Heaven Rules Sample

Who Are You Seeking?

If prayer is a struggle for you, as it is for me, you’ve probably asked yourself: Why is consistent prayer such an effort? Why are my prayers so tepid and forced? Why do they seldom feel effective? Why is there so little passion and power behind them, unlike the way other people’s praying often sounds?

There’s no single key that turns us from spotty prayers to unstoppable prayers. But here’s what I’ve found, and am finding, as I strive to keep my focus on Heaven’s rule as it intersects with my day. If deep down I believe that earthly people and earthly forces rule—governments, critics, decision-makers, societal trends—if I think they’re the ones who carry the most weight and influence over my life and my world, I’ll spend most

of my thinking and energy on them: how to change minds, how to fight back, how to defend my actions, and how to get people to like me.

But because Heaven rules, the always-appropriate response is to pray. To talk with the One who does rule. To ask of Him what you believe is right and receive from Him what He knows is best. To place your life in His hands and trust that you can be in no safer place and find no more reliable provision. In prayer, we can know we’ve been heard, and we can experience the calm and courage that carry and steady us when every other remedy has done nothing but deplete us.

When we understand that Heaven rules, even our prayer life changes. Or, as in Daniel’s case, refuses to change. Three times a day, we’re told, regular as clockwork, he would go to his house (if he wasn’t there already), ascend to an upstairs room where the open windows faced southward toward Jerusalem, get down on his knees, and pray (Dan. 6).

Now, you can’t keep that up for a lifetime, as Daniel did, much less for a week, a month, or a year unless you’re convinced that Heaven rules. And you can’t pray like that if you don’t believe the rule of Heaven is the real determinant of what happens to you and

how it affects your life here on earth and, more important, for eternity. You can testify all you want, but your prayer life will reveal what you really believe.

—Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Questions:

• What keeps you from seeking the Lord in constant prayer? What areas of life tend to steal your focus?
• If you really believe Heaven rules, how does that change your mindset when it comes to prayer?