PRAYER: THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Prayer is our lifeline. It is the lifeblood of the Christian life. It is the way we remain in contact with our Heavenly Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. It sustains us spiritually and helps us to grow. We remain believers and we grow as believers as we grow in Christ. Prayer is one of the ways to do that. Therefore, it must never be viewed as a “duty” to be performed, but a wonderful and blessed privilege that God has given us.
God wants His people to pray. His word says that we are to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Since God is the one who told us to pray, we can be absolutely certain that He wants to hear from us. Praying without ceasing does not mean that we will never have to turn our attention to other things at times. But it does mean that we should maintain an ongoing communication and fellowship with God that is not limited to specific routines that we schedule at certain times. There is a time for scheduled prayer. But we should also know that we can pray and pour our hearts out to God anytime. Life is difficult and the temptation to worry and be anxious is constant. And although we cannot stop all of the anxiety-inducing times in our lives, we can bring things to God and be aware of His wonderful love toward us. Again, the Bible enjoins us to “not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present our requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). The next verse reveals that this will bring about a peace in our hearts and lives that transcends our ability to understand. You have to live the kind of peace that Jesus gives. It cannot be fully explained in words.
To pray is to bring our will under the dominion of Christ. It is to seek that what God wants to be done will be done, rather than giving into and living for our own selfish desires. Jesus showed us the example here by praying, “not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). In other words, He told His Father He wanted to do what His Father wanted, not what He wanted. God gives us the desires of our hearts when we delight in Him, because His will becomes our will, and His desires become our desires (Psalm 37:4).
So pray because God is listening. We may be certain that He is whether we feel it or not. The confidence that we have before God is that “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). Prayer will bring you into a greater knowledge of God’s character and a greater awareness of His presence in your life. Nothing says that you believe in Christ’s intimate presence with you like prayer.
When you struggle with prayer and think you do not know how to pray, God has that covered, as well. We have the presence of the Holy Spirit, God’s “Helper,” who comes to help us in every aspect of our spiritual lives. And the Bible specifically tells us that He helps with our prayer life because we are not praying “right.” We cannot trust in our ability to pray. So just pour out your heart to Him and trust that the Holy Spirit will intercede for you and take your prayers to God in the right way (Romans 8:26-27).
Prayer works wonders because in prayer you have the attention of the one who rules the world. This is why the prayers of God’s people are “powerful and effective” (James 5:16). We should pray to Him when we are happy and when we are not. When we are on the mountain top and in the valleys. Our life should be saturated with prayer because He is near to those who call upon Him (Psalm 145:18).
The New Testament recognizes that we have spiritual and emotional and physical needs. And it tells us to bring those needs before the throne of God’s grace to receive the help that we need (Hebrews 4:16). By having a faithful prayer life, we will know the depth of God’s love, the power of God’s presence, and we will be strengthened to an ever-increasing closeness with Jesus in a personal relationship.
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
