Reasons for Prayer 5

Reasons for Prayer Part 5 Before closing out this short series on reasons for prayer, I felt we should look at a few more reasons for the importance of prayer in a believer’s life. Most of us know the importance of communication. Nothing much would be accomplished without it. For communication to be effective there must be some type of reciprocal response on the part of each party involved. We use words to communicate our feelings, desires, plans, understanding, knowledge, goals, and so on. When we use words to communicate these things to God it is an element of prayer. Prayer is our communication link to our Heavenly Father. We can talk to Him about anything. He knows all things, but waits for us to approach Him honestly, transparently, and humbly to express our need and dependence upon Him. John Wesley said, “God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.” If we all understood this, we would pray more readily. We would make believing prayer our quest, our focus, and lifelong passion. There is an old saying athletes and body builders use. “No pain. No gain.” Often there is pain, and resistance to the things we must do to see breakthroughs in or lives, whether in business, education, relationships, and especially in prayer. Prayer takes discipline, because we are talking to a God we do not see with our naked eyes, and the enemy (satan) attempts to oppose us. Therefore, we must concentrate from our spirit and bring our bodies under subjection to stay at it until we touch God, as it were. We must push through the distractions of life and commit to staying in the Father’s Presence until we are flowing in fellowship with Him through praise, worship, prayer, and supplication. Sadly, therefore, many do not pray, or stay at it. Believing prayer means we know the Father’s will, we know what the Word of God says about a certain situation, or we have a revelation from the Holy Spirit leading us in our prayers. Knowing this, we must make a deliberate choice to spend quality time alone with our Heavenly Father. At first, it may seem awkward, and you may not know what to say, but you can begin by thanking Him for the little things He has done for you that day, week, or month. Think of something you are thankful for and begin there. As a believer in Christ, you have Christ living inside you, and you are born again, and cleansed by His redemptive blood. Your name is in the Book of Life, and He has called you to live with Him forever. That is a great place to start giving thanks. Then ask Him to show you what to pray for, and what’s on His heart. Lastly, you can share your burdens with Him, and pray the scriptural prayers we find in the Bible. Here are a few examples of scriptural prayer. The Lord’s model prayer He taught His disciples. Therefore pray in this way: Our Father, who is in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil. For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Matthew 6:9-13 (MKJV) This is the model prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray. It was not to limit them to just these words, but to give them a template of how to approach God and the order of prayer. Paul’s intercessory prayers for the Church. Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:15-23 (NKJV) He also prayed: For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, forever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21 (MKJV) These are just a few examples and models of prayer in scripture we can use in our daily prayer life. As we incorporate these examples, the Holy Spirit will inspire and help us to move on into prayers specific to our needs and those of others. I hope this brief series on prayer has been helpful and inspirational for you. We will plan to further examine the subject of prayer at a later date, but until then, may God our Heavenly Father richly bless and keep you. Blessings, James Brown CST 11/23/2022