Prayer

           "Read your Bible, pray every day and you grow, grow, grow" is a little song my mom taught me when I was a child. Pray everyday and your grow; simple, yet its one of the hardest things for most Christians to have as a continuous lifestyle. 1 Thes. 5:17 says, "pray without ceasing". Take it to the next level, not just every day but all day. How consistent is my prayer life? How consistent is your prayer life? How does prayer help us grow? Why should we pray?

           Prayer is more powerful than we tend to consider. Prayer opens doors we thought were impossible to open. Prayer builds an intimacy with Christ that cannot be obtained any other way. Prayer allows you to intercede (to plead on behalf of someone).  Prayer is simply communication with God. 

            God, the King of Heaven and o f earth is the same God in whose presence the seraphim "...cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.' ” (Rev. 4:8). That same God wants to hear our prayers, wants to be in constant communication with us. He wants to hear our mourning, repentance, praise and even wants us to ask for blessing and miracles. That same God hears it all and answers! It may not always to be the answer we want to hear, or it may not come in accord with our timing, but whenever and however He answers- He does answer. 

            He has answered prayers throughout history. He answered Abraham's prayer for a son, the Israelites prayer for freedom, David's prayer for forgiveness and He will answer your prayers as well. There is nothing you need to do, no extra spiritual religious act in order for God to hear and answer your prayers. All you have to do is make your requests known to God. (Phil. 4:6) All you have to do is ask and you shall receive (Matt. 21:22). If you need a listening ear all you need to do is "call upon me and come pray to me and I will listen to you" (Jer. 29:12). David, a murderer and an adulterer, called out to God, God heard him, answered him and later called him a man after His own heart. That gives me so much hope, that even in my worst sins, I can still cry out to God - still pray to Him, He hears me, and I can be after His own heart.

             When we pray our spirit becomes united with the Spirit of God, and when we don't have a continuous prayer life our spirits aren't intertwine as they should be. God wants us to pray in order for us to get to know Him in a more intimate way. To know His thoughts, His heart, His knowledge and wisdom, to know Him! In return, although He already knows us (Psalm 139:1-4), He allows us to pray to communicate our feelings and hidden thoughts to Him.

              "The more we pray the more we sense out need to pray and the more we sense our need to pray, the more we want to pray" (Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire). We need to place ourselves in situations where we daily need to pray. We need to always be interceding for those around us. The more we surround ourselves in environments where we need to be on our knees, the more we are on our knees, the more we get to know God and His heart and become one with God. 

              "For everyone who asks receives" (Matt. 7:8). How do sinners, mere humans, get what we ask for when we don't deserve anything but death? Because of God's love and salvation we become God's children; He becomes our Father. Jesus' example in how to pray opens with "Our Father, in heaven..."(Matt. 6:9). He wants us to continually identify ourselves as His children, and Him as our Father. Just like a daughter can ask her father for ice cream when she does nothing to deserve it, we can come bodily before our heavenly Father and ask. That doesn't mean we get out ice cream, it may not be the right time, or healthy for us, BUT most times God wants to shower down blessings on us. Jabez had the same boldness. "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border..." (1 Chronicles 4:9). 

              To pray, we need to come boldly, we need to have faith that God hears us, we need to keep it continuous in order to stay intimately close and united with God's Spirit. "Read your Bible, pray every day and you grow, grow, grow" - simple. So let us simply get on our knees and see how God communicates with us, hears us, and answers us.