Apples of Gold
Radio Script for October 28, 2008
“It’s Time to Make a Habit of Prayer”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
It was my habit.
I would get up early in the morning before daylight, bundle up and go outside.
There I would pray. I would talk to God – about everything.
I would walk while I prayed. I had a flashlight, and I walked the same path around our yard.
We lived in the country, and it was a big yard. I would walk round and round, drawing near to God in prayer.
I was kind of proud as, over time, I saw a path begin to wear into the grass. It helped me know that I was meeting one of my goals, to be a man of prayer.
And remember, I don’t pray because I’m wonderful. I pray because I’m not wonderful, but God is.
I have a keen sense of my need for the Lord. It’s like someone who knows they can’t swim. They have a keen sense of their need for a life jacket. Without Him I would sink like a rock.
If I’ve had any success as a husband and a father, if I’ve done anything right in ministry, if I’ve kept my priorities straight at all, some of the credit has to go to this habit of prayer.
It’s a habit I’ve maintained both when I’ve felt spiritually strong and spiritually weak. Even when I’ve felt spiritually void, I never stopped praying. When I felt good and clean, and when I felt foul and rotten, I never stopped praying.
Most people do not have a set time for prayer, and I don’t know how they do it. How do you keep yourself on track without coming to the Lord? How can you be involved in ministry at all if you are not faithful in prayer? How can you run your home, your family, if you don’t consistently seek the Lord’s face, His favor and His will?
One of my favorite Bible characters is a man named Cornelius. He was a centurion in the Italian Regiment. Acts 10:2 makes a powerful statement about Cornelius. It says, “He and all his family were devout and God-fearing…”
Did you get that? It says he…and all his family…were devout and God-fearing.
If you have a family of any size, you know this is quite a statement. That’s a bunch of people, each with their own free will. They can each choose to be devout and God-fearing, or not. Yes, you might be able to coerce them into going to church, but you can’t make them be devout and God-fearing.
So here was Cornelius, no weak man. He was a centurion in the Italian Regiment. That’s sort of like saying he was a Marine. And he also had a family. And all of them were devout and God-fearing.
So how did he do it? How did Cornelius end up with this godly household?
Here is one of the keys. It says he “prayed to God regularly.”
Look how it’s worded in other translations. One says he “prayed to God always.” Another says he “prayed continually to God.” The Message says he “had the habit of prayer.”
And that’s a great example for us, which leads to this question. Do you have the habit of prayer?
A habit means you do it habitually. It’s part of your routine. You brush your teeth before you go to bed. You fix your hair before you leave the house. You take your keys out before you lock the car. These are habits. You don’t write them into your schedule. They’re a given.
So is prayer a given; part of your routine?
Hey, if it was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us.
Mark 1:35 says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Sounds like a one time event, but now look at Luke 5:16. It says, “…Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Of course, prayer is found throughout the Bible. It’s what God’s people do. They pray.
So do you like what you find in the family of Cornelius? Do you want the same for your family, that everyone would be devout and God-fearing?
Then one key is to follow his example of prayer. And I think it’s best to pick a time when you can pray consistently.
Yes, most Christians pray, but I’m afraid it’s lacking both quantity and quality. And in turn it will lack the life changing, family changing power.
So make the change. It’s time to move beyond tossing up prayers just before the pop quiz. It’s time to follow in the footsteps of Cornelius.
It’s time to make a habit of prayer.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2008 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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