Prayer – It’s More than a Last Resort
Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there. Genesis 32:29 NKJV
As we study Jacob’s life, he doesn’t seem to be a man of prayer. We don’t find Jacob praying on many occasions. Just like us – we don’t pray until we get ourselves in a tight predicament. Often we try to handle everything ourselves; then, only when we find ourselves helpless in the situation, do we pray.
Several years ago, I saw a cartoon in a Baptist paper. The cartoon pictured a member of the congregation who had gone to the educational director to tell about a problem he was having. The educational director said, “I guess we’ll just have to pray about that.” The member responded, “Has it come to that?”
Sometimes we think that way. We think of praying only as a last resort. Too often we do everything we know to do before we pray. Now we see Jacob praying in a crisis. Praying in a crisis is better than not praying at all, but we ought to pray all along the way and not have to wait until the crisis hits.
When was the last time you prayed? When was the last time you really met God in believing prayer?
