Prayer for Spiritual Leadershp
Passage: Acts 1:12-14, 21-26; Luke 6:12-26
Luke 6:12-16 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
The apostles had a problem, a big problem, they needed to replace Judas. What did they do about the problem? Complain, wring their hands, talk to each other, do nothing?
The path they chose was to glorify God by looking to Him for the answer. And one way to glorify God is to magnify Him. There are two ways to magnify something. What is the difference between a microscope and a telescope?
A microscope or a magnifying glass looks at really small things and makes them appear bigger than they really are. A telescope looks at things that look small, but are really huge, and brings them closer. It makes things that seem small and insignificant begin to look as big as they really are.
So when David says, “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3-5) he is not saying he wants to make a small God look bigger than He is. He is saying he want to make a big God begin to look as big as He really is.
Most of us are pretty good at using a magnifying glass or a microscope. We hold them over our problems and make our problems seem bigger than they really are. We magnify our worries, fears, doubts, inadequacies, stresses, busyness, and in so doing we diminish God.
We need to change what instrument we are using.
Prayer is one of God’s best gifts for reducing trials, troubles, knocking difficulties down to size and for magnifying the greatness and goodness and power of God. Prayer puts us in a position to see God for who He really is, to cause them to appear as great as He really is.
When we pray we magnify the power of God to work for us in any situation or circumstance. Prayer reveals that nothing is too hard or too impossible for God.