"Ya Gotta Pray!"

 

“Ya Gotta Pray!”

 

In the mid 1960’s I paid my seminary expenses through my job as a part-time warehouseman for Sears in Denver. One of the local delivery drivers was one of the most profane men I’d ever encountered. I left for the summer and when I returned to work in the fall I noticed another driver had taken over his route. I asked about him and was told he’d been reassigned to the daily shuttle to Colorado Springs and Pueblo. I soon re-met him as my new work assignment was loading his trailer for the next day’s trip. It was painful to see him getting out of his cab because his long dormant rheumatoid arthritis had flared up. He greeted me and I immediately saw he’d changed when he said, “I’ve learned ya gotta pray!” I had many conversations with him over the next two years but never knew for sure if he’d put his faith in Christ.

Obviously I’ve never forgotten this coworker as I’m writing about him 55 years later. But as I looked back I found myself asking, “What has it taken to teach me I gotta pray?” Most of the time, to my shame, it’s been adverse circumstances brought about when I began to take things for granted and went ahead without seeking God’s direction. This was the reason for the  Israelites’ defeat at Ai after the great God-given victory at Jericho (read the story in Joshua 6-7).

There are numerous commands to pray throughout Scripture. Here are a few examples (emphasis added in each case): “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” (1 Chronicles 16:11); “…Jesus told his disciples…that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1); “…Pray continually….” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). So we’re not just told to pray—we’re to make it a regular and vital part of our daily lives. As someone has wisely observed, “How can God answer a prayer that’s not prayed?” Our Lord’s brother states the obvious: “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” (James 4:2).

God knows our human tendency when He says through His prophet, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to (his or her) own way….” (Isaiah 53:6). But He also said, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21). And He’s given us His Word, His Spirit, spiritual discernment, counsel from godly people, our life circumstances and others’ experiences as resources which, when coupled with prayer (“…Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”—Ephesians 6:18, emphasis added),  enable us to obey His command. (See “Directional Signals” for more on this topic.)

May I take this seriously and move from “Ya gotta pray” to “I wanna pray.”

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan