Life Capsule for Today Date: 25th October, 2023
Theme: Basic Elements of Effective Prayer (4)
Topic: Knowing God and his personality
Memory Verset: Matt 7:7-8
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. NKJV
Text: Gen 18:22-26
Gen 18:22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.
Gen 18:23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Gen 18:24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
Gen 18:25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Gen 18:26 And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
Words of the Ministry
Today we would be considering yet another ingredient for effective praying, by looking at the famous prayer of Abraham which he made during one of his encounters with God. The prayer which was in form of a question was said on behalf of his nephew lot, when God decided to visit the earth over the report of persistent evil from the Land of Sodom. Sodom was a fertile land, full of rich and green vegetation, it was a place to behold but the evil in that Land was so great that God considered destroying the land.
It is worthy of note that we understand Abraham was interceding for someone he loved genuinely, his brother’s son, Abraham was looking out for him and his family. That prompted the questions, first off, Abraham asked if God would punish the righteous with the wicked and secondly he asked if the Judge of the whole earth would do evil, destroying the righteousness and the wicked.
Abraham must have learnt how God withheld judgement until Noah and his family were safe in the ark (Gen 7). He also learnt how the God of the whole earth judged with the flood in times past, knowing full well that God is Holy and cannot behold iniquity, on the strength of this he asked God if he would destroy the land if 50 righteous souls were found, God said no, the number reduced to 10 and at that point Abraham withdrew, not going further, because he knew God. The righteous Judge of the earth can’t permit such a place to exist just as he didn’t during the time of Noah when only eight persons were righteous.
Some would say if only Abraham persisted, God would have spared the city, not at all, far from it, just as his righteousness wouldn’t make him destroy the righteous with the wicked so his righteousness would not let him spare a city with less than ten righteous souls. True to his word, God didn’t destroy Lot and his family as he led them out before raining judgment on Sodom, infact he spared another nearby city for Lot’s sake. Saints we need to learn from this, many of us would have requested that God should have mercy on Sodom or not even judge Sodom at all. Such prayers would have been ineffective because it contradicts the personality of God, the word said hands joined to hands the wicked would go unpunished (Pro 11.21).
To be effective in prayers, we need to know God and what he can’t do, we must not be like the heathen thinking they would be heard from their much speaking (Mat 6.7). God cannot be muzzled, we are the ones that must learn his ways, this we can do by meditating on his word, renewing our mind and allowing the Holy Spirit to have his way.
Bible in One Year: Luke 8-9
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