Most of us would say we have room to grow in the area of prayer. Ask any Christian (who has a great relationship with God) if they pray much. I guarantee you they’ll tell you that they do. That’s because there’s no other way for us to communicate with God except through prayer. Yet, for some reason, so many of us fall terribly short in our prayer lives.
As Christians, we know we need to pray. Romans 12:12 tells us to be constant in prayer. First Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. Basically, praying to our God should be something we do without necessarily thinking about all of the time. A thought pops into our heads (someone in need, something worrying us, something we’re encouraged by), we should be acknowledging that thought before the Lord. “Thanks that I didn’t trip over that hose, God!” or “Someone I know is hurting right now, Lord. I pray you would give him or her grace and a boost of encouragement right now.” It doesn’t have to be big and lengthy — just little prayers to God mixed into our own thoughts.
We should also pray intentional prayers of thanksgiving, intercession, and supplication. In the New Testament, we read about how Jesus prayed those prayers both in public and in private. He prayed them a lot. We read about how God did amazing things with people when they were prayed for. Peter being freed from prison is a perfect example. We also read about how Paul asked for prayer from the saints (he even said that blessings were being granted to him because other believers were praying for him).
What is it that keeps us from praying as much as we know we should? Is it a lack of belief? Is it the idea that we’ve prayed for things before but haven’t received the answer we wanted so we don’t expect much to come of it? Is it that we have the mindset that “God is going to work out His will anyway, so what is my prayer really doing?” I know I’ve felt that way more that I should.
We need to remember that God wants us to pray to him — He loves it! There is a mystery to prayer that we’ll never understand in this life. But, we would do well to remember that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” We are the righteous ones.
We can’t be everywhere for everyone at all times. But, our all-powerful God can and the most powerful thing we can do for others (and ourselves) is to ask God to be a part of whatever is going on in our lives.
Looking forward to our next prayer meeting,
Billy
Posted in A Word from the Pastor