In the Gospel of Mathew, we read that after Jesus fed the five thousand, He send them away and He went alone into a mountain to pray (Mathew 14:23). But throughout the four Gospels, we read that the Lord has done this many times, and this of course shows us the importance of prayer.
Prayer allows us to communicate with God, it is our private time with Him where we have the opportunity to thank Him and to praise Him. To pray for the needs of people we know, for the needs of our family and for ourselves. Through prayer we receive strength, direction and the revelation of His will for our lives. The more time we spend on our knees in prayer, seeking His will, the more we get to know Him, just as we read in the book of Jeremiah where we read, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
And how should we pray? In Matthew 6:7, we read the Lord’s own words as to how we ought to pray. He said, “but when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking”. Therefore, we should pray without repeating and with as few words as possible for it says “much speaking” is not for believers, because our heavenly Father knows what we need before even we open our mouth.
But how do we approach God in order to pray effectively, in a way that would please Him? We ought to approach our heavenly Father in the same way we approach our earthly father’s for seek their help. We don’t go to our uncle first to ask him to speak to our father on our behalf. But instead, we go directly to our father to talk to him about what we need. Likewise, our Heavenly Father who created everything including the concept of relationships, wants to hear directly from us. God did not allow any room for any ambassadors to exist between Him and us, except one person: His Holy Son Jesus. The Anointed of the Father. And here is the truth of the Gospel. When Philip asked Jesus, “how can we know the way?” He told him: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
So, there is no other way to the throne of God but only through Jesus!
If according to Scripture Jesus is the ONLY way to God (John 14:6), why have so many people invented alternative ways in order to reach God? Have they not read what the apostle Paul wrote in his first epistle to Timothy, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5). Therefore, Jesus is the ONLY way to God, period! Also, when Peter healed the lame man who lay at the gate of the temple, he said, “… in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6). We see that Peter did not invoke another person’s name, but only the name of the Holy Son of God, because there is power only in the name of Jesus in whose hands God has given everything that is in heaven and on earth according to Matthew 28:18.
The truth of the Gospel is that the Lord Jesus had suffered and died on the Cross not only to free us from our sins, but also to provide us with the way to the throne of Grace. When we attempt to use “other” ways to reach God, our actions show that we don’t trust in Jesus, and therefore, we seek another way. I heard a clergyman once say, “I am not worthy to pay to Jesus”, and that’s why this man was invoking another person’s name. This all shows that many fellow Christians are truly ignorant of the true meaning of His great and holy sacrifice on the Cross, and this ignorance is the result of lack of spiritual knowledge which in turn has led to the spiritual confusion and to Luke-warmness in the life of today’s Church.
We need to pray that the Lord will open the eyes and understanding of our fellow Christian brethren to the truth that is found in the Living Gospel of our Lord Jesus Chirst.
By Gregory M. Doublas
gospetruth@frontier.com
© Copyright 2018 by Gregory M. Doublas, P.O Box 15552, Fort Wayne, IN 46885.
No part of this message can be used or copied in any form without the written permission of the author.
