From the Home Place

August 11, 2025

When someone is in a tough situation with little hope of getting relief, we may comment, “He doesn’t have a prayer,” meaning the situation is hopeless. However, for the Christ follower, there is always hope, there is always a time for prayer.

In Matthew, Chapter 6, Jesus gave His disciples a model for prayer, a model that is still good for today. We should begin our prayers by acknowledging who God is, declaring that God is holy (and that we are not), His sovereign reign over all of life (including ours), that we are to join Him in advancing His kingdom here on earth, and that we yield our lives to His will for us for today.

In Isaiah 6, Isaiah finds himself in the presence of God, another powerful element of prayer. Yet in the presence of God, Isaiah is driven to realize his own sinfulness, bringing him to confession. You see my friends, prayer that is focused upon who God is and upon what God has done, and upon what He is doing, is prayer that will always foster personal confession of falling short of God’s holiness.

By God’s amazing grace, He never leaves us to wallow in the muck of our sin. Instead, if we are willing to confess our sin, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(1 John 1:9) After our personal cleansing, we can then petition the King for the cleansing of others, and our land, because God does care about the conditions in which you and others live. As we pray for His blessing upon our lives, we must also remember to bring those less fortunate than ourselves before His throne. There we ask almighty God to intercede in the lives of those who are struggling, those who are ill and those who appear to be far away from Him.

Always in prayer, we must praise God for that which He has done and for that which He will do. Praise goes far beyond just thanking God. Praise is to acknowledge God’s awesome relationship with humanity, and with us as individuals. Praise is to give God the glory that He alone is worthy of!

As stated many years ago, Prayer is that time when you “look at God looking at you.” The posture of prayer is that of a humble heart, bowing before the King! After confession and cleansing, then we are really ready to pray. Prayer is me before He so that it may become we.

Perhaps an illustration: If you have ever used a horse to accomplish something you could not do by yourself, it isn’t you using your power to control the horse, it the horse allowing you to use his power to accomplish the task. Powerful prayer that is focused upon who Go is, is much the same.

Praising our King with you, Neal