Prayer. Why do we pay so little attention to it? Do we think that we've heard it all before? We do it--we come into contact with God--but what do we expect to happen? Could I suggest that sometimes we have become forgetful of prayer, and maybe we've not given enough thought to what there might be about prayer that we who live at the end of the end must know? I confess that I don’t pray as often as I am required to.
There are some things about us that will only be changed through prayer--Some things that need to be changed. Did you hear the prayer of David in Psalm 139:23-24? "Search me, O God?" Why was David concerned? Was there something about him that he thought maybe God had missed? Of course not. But still David pleads with his Maker, "Search me, O God." I think that David knew God's goal for him. Surely he knew that God's goal is to not to save man in sin, but from sin (Matthew 1:21). And we know that he knew about God's purpose for his end time people. Do you, Do I, Do we?
David understood that people who live for God will be changed people, Which probably accounts for his words in Psalm 17:3: "Thou hast proved mine heart; Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tired me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress."
What did David say? That verse we just read could be rephrased like this: "God, You are helping me to grow. In the end, you'll have Your finished work in my life, and I'll be a man who has ceased from sin." David didn't preach the "new theology." He preached the "old theology," the theology that God had from the beginning. When the fall of humankind took place, heaven was ready with a plan that would repair the damage; that would produce a repaired people. So I guess I believe in new creation.
God will produce a people, who although born into broken natures that are not prone to sin, don't sin. If it's true, it can only mean one thing: God has alot of work to do! And He has laid some very major claims with His gospel. He claims that it "is the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16). He claims that His righteousness will be revealed in His people through His gospel (Romans 1:17). That being the case, then I believe, God has quite a lot of work to do in us, and that we are still in the making, and that we are not done yet. Satan tells Him "You can't change these people." But who is the ruler of the world?