, “May the LORD not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the LORD, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
Then he said, “May the LORD not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home. (Genesis 18:22-33)

What do we learn from Abraham?

Prayer changes things. Prayer brings us into the workings of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. God loves when we pray to Him. It tells Him that we want to participate in His plans, that we want to be active in the Kingdom. When we call out, “Abba, Father,” he hears our prayers and longs to answer them. After all, we are His children. He has chosen to adopt us into His family and bless us through faith in Jesus Christ.

What are others learning from your prayer life?

by David Gibson
Ordained Pastor and Pastoral Counselor

Copyright 2014, used by permission.

David Gibson is a writer, essayist, and blogger of Bible teachings for life application (http://davidwgibson.org/). He is also a Christian conference and retreat speaker, an adjunct professor of World Religions, and the former host of radio’s “Walking with the Master”.  David is an ordained pastor and was a pastoral counselor in the NJ prison system and a NJ psychiatric hospital. He received his Clinical Pastoral Education at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. He was freed from his addictions over 25 years ago.