Prayer is important in every Christian’s walk with God. The disciples asked Jesus Christ to teach them to pray. A very important question that has turned out to help us today in understanding the importance of prayer in our everyday life.
When Jesus responded to the disciples, we got what we commonly referred to today as “The Lord’s Prayer” which can be found in Luke 11:2-4 and Matthew 6:9-13. I have always wondered why the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. They were religious people before they were called to be Christ followers and one would expect that they were already praying. The major difference may be that before then the High Priest entered in on behalf of the people only at designated times. Zacharias, father of John the Baptist was one of those priests in Luke 1:1-10. The Lord appeared to him while it was his turn to serve as a priest in the temple.
Jesus helped the disciples to understand that they did not have to go through a mediator, Jesús Christ is now the mediator between God and man having paid the ultimate price on the Cross and offered the sacrifice for sin once and for all.
As God’s people, we have been granted access to the most Holy Place through the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:15-16. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We can now come boldly to His presence anytime to seek for help when we need it.
What is prayer?
Prayer is the time we enter into God’s presence to ask for help and seek His face to know His will and His purpose. The Lord’s prayer started with Our Father, which makes it clear to us that prayer involves relationship. A relationship with God. Prayer is our way of communicating with God. The whole essence of human creation is relationship with God and fellow humans. God would visit Adam in the Garden of Eden to communicate with Him before the fall.
Prayer is our responsibility as children of God. (1 Timothy 2:1). Prayer time should be exciting not drudgery or like a chore that needs to be marked off your list.
Why do we pray?
Prayer is our way of acknowledging our need for help. We pray to honor Our father, communicate with Him and make requests. In the Lord’s prayer, there is the place to ask for our needs. “give us this day our daily bread”. Which indicates our constant dependence on God, the Father as our helper and provider. We activate the purpose of Heaven to earth through our prayer. Jesus prayed. He prayed and fasted at the start of His ministry and all through His time on earth till the very end. We have Him as our perfect example to follow. Prayer is an ongoing, continuous expression of our need of a helper. An expression of our need to surrender to the King and acknowledge our need of Him and His power.
When do we pray?
In the Bible, we were told Jesus woke up very early to pray. The Bible says He withdrew to a lonely place to pray. Luke 18:1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Luke 5:16 So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
Jesus prayed to understand the will of God. He prayed to receive strength. He prayed to receive revelation from God.
We are to pray and never stop praying. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to pray without giving up . (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The disciples were men of prayer.
God talked to Adam in the evenings.
The time is not as relevant as the situation, the circumstance and most importantly the consistency in prayer.
Unlike before, we now have access to the presence of God at anytime. Unfortunately so many things continue to fight for our attention and distract us from praying. It is so easy to neglect and miss out on the power of prayer. The most important of it all will be our attitude. The posture of prayer is that of humility and surrender. Prayer like any other form of communication demands our full attention and focus on the Father to whom we are praying.
Bible Verse Prayer Cards – Digital Download
How do we pray?
We pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit. Praying to God is not a ritual but a relationship. How do we talk to the people we love, respect and honor? The Old Testament is a shadow of things to come. The principle still remains, God must be honored in the place of prayer. The benefits we now enjoy as result of Christ sacrifice on the Cross is huge and should be a major advantage for us today. We can be rest assured that God will always welcome us when we show up in His presence to pray.
We must acknowledge and recognize that our Father is also our God and He is a Holy God. We pray to God with honor and respect. Reverence to the One who has granted us entrance to His throne room not because we deserve it but because of the price His Son paid.
- We pray believing that He is able to do more than we can ask.
- We pray acknowledging God as our helper
- We pray knowing that our prayers can change lives and the world as we know it.
- God is waiting for us to pray to act. Humans have been given the authority on earth.
- We exercise our authority on earth through prayer.
- We pray with faith in our hearts.
I Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The more we appear before Him in the place of prayer, the more familiar we get with His presence, His will and purpose for us and our world.
