Prayer is worship, but not all worship is prayer. Prayer must not be limited to make it a mere mediation, nor should it be so broad as to make all worship prayer to God. In the Old Testament, prayer is often linked with sacrifice. With so much said in the Bible about prayer, Christians need to know more about the subject, especially to learn to pray more and better. Prayer is of course communication with God, but more specifically, prayer is our desires expressed in words to God, the only object of true worship. Christians do this by praising Him, confessing their sins before Him, thanking Him, and asking Him for their needs.
In his book The Power of Prayer in Its Working: Things Most People Do Not Know About Prayer, Walton Weaver talks about the power of good prayer, how people worship, and when we should pray. His beautifully written book explores the profound impact of Christian worship on finding hope, experiencing inner peace, and deepening one’s relationship with God. Here, readers will gain a deeper understanding of prayer’s transformative power.
Walton Weaver has been preaching the gospel since 1963. In his exclusive interview with Kate Delaney for America Tonight, he discusses his informational book, and he explains how essential it is for the Christian to learn to develop the qualities vital to wording a good prayer and believing in God. His devotional book will encourage everyone to reflect on their spiritual lives and provide the guidance and motivation for a more powerful prayer. The Power of Prayer in Its Working also shows people the soul-nourishing principles for a more meaningful Christian life.
Walton hopes his readers understand that the power in prayer is the power that God supplies. He tells Kate that people get it if they get into the practice of worship. “We really develop the qualities that are essential to not only wording a good prayer but also really believing that God . . . will work in our lives today,” Walton explained. “I don’t . . . believe miraculously, but I’m talking about providentially.” He says he means that “. . . God is a part of our prayer life, and that the reason [is] that we have certain qualities . . . laid out for us in Scripture, and that is what we need in order to find God . . . [and] the true power that is there.” “It begins with us,” he says, “and if we are the people that God wants us to be, and we come before him in prayer, prayer has the power to make things happen. And it’s just a beautiful life.”
What do we do when God seems not to answer our prayers? Walton encourages all Christians to pray and know that God is great and merciful. Yet, we know that sometimes God has said no, and we eventually maybe don’t continue to pray the same prayer. “It’s like Paul, he prayed three times that the thorn in the flesh might be removed. But God said no each time. And he said his grace was sufficient for him . . . But that’s all right . . . it’s all right to say over and over to God that he is great and he is merciful and he is long-suffering.” “He is a God of love, you know, because all these things are true of God, [and] we’re just reaching out and acknowledging the one upon whom we depend. We need to find that place of total dependence and self-surrender. And that’s what my book is about.”
Walton also set Jesus’ prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane as a prime example of Christians putting themselves and their trust in God’s hands and not being overly concerned about repetition in their prayers. After all, Jesus prayed the same thing three times in the garden. He reminds Christians that when they begin to grow and are able to find the words, despite not being perfect, God will hear their prayers.
“There’s no set times for prayer,” Walton stated. “’Pray without ceasing.’ ‘Pray always.’ These are the kind of terms we find in Scripture, but we can’t do that 24 hours a day; . . . we [of course] should have set times, but the Bible doesn’t lay down . . . like the third hour and sixth hour, ninth hour, even though people came to pray, . . . at certain times in Bible times.”
God is in the process of exhibiting his providential will in our lives. Let’s try to make a difference between God’s providential will and God’s perfect will. Let’s fill ourselves with love, hope, and prayer with Walton Weaver’s book, The Power of Prayer in Its Working: Things Most People Do Not Know About Prayer, available on Amazon.
Listen to the full interview of the author on America Tonight on ReadersMagnet’s official YouTube channel.