Prayer alone is not enough (Part II)
Verse of the Day: Luke 6: 38 "Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For WITH THE SAME MEASURE that you use, it will be measured back to you”
Walking towards heaven is sometimes long and arduous. In the middle of the road, Christians encounter many hardships from the devil. Financial need is the favorite trial of the devil against Christians and many end up losing faith and give up. Without exaggeration, I believe that over 80% of Christians’ prayer requests are mainly related to material and financial needs. In other words, we pray in order to find the solution to our problems which is a natural reflex for God is supposed to be the solution to all our problems.
By the verse of the day (Luke 6: 38), Jesus shows that prayer is not sufficient in order to receive. This is the same Jesus who said, "Ask and you shall receive" (Matthew 7: 7) and this time he added by saying: "Give and it shall be given you" (Luke 6: 38). These two verses have a common denominator: To receive.
To ASK is the first condition and the second is to GIVE and both are fundamental in order to receive. Unfortunately most of the prayers are practically based on the first condition i.e to ASK.
The verse of the day goes little further because it is not just about giving and receiving. It is said that what is received (from God) after giving will be a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. Many are often excited by reading the part "overflowing" but the verse of the day clears any kind of illusions towards the end because it says: " the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you ". Everything depends on the measure that is used i.e to the measure given for the Lord. You noticed that I wrote in capital letters the part: "WITH THE SAME MEASURE" which means that the magnitude of what we receive will not depend on the number of days spent in fasting and prayer but on the measure we use in giving to the Lord. This confirms the letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians when he said: " Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows abundantly will also reap abundantly " (2 Corinthians 9: 6)
Again, it is not by praying long and fervent prayers that we harvests abundantly because prayer allows us to reap what we sow.
We will talk about this in the third part with a biblical example.
Chris Ndikumana
