According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:3-4, KJV)
There are many wonderful promises in the Bible. YOU - can claim those promises for your own life! They were not given to just a small group of people, these promises are for you. I want them to become part of your life. These are great and precious promises: promises which reveal the heart of God towards us. In His Word we are promised healing, deliverance, salvation; the Bible says every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above.
And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I bought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:14-21, NKJV)
This father had a problem. His boy suffered dreadfully from his epileptic episodes. I know many people can relate to this very incident. There are people reading this who are troubled for their sons and daughters. Some are troubled by their own personal situations. This father had come to the disciples to cure the boy, but they couldn’t do it. That is so much like life today. We all get problems. Often we go and seek help, but nobody knows what to do to solve them.
One time when I was talking to a pastor, he commented that we often pray most when we are surrounded by problems. I had to agree. To me, prayer is not a formula. Some people ask how much time do I spend praying? How often do I pray? What words do I use? I am going to tell you the truth, I pray most when I am in difficulty and I need an answer. Sometimes I think to myself that because I have been a Christian a long time, that maybe God should make my life easier. I sometimes think I’ve had enough problems to last me ten lifetimes! Yet God allows those problems to come! I know I can’t solve them, but I know He can! - So each time I have a problem I go to God in prayer.
“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace. The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and He knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.” (Matthew 6:6-11, The Message)
What is prayer? How do we pray? To me, prayer is simply talking to God. Tell Him your problems. Thank Him for His answers. The fact that this boy’s father in Matthew 17 came to Jesus, makes him just like you. I want you to do exactly the same thing: come to Jesus in prayer, tell Him about your problems and thank Him for all He has done.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. (Philippians 4:6, NLT)
We must learn how to talk to God until our praying will move every mountain, every obstruction, everything that stands between us and the fulfilment of God’s promises. There are so many wonderful promises in the Bible: do as this father did, identify what you need and go straight to Jesus asking Him to work a miracle.
‘The Master Key’ used by kind permission of www.vinesong.com