FROM THE PASTOR
“For Thine is the Kingdom...”
Have you ever begun to pray and hesitated because you felt discouraged? Have you wondered if it was any use? Has it almost been like a taunting voice was asking you, Why pray? Jesus gives us the most marvelous answer to that question. Certainly, idolaters have no good reason to pray to their idols. It is understandable that Elijah on Mt. Carmel taunted the Baal prophets about the uselessness of their “vain repetitions,” their screaming and cutting themselves. After all, they were praying to a figment of their own imagination (and, image-fabrication). There was nobody home! What happened when they called out? What happens in response to all the prayers of idolaters? “But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:29). But when Elijah came in prayer to the one true God, to the Lord Jehovah, he came as the Lord‟s anointed, through the mediation of the Messiah, on the basis of acceptable sacrifice and then something happened (there was fire and thunder and rain) – because Elijah‟s God (“Elijah” means “my God is Jehovah”) is the only true God, the God of the Kingdom. We have the encouragement of Jesus – the greater than Elijah – telling us to pray to “Our Father who art in Heaven.” He teaches believers to pray motivated by a most glorious confession about God: “For Thine is the Kingdom...”This is the reason that a believer never needs to pray without hope.