"Praying is like Breathing”!

Dear God of all truth, I come to you today suffering because of a word, "lying".

I pray to you as the ultimate truth of the universe.  I claim this promise from Jesus, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  (John 14:2 NIV.)  

Does your spirit ever get crushed by lying? Do you sometimes feel defeated or neglected by it? I have felt at times my life has been on a journey through some really rocky territory and, honestly, most of the time I didn’t like it at all dealing with such things as “The Big Lie”? Which for me was a technique that has always interest me. It has been circulated since the fall of man, is that man is independent, that he does not need anything, that he can be self-sufficient. He can run his own life, make his own decisions, and is able to handle everything himself. How widespread that notion is! You see it reflected everywhere especially among youth, who are confident that they know how to handle life. Nothing is going to trap them, or trick them, or deceive them.  You see the scriptures teach us that we are basically born to be dependent on something or someone else to keep us, the “Holy Spirit”. We are not able to handle life by ourselves. No one is!

Essentially, I have learned that, many people and family members tell lies about a number of things; why they cannot go out with friends, or why they are late for appointments, or other rather low-level matters. There were times I thought God lied. But was quickly reminded, “that God never lies, but ordains that lying happen, it doesn’t mean that he approves of lying or that his law permits lying. It means that God governs all things in the universe, including the sins of sinful men. Sin does not cease to be sin because God governs it and guides it for the good of his people and the glory of his name.”

People lie about race matters. A person who lies or is a constant liar can do a lot of damage to your career, finances, reputation, personal relationships and your emotions. I even wondered once what was the big lie that put me in an Orphanage. Sometimes as a teacher I would joke about commonly told lies, such as the student who told me that “the dog ate my homework”.

In today’s media world the lie is told over and over until eventually people start believing it. The lie is maintained only for such time as the situation or official can shield the people from the political, economic consequences of the lie. 

Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.  Prov. 12:19

The Bible is clear that lying is a sin and is displeasing to God. The first sin in this world involved a lie told to Eve. The Ten Commandments given to Moses includes “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” Exodus 20:16
In the early church, Ananias and Sapphira lied regarding a donation in order to make themselves look more generous than they really were. Peter’s rebuke is stern: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” God’s judgment was sterner: the couple died as a result of their sin of lying. But I also know that lying can either drive me away from God or draw me near. That’s when questions about prayer comes to mind as well as where is the power of the Holy Spirit, my advocate?

I started to think what is the point of prayer when God knows the future and is already in control of everything? If we cannot change God's mind, why should we pray?"But I still choose to draw near and hold on with prayer.

Jesus called Himself the way, the truth, and the life John 14:6 and He expects those who follow Him to be people of truth. The truth is to be expressed in love Ephesians 4:15 offering hope to those seeking redemption from the lies of the world.

For the Christian, praying is supposed to be like breathing, easier to do than to not do. We pray for a variety of reasons. For one thing, prayer is a form of serving God (Luke 2:36-38) and obeying Him. We pray because God commands us to pray (Philippians 4:6-7) Prayer is exemplified for us by Christ and the early church Mark 1:35; Acts 1:14; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31; 6:4; 13:1-3. If Jesus thought it was worthwhile to pray, we should also. If He needed to pray to remain in the Father’s will, how much more do we need to pray?

We come to God with our specific requests, and we have God's promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we do not receive specifically what we asked for Matthew 6:6; Romans 8:26-27. He has promised that when we ask for things that are in one sense, prayer is like sharing the gospel with people. We do not know who will respond to the message of the gospel until we share it. In the same way, we will never see the results of answered prayer unless we pray.

A lack of prayer demonstrates a lack of faith and a lack of trust in God’s Word. We pray to demonstrate our faith in God, that He will do as He has promised in His Word and bless our lives abundantly more than we could ask or hope for(Ephesians3:20) Prayer is our primary means of seeing God work in others' lives. Because it is our means of “plugging into” God's power, it is our means of defeating Satan and his army that we are powerless to overcome by ourselves. Therefore, may God find us often before His throne, for we have a high priest in heaven who can identify with all that we go through (Hebrews 4:15-16). We have His promise that the fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much (James 5:16-17). May God glorify His name in our lives as we believe in Him enough to come to Him often in prayer.

God Bless You and This Ministry!