No one can keep us from praying.
People can tie up our hands and feet, but they cannot keep us from praying. They can cover our mouths with duct tape, but they cannot keep us from praying. They can arm-wrestle our wrists to the table, but they cannot keep us from praying. They can remove every public prayer from every civil institution, but they cannot keep us from praying.
They can beat us, imprison us and confiscate our belongings, but they cannot keep us from praying. They could pluck out our eyes and jerk out our tongues, but they still couldn’t make us quit praying.
Only one person on Earth can stop your prayers: you.
A Man Absolutely Obsessed With Prayer
What if we stopped stopping our prayers?
I counted 26 times in the HCSB that Paul wrote the word “pray” in his letters and 27 additional occasions where he used other forms of the word—like, “prays,” “praying,” “prayer” and “prayers.” Add to these numbers the times Paul used synonyms like “supplication” and “intercession,” and you have a man absolutely obsessed with prayer.
So, what’s the point? Paul had been struck to the ground and temporarily blinded by a saving encounter with Jesus. He had been divinely commissioned with as much detail and as clear an objective as any apostle in the New Testament.
He had visions and dreams given to him by the Holy Spirit. He was raised to the third heaven and heard unutterable things. He survived beatings that should have killed him. He had prison chains snapped by an earthquake.
His hands had been the gloves of God in countless wonders.
Not one inspired writer of the New Testament letters had more to say about prayer. He did not sit smugly back, presuming that Jesus would fulfill His purpose through him with little proactive effort on his part. He pressed in and prayed hard. To Paul, prayer was part of the necessary means even to a divinely foreordained end.
Beth Moore is an author and Bible teacher of best-selling Bible studies and books for women. She is the founder of Living Proof Ministries and speaker at Living Proof Live women’s events. Beth’s mission is to guide women everywhere into a richer, more fulfilling relationship with the Father.
For the original article, visit lifeway.com.
