Prayer and Devotion

1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. 3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!"
4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea."
7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. 8 He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. Acts 10:1-8


Of course we know the rest of the story: Peter receives the message following an impacting dream from God, travels immediately to Caesarea, speaks to the Gentiles assembled in Cornelius’ house, the Holy Spirit of God falls on them all, they go out to be baptized and the whole event becomes a guidepost to the church in Jerusalem that God intends to work among the Gentiles as well as the Jews. (Acts 10 & 11) All because of the devotion in prayer of a single Roman soldier.

Yesterday we looked at the “simple prayer”, the prayer of the humble and penitent. But look today at the impact possible when that prayer is devoted in its entirety to God’s service; when it is prayed by a “devoted” person. Of course when we pray devotedly, we are in essence also devoting the rest of our selves to that same service. We cannot ask God’s help or spend time in His presence and then turn our backs on Him when He asks us to be part of the response.

E. M. Bounds says: “Devotion is the particular frame of mind found in one entirely devoted to God. It is the spirit of reverence, of awe, of Godly fear. It is a state of heart which appears before God in prayer and worship. Devotion dwells in the realm of quietness and is still before God. It is serious, thoughtful and meditative. It is a part of the very spirit of true worship, is of the nature of the spirit of prayer.”

But this does not imply that somehow we have to have been transported to some heavenly realm before we can pray effectively. It merely means that we place ourselves before God, as we are, and give ourselves over to Him as we pray. We devote the time, the thoughts, the pleas, the love, the emotions and needs all to Him – allowing Him to do with them as He will. He may respond then, He may merely listen and stay with us. The answers may come internally through new understanding, or determination, or comfort or the quiet building of our character. The result may be external through guidance, a change in circumstances or direct instructions as with Cornelius. It doesn’t matter. Our time of prayer is not just “our time of prayer” but it is also His when this time becomes “devotional”.

Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan divine of the Great Awakening of 1740, tells of one such particularly special time for him: “Once as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly had been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that was for me extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God. As near as I can judge, this continued about an hour, and kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to love Him with a holy and pure love; to serve and follow Him; to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly purity.”

May God meet with us daily as we devote ourselves to Him – whether in the extraordinary or in the ordinary – that the rest of our lives may reflect the devotion of our prayer life.

Mike Clarkson