THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER

Ephesians 6:18 The Living Translation

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”

              Here we find a second offensive weapon. It is none other than prayer. There is immense power in prayer as shown throughout scripture.In this verse we are not being asked to literally pray every waking moment of the day. However, there area couple ways we can fulfill this directive. First, we can pray a brief prayer when a need arises for ourselves or someone else, especially those in the body of Christ. We are not required to pray in King James English with great formality. I prefer conversational prayer, as if I were speaking directly to him. This is appropriate because that is exactly what I believe, that it’s very personal; that when we pray, we are praying, as I’ve heard some people say, “from my mouth to God’s ears”. I believe God hears us and begins to arrange all the elements that will compose our answer. Secondly, we can live a life following God’s desires and his teachings as laid out in scripture, which in effect would make our life a prayer unto the Lord. If we live in such a manner we will showChrist to those in our sphere of influence.

            It is important for us to pray for those in the body of Christ. God never asks us to go thru life completely alone. The community of believers is supposed to lift one another up as a means of support thru prayer. It matters not whether you know them personally or not. If a prayer request is passed along for someone within the body of Christ, it is our responsibility to stand in the gap and lift up their need to our gracious, loving Heavenly Father. Ours prayers are for ourbenefit, not God’s. It would be a contradiction to say God is all-knowing (or Omniscient) and yet wouldn’t know what our prayer would be prior to us uttering a word. We pray so that our faith is bolstered when the answer comes. In some cases our patience is expanded as well as we wait. We may not like that when it happens, but it is an important part of the spiritual maturation process. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

Resources: The Life Application Study Bible, notes on verse 18 (p. 2628); NASB Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible Notes