POEM: “Lord, Hear My Prayer” by Johann M. Haydn

Our prayer motivator passage from the Word of God today is Matthew 6:6 which reads: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

Our featured prayer motivator quote is from Thomas Watson. He said, “Prayer is the arrow, and faith is the bow, by which our requests go up to Heaven. A faithless prayer is a fruitless prayer.”

My personal encouragement for you today is this: No matter how long it takes to pray, no matter how difficult it is to pray, praying to God is the most important thing you can do in your day. It should be the #1 priority above everything else you have to do.

Our prayer motivator devotional today is titled “PRAYER AND THE WORD OF GOD” part 8 from the book, “Necessity of Prayer” by E.M. Bounds.

We have got to believe that underlying God’s Word is prayer, and upon prayer, its final success will depend. In the Book of Isaiah we read: “So shall My word be that goeth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

In Psalm 19, David magnifies the Word of God in six statements concerning it. It converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures eternally, and is true and righteous altogether. The Word of God is perfect, sure, right, pure. It is heart-searching, and at the same time purifying, in its effect. It is no surprise therefore that after considering the deep spirituality of the Word of God, its power to search the inner nature of man, and its deep purity, the Psalmist should close his dissertation with this passage: “Who can understand his errors?” And then praying after this fashion: “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”

James recognizes the deep spirituality of the Word, and its inherent saving power, in the following exhortation: “Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”

And Peter talks along the same line, when describing the saving power of the Word of God: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”

Not only does Peter speak of being born again, by the incorruptible Word of God, but he informs us that to grow in grace we must be like new-born babes, desiring or feeding upon the “sincere milk of the Word.”

That is not to say, however, that the mere form of words as they occur in the Bible have in them any saving efficacy. But the Word of God, be it remembered, is impregnated with the Holy Spirit. And just as there is a Divine element in the words of Scripture, so also is the same Divine element to be found in all true preaching of the Word, which is able to save and convert the soul.