Sweet Hour of PrayerSample

The Pleasure of Prayer

Psalm 16:5 “My choice is you, God, first and only. And now I find I’m your choice!” (MSG). The passion translation reads, “YAHWEH, you alone are my inheritance. You are my prize, my pleasure, and my portion. You hold my destiny and its timing in your hands.”

C. S. Lewis says, “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only”. The truth is, if you have God, you have everything because God is everything and some. This is why God says we should seek God's Kingdom and righteousness first. Then what? All other things will be added to us. In the Presence of God, there is fullness of joy, and at God’s right hand are pleasures forever more. The ultimate pleasure of prayer is not the answer to prayers. The ultimate pleasure of prayer is that we find God.

Picture this: you are praying for something, perhaps a child. And by the time you get the answers to your prayers, you discover that what gives you the most joy is not the answer to your prayer. You discover that the depth of your relationship with God that the process has birthed gives you the most joy. That is, if you submit to the process as God would have you submit to it, you will discover that the greatest joy will be that you have found God. However, most times, we allow the things that we expect to get from God to hinder us from the experience that God wants us to have of Him. Do not let what you expect keep you from what God wants you to experience.

I have discovered that prayer does not change God. Prayer changes things. I have also discovered that prayer does not only change things, but it also changes me. As I consistently pray that things change, I found that I would be the first to change. God will change the situation, but He will first start with you. You will discover that you have experienced God when the expectation is met. It was something else that Jacob took to God in prayer. But when it was all said and done, Jacob was a new man because he wrestled with God and prevailed. God is enough, more than enough!

The more I seek God, the more I change and become all that He wants for me. In the end, we discover that the Power of Prayer, the Pattern of Prayer, the Privilege of Prayer, and the Pleasure of Prayer are beyond answered prayers. It is in finding God and finding God for ourselves.

Hymn:

Sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer!

May I thy consolation share,

Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,

I view my home and take my flight:

This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise,

To seize the everlasting prize;

And shout, while passing through the air,

“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”