Do you pray on a daily basis, not just once a day, I mean multiple times a day? Do you wake up with God and end your day with God in prayer? Prayer is the life-line to God. It connects us spiritually with Him. It completely amazes me to think that our God who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent wants to spend time with us. We are absolutely nothing compared to Him and yet we are the number one thing on His mind every second of our day! Praise the Lord! So why is daily prayer important? Let us look and see what the Bible says!
Prayer Is Conditioner For The Soul
When you watch those commercials about conditioners for your hair you always see these animations of how the conditioner fixes the broken, dry pieces and how it revitalizes your hair to its optimum efficiency. Well, prayer acts the same way with your soul. There are parts of you and me that are broken because of sin. Until we pray and ask for forgiveness we will continue in our brokenness. Forgiveness from God is healing for your soul! Maybe you are in a dry spell with prayer. Maybe you don’t know what to pray for. Don’t let this stop you from praying! Even when we are broken and weak and don’t know what to say, “the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26) Granted, this is the Holy Spirit speaking for you, but you still need to make an effort with your eyes closed, meditating on God. Give God time daily where you concentrate only on Him and even if you don’t speak, the Holy Spirit will.
Prayer Is Commanded
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
If we are to pray without ceasing, God must consider prayer a top priority for us daily. Here is why. If we go day to day without praying then we naturally focus on ourselves and what we desire. However, when we involve ourselves in prayer and seek the will of God our focus will shift towards loving others and meeting their needs. The will of God in Jesus is this, “If anyone would come after Me (Jesus), let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24) Taking up your cross means to literally put to death your sin as Christ did for you and I on the cross. We must deny ourselves and focus on meeting the needs of the kingdom wherever they might be. This is why prayer is so crucial. When we set time apart to pray and commune with God, it is then that God hears us and shows us His will. Until you make prayer a priority daily you will stay on the path of self-fulfillment.
Prayer Has Power
If someone broke into your house and you had the choice to defend your family with your bare hands or with a gun, would you not pick the gun? Of course you would because the gun has power in that situation. The same thing can be said about prayer. Prayer is very powerful and its effects can cause everlasting life changes. Here are 2 examples from the Bible.
Elijah
“Elijah was a man with a sinful nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and Heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” (James 5:17) I wanted to use this verse specifically because James believed in the Old Testament; the book of James was written in the New Testament. This verse is a great connector of both testaments. He used this verse to reshow the events of 1 Kings chapters 17 and 18. The power of prayer is unstoppable, even to the point of stopping the rain from coming down.
Prayer also has the power to cast out evil spirits. In Mark 9:14-29 we read about a boy who gets possessed from time to time by the same evil spirit. Jesus’ disciples tried to cast it out and they couldn’t. This passage showcases a father who is at rock-bottom looking to Jesus for healing of his demon-possessed son. Jesus does indeed cast the spirit out and the disciples “asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” (Mark 9:28-29) This is how powerful prayer is!
Bible Verses That Showcase the Importance of Prayer
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
“What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also.” (1 Corinthians 14:15a)
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:3) It is imperative to pray correctly. God does not answer selfish prayers.
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16)
“And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14-15)
Conclusion
Praying daily must be a top priority in our walk with the Lord. Ceasing to pray is like ceasing to drink water. Both are a life source. If you aren’t praying daily I encourage you to start. If you do pray daily I encourage you to keep at it. Prayer is powerful and can change anything according to the will of the Father. May God bless you as you live a life worthy of the calling!
”PRAYER IS THE KEY,PRAYER IS THE KEY,PRAYER IS THE MASTER KEY….JESUS STARTED WITH PRAYER AND ENDED WITH PRAYER…PRAYER IS THE MASTER KEY’‘………Fashoyin Damilola