Prayer is a vital part of the Christian life because that is where the power is – it’s what strengthens us and sustains us – it helps us in our relationship with God, by drawing us closer to God which helps our heart to be lined up with His will. As you can see in order for us to live a gospel centered life reading God’s word and praying are essential for our Christian walk. Reading and praying go hand and hand in our relationship with God – God speaks to us through the Bible – praying is how we talk to God. Through this process we are able to draw closer to God and He draws closer to us.
Only when we speak to God about the things in the world and the things we are going through are we then able to speak to the world (others) about God. God prepares our heart through prayer and He lines up our heart with His will as we spend more time praying and getting closer to God – the Holy Spirit puts upon our heart what to pray (Rom. 8:26) which is in accordance with His will – He reveals Himself through prayer.
As we spend time in prayer with God you will see your prayers being answered in ways you could’ve never imagined because they are in accordance with His will. If we aren’t truly praying we won’t have an opportunity to experience the working of God. Prayer is awesome because God invites us to be a part of what He is doing which is rewarding and fulfilling and it puts an excitement upon your heart that causes you to want to spend more time in prayer with God – being dependent upon Him.
- God – calls us to pray from need and desperation – because we are always in need and at times we are desperate for His interceding in our life.
- God – calls us to persist in prayer – as we see God moving mightily in and around and through our lives we want to persist in prayer – because that time with the Lord is so special and it gives us a great peace, greater vision, a greater direction, and it draws us closer to God.
- God – delights to answer our prayers – that’s why God puts it upon our hearts to pray so He can carry out His purpose and reveal His will by answering those prayers that He puts upon our hearts. Our Father in heaven wants us to be assure of His great love for us.
It’s not about answering our prayers for our own selfish reasons – it’s about our prayers being lined up with His will – revealing to us His sovereignty and His great love for us, allowing us to be a part of His purpose and His will.
1) God, calls us to pray from need and desperation
This is the natural posture we should take when we come to the Father in heaven – because we are always in need and there should be some sense of desperation recognizing our full dependency on God. We should come to God with an empty heart waiting for God to fill it, because we have nothing to offer God but our thanksgiving! We should be crying Lord I need you!
We should be reaching out and calling upon him in time of need and desperation just like when we need help we cry out to our earthy father. The difference is He is the all-powerful sovereign king creator who can meet our needs. We must recognize that God alone can meet our needs.
There is a great comfort in knowing that we have a gracious heavenly Father who loves us more than we could ever imagine and He desires for us to come to Him with our every need. He knows our struggles and our needs but He wants us to turn to Him and recognize His position (our loving, caring, father, and provider who has created us for His glory) and our dependence should be on Him for every need and every struggle.
It’s when we realize who God is to us and we put Him in the proper place in our life, we should want to come to Him in prayer about anything and everything. We need to humble ourselves and admit our need for Him and seek Him in prayer. When we do seek Him in prayer we will find that He alone fills our lives with a greater peace, comfort, joy, and satisfaction that is indescribable. Prayer is so important on so many levels and I belief that is why Jesus showed us His need for the Father, so we could understand ours. No matter where we are in life we need to humble ourselves and be dependent upon the Father.
Read Luke 11:5-10
In this passage we see two things, we see the desperation because of the need of this friend along with his persistence to continue to ask because of his need. God wants us to pray with persistence as well – in this parable Jesus says (Luke 11:8) this parable does encourage boldness in prayer.
Jesus encourages us to hang in there with our prayers, continually bringing them before our Father. We don’t fully understand why, when, or how God answers prayers, we just know that Jesus tells us that our persistence will not go unrewarded. God will hear us, and if we ask we will receive. I believe God puts those desires upon our hearts so we don’t give up (read Rom.8:26) as He works these things out in His perfect timing – He puts those desires upon our hearts so that we continue in prayer until it is answered in His perfect will.
God doesn’t always answer right away or in the way we think He should! But He works it out to what is best for us. Sometimes our heart needs to be changed through the process – sometimes He waits so our heart can be changed – so we are more patient, being more dependent upon Him, leaning upon Him and trusting in Him. He wants us to learn and grow. As we seek God in prayer we should seek His will and ask that His will be done, because God knows what is best for us. He wants our heart to be lined up with His will and as we seek God in prayer and spend more time asking for Him to line up our heart with His will, our heart will be changed.
Prayer is not just a one-way street to get what we want. Prayer is a means to be transformed as God works in our hearts to conform us more into His image and make us more like Him. That is why prayer is vitally important, because through the process God draws us closer to Him and helps shape us into what He wants us to be.
Prayer is what develops us into a deeper relationship with God because we are spending time with Him and placing Him in the proper place in our life – the center of our life being fully dependent upon Him surrendering your life to Him and seeking His direction. In order for us to be transformed and live a gospel centered life we must read God’s word and spend time in prayer making your time with the Father in heaven a priority, because there is great comfort and peace in prayer! Have you ever experienced that? We shouldn’t become discouraged in our praying because God promises to be swift in His own timing in answering our prayers. Remember we are not told how prayer works, but we’re told how to work prayer – because prayer works…..
We as individuals can make prayer a part of our daily lifestyle, if we are just willing to break from our culture and make a conscious effort to live for God, making it an important priority. It will be challenging at first and seem awkward, but the more we do it and really begin to focus on the Lord and seek the spirit to intercede we will grow in our prayer life as well as our relationship with God.
You will be amazed by the difference it makes and you will wonder why you didn’t challenge yourself to do it sooner. You will notice a difference in how you become more in-tune to the will of God and you will have more love and compassion for others. Don’t underestimate the power of prayer! You will be amazed how it brings you closer to God into a deeper more intimate and dependent relationship with Christ. For those of you who are willing to confess your utter dependence on God in prayer, your life will enter the realm of the supernatural.
The thing is this power is available to families, to churches, and to organizations in which individuals are WILLING to start living a prayerful life. (You have to make that decision) So if you go to our knees, you will see the power of God operate in your lives and you will receive the vision and guidance you need to move supernaturally with God and accomplish His will. God wants to speak to us in the everyday events of our life if we will open ourselves up to Him. So not only does He want us to speak to Him…..
God delights to answer our prayers (Luke 11:11-13)
We could read these parables and begin to think that our persistence was about trying to win God’s attention and put Him into action. But Jesus assures that God doesn’t just grit His teeth; He loves us like a Father. He won’t answer our prayers with retribution. He won’t give us scorpions for eggs or snakes for fish. He wants what is best for us. He delights to answer our prayers with good gifts – He is our heavenly Father. If we come to Him with only empty hands and needs, then why does He pay attention?
The simple answer is this: God listens to us not because we’re good, He listens because we’re His. We are objects of God’s intentional, willful love. God hears our prayers because He loves us. We must remember that our Lord does seek to give us what is best for us. That may mean He answers your prayer with a “yes” or it might mean He answers it with a “no” or “wait”. The most important thing is that we continue to come to God in prayer. Because as we continue to come to God in prayer our most important need is met. We are getting more of God.
When you feel discouraged, remember that your heavenly Father loves you and He wants you to receive more of Him. We know that God won’t withhold any good thing from us because He was willing to sacrifice the life of His Son. We know that He won’t withhold justice either because He perfectly executed justice (doing what is right, making it right for us) at the cross. He showed us His love and His justice by putting Christ on the cross.
God has proven that He won’t withhold anything from us, even His best. As Paul put it in Romans 8:32, “He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” Romans 4:25 Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. Romans 5:1 therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ….
Not only have we received the gift of Jesus which shows us how much God loves us, but because of the work of Christ on the cross we have the gift of the Holy Spirit that we receive when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 5:5 tells us that we have a hope because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
As a guarantee of our eternal hope we are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (Eph.4:30). So the Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance to come. Read Ephesians 1:13-14! Having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, receiving the spirit of adoption as a child of God (Rom.8:15-16)
So we are His and we can trust that God wants what is best for us, so we must draw closer to God in prayer and begin to receive a rich satisfying relationship with your father in heaven who promises – if we draw closer to him he will draw closer to us.
