The Invitation Of Prayer Series

THE INVITATION OF PRAYER

The story is told about a poor widow with several children. Every day she would go out on her front porch and raised her hands in prayer saying, “Lord, you know I have no food to feed my children today. Please provide for our daily needs.” Her next-door neighbor was an atheist who was sick and tired of hearing her pray every day so he decided to teach her a lesson. He went out and bought several bags of groceries and then sat them down on the woman’s front porch, rang the doorbell, and then hid in the bushes. The widow came out, saw the groceries, and burst into joyful praise. “Thank you God, you have supplied my need! Thank you for answering my prayer! Bless the Lord, O my soul!” The atheist jumped out from behind a bush and arrogantly said, “No lady, God has not supplied your needs today, I have! See how foolish it was to trust in a nonexistent God.” Without hesitation the woman burst into another prayer, “Dear God, you are so wonderful! You not only provided food for me today, but you even got the devil to pay for it!”

Today we are continuing in our series on prayer. We have looked at WHY we should pray and even WHAT we should pray. Today I want to focus on WHO it is that invites us to come, the fact that God tells us to come to Him and present our requests.

Jer 33:2-3 This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it -- the LORD is his name: 3 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

From these verses we see three important truths about prayer.

1. The Prompting - invitation

God invites us to come. He says to each one of us, “Call to me.” How complicated is that? In any and every situation, from any place or language, just call out to God. You do not have to be eloquent or profound. There is no requirement of wording or posture. You simply call on Him.

Call on Him when you are happy and rejoice in His blessings. Call on Him when your sad and find His comfort and hope in His promises. Call on Him when you are convicted and find grace and cleansing through the sacrifice of Jesus. Call on Him when you are depressed and hear His words of encouragement and support. Call on Him when your world has been turned upside down and watch Him reveal to you a new world that is true and pure. Call on Him when your burden is too heavy and the Holy Spirit will come and carry you through it. Call on Him when your strength is gone and your faith is weak, and find yourself mounted on eagles' wings, able to run and not be weary and walk and not faint.

It is important to understand the context of these words from God to Jeremiah. God called Jeremiah to be a prophet during the time of King Josiah. He was a good king and during his reign he lead the nation back to a right relationship with God. However, in 609 BC King Josiah died and Israel’s future was very uncertain. King Nebuchadnezzar came to power in Babylon and his armies were marching against the Israel. Jerusalem was under siege. Jeremiah had declared that the nation was about to be taken into exile, and that the exile would be for 70 years.

This announcement was not received very well and King Zedekiah had imprisoned Jeremiah in the court of the guard. People were plotting to kill him in order to silence his message. Think about that. Jeremiah was a prisoner, surrounded by people who wanted to kill him. In a doomed city surrounded by a huge powerful army. It is in that context that God speaks to Jeremiah and says, “Call to me.” God invites us to call on him. No matter what is happening in our lives, we are invited to come. Next month we are going to be doing a series on Jonah. He called out to God when he was in a very desperate place. Why is it that so often we wait so long? Why do we have to be in the belly of a whale at the bottom of the ocean before we pray?

Jeremiah was told to call out. God stood ready to answer. What is important is that we recognize that in order to receive, we must first ask. God want us to ask. He not only wants this, He has placed Himself in dependency upon our asking.

Eze 22:30 I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.