Our prayer motivator passage for today is II Chronicles 33:10-13 which reads: “And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.”
Allow me to share with you some important points regarding this verse from Matthew Henry’s Commentary:
We notice from this passage that Manasseh prayed to God for the pardon of sin and the return of his favour. Prayer is the relief of penitents, the relief of the afflicted. That is a good prayer, and very pertinent in this case, which we find among the apocryphal books, entitled, The prayer of Manasses, king of Judah, when he was held captive in Babylon. Whether it was his or no is uncertain; if it was, in it he gives glory to God as the God of their fathers and their righteous seed, as the Creator of the world, a God whose anger is insupportable, and yet his merciful promise unmeasurable. He pleads that God has promised repentance and forgiveness to those that have sinned, and has appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved, not unto the just, as to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but to me (says he) that am a sinner; for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea: so he confesses his sin largely, and aggravates it. He prays, Forgive me, O Lord! forgive me, and destroy me not; he pleads, Thou art the God of those that repent, and concludes, Therefore I will praise thee for ever, etc.
My personal encouragement to you today is this: It is a crime for a man to leave his wife and children in the morning without spending serious time with them in prayer. Sir, the greatest thing that you can do for your family is make it your business to pray with them each day, preferably early in the morning, but any time of the day will work. In the spirit of Nike, “Just Do It!”
Our prayer motivator quote today is from Watchman Nee. He said: “Negligence in prayer withers the inner man. Nothing can be a substitute for it, not even Christian work. Many are so preoccupied with work that they allow little time for prayer. Hence they cannot cast out demons. Prayer enables us first inwardly to overcome the enemy and then outwardly to deal with him.”
Our prayer motivator devotional today is part 25 of our series titled “THE SIN OF PRAYERLESSNESS” from Dr. John R. Rice.
The Bible does not teach that one who prays may live forever, without dying, but it certainly does teach that many die prematurely when they might live longer with great blessing if they had prayed.
Likewise, other people die because we do not pray. For example, God had planned to destroy the whole nation of Israel and make of Moses and his family a new nation; but Moses prayed and God forgave them and did not do “the evil which he thought to do unto his people.”
+ Plus, listen to Bart Millard singing “Have a Little Talk with Jesus”
The Prayer Motivator Devotional 