Author: Myrna L

We pray to have fellowship with God, to receive spiritual nurture and strength to live a victorious life, and to maintain boldness for a vital witness for Christ Jesus. Prayer releases God’s great power to change the course of nature, people, and nations!

According to Oswald Chambers, in his book Utmost For His Highest, we read: There is nothing in which identification with the Lord Jesus is more real to us than in prayer. “Your Father knows the things you need” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should we ask?

The point of prayer is not to get answers from God but to have perfect and complete oneness with God. If we pray only because we want something, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace.

“I do not say to you that I shall pray to the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you..” (John 16:26-27)

Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Christ Jesus? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital resurrection life? If so then “In that day” you will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.

When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason – God uses these times to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.

Prayer, crystalized into words, assigns a permanent wavelength on which the dialogue has to be continued, even when our mind is occupied with other matters.

In a small work by St. Bonaventure, What A Heart Committed To Prayer Can Expect, I have found the following as food for thought.

By prayer the soul is cleansed from sin, replenished with charity, confirmed in faith, strengthened and refreshed in spirit. Prayer establishes the inner man, brings peace to the heart, knows the truth, conquers temptations, expels sorrow, renews the senses, stirs up languishing virtue, puts to flight tepidity, and scours the rust of vices… Prayer unlocks the gates of heaven, manifests divine secrets, and always finds free access to the ears of God.

• To patiently endure adversity – pray.
• To overcome tribulation and temptation – pray.
• To trample upon perverse inclinations – pray.
• To know the deceits of the devil and avoid them – pray.
• To live joyfully in the work God gives you – pray.
• To peacefully endure the ways of labor, toil, and affliction – pray.
• To exercise yourself in a spiritual course – pray.
• To not walk according to the desires of your flesh – pray.
• To put to flight vain and troubling thoughts – pray.
• To cultivate in your heart good desires, fervor, and devotion – pray.
• To strengthen and establish your heart and constant purpose in service of God the Father and to Jesus – pray.
• To uproot vice and sin, and plant virtue into your soul – pray.

Why should we pray?  We need prayer to be mindful of God and His vital importance in our lives.  As St. Gregory of Nazianzus says, “We must remember God more often than we breathe.”  Just as we cannot stay alive without breath, so we tempt death without prayer. 

Prayer safeguards our solid, life-giving relationship with God.  Prayer insures that our most cherished treasure is our friendship with Jesus.  As our Lord reminds us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  We need to remember prayer does not keep God ‘up to date’ regarding our lives.  “Our Father knows what we need before we ask Him,” but He awaits our petition because the dignity of His children lies in their freedom.  We need to pray to exercise our free will in a way that reveals our ultimate desire is to be one with God.  Prayer keeps us realistic about our limitations and powerlessness.  (Fr. Peter John Calmeron, O.P.)

I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you can determine what really matters and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ [Jesus’ return], filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)

Simply put, prayer is communication with God. It is expressing our devotion to our Father, inviting Him to talk to us as we talk to Him. (Bill Bright)

In Kay Arthur’s book, Lord, Teach Me To Pray, she states, “This is where each child of God should be the strongest: in the Word of God and in prayer.” Our motto should follow the disciples’.

We will devote ourselves to praying and to serving in ways that are related to the word (Acts 6:4).

Jesus answered, “Scripture says, ‘A person cannot live on bread alone but on every word that God speaks’.” (Matthew 4:4)

And that’s what the Word of God is: our daily bread.

Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship. And a relationship requires communication. Therefore prayer is essential. There are countless decisions to be made, wisdom to be sought, resources that are needed, transgressions to be mended, love and appreciation to be communicated Thus we are told to pray without ceasing.

The disciples had to be careful, lest they become so occupied with serving God that they neglect the Word – which is Knowing God – and prayer – which is communicating with God. When Jesus was with them, they saw the place of prayer in His life and they heard His teachings on the importance of persistence in prayer. Thus, realizing they had to know how to pray they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). If the apostles needed to know, don’t we?

Prayer is the holiest work to which man can rise. It is fellowship with the Unseen and Most Holy Creator who formed you, and with His Son, the Savior of all the world. Powers of the eternal realm have been placed at its disposal! Prayer is the essence of all religion, the channel of all blessings, the secret of spiritual power and spiritual life.

It is on prayer that the promises wait for their fulfillment, the Kingdom for its coming, the glory of God for its full revelation. We know not how to pray as we ought. It is true we have God’s Word with its clear and sure promises, but sin has so darkened our minds that we know not always how to apply the Word.

And even when we do know what to ask, how much there is still needed to make prayer acceptable: It must be to the glory of God, in full surrender to His will, in full assurance of faith, in the name of Jesus, and with a perseverance that – if need be – refuses to be denied. All this must be learned.

Come children, listen to Me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord (Psalm 34:11).

Let the deep undertone of all our prayer be the ‘teach’-able-ness that comes from a sense of ignorance and from faith in Him as a perfect teacher, and we may be assured we shall be taught. (Andrew Murray)

Lord, may each of us grow in Your grace and in the knowledge of Your Son. May we be worshipful and attentive in hearing Your Word preached, eager to learn and change our ways, and ready to use our spiritual gifts and serve as You lead.

Prayer is the recognition that if God had not engaged Himself in our problems, we would still be lost in the blackness. Prayer is that whole process that reminds us of who God is and who we are.

The key element in prayer is not the amount of faith, but whether faith is present at all. Think on this: it is not how much we understand about Jesus that saves us, but the mere fact that we trust in Him to do so. Thus salvation is a product of faith and the seed of faith appears to reside in the individual upon salvation. Also, the amount of faith does not cause a miracle (a gift from God) to occur, but the presence of faith is that quality which leads to prayer being answered.

Remember: faith itself is a gift of God – even faith is not a work out of ourselves. Our only action is to respond appropriately to the faith in our hearts. Therefore we should not get worried about whether we have ‘enough’ faith or not. What Christians are called to do is to look into the face of the Father and pray what they do have faith for. If they lack faith, they should honestly pray, “Help my unbelief.”

“If faith is present at all, even if it is no larger than a mustard seed, it can accomplish wonders.” This is how Jesus describes the incalculable effects of prevailing faith.

Prayer isn’t about expecting something specific from the Lord, but of releasing something to Him that was already out of your control anyway.

“It is under a deep impression that the place and power of prayer in the Christian life is too little understood that this ledger has been written. When we learn to regard it as the highest part of the work entrusted to us, the root and strength of all our work, we shall see that there is nothing that we so need to study and practice as the art of praying aright.”

In Andrew Murray’s book, School of Prayer, I have learned that praying is our highest calling. It is when we most look and act like Jesus. It is one of the chief channels of influence by which blessings are to be defused on the world. It is our badge of duty and honor to pray to the Father to enter and preside over the people and events that confront us every minute of every day.

“The Father waits to hear every prayer of faith, to give us whatever we will, and whatsoever we ask in Jesus’ name. God means prayer to have an answer, and that it has not entered into the heart of man to conceive what God will do for His child who gives himself to believe that his prayer will be heard. If what I have written stirs my reader to go to the Master’s words, and take His wondrous promises simply and literally as they stand, my objective has been attained.”

Christ Jesus is our life. Christ Jesus teaches us to pray by example, by instruction, by command, by promise, and by showing us how to pray Himself – our ever-living Intercessor. It is when we believe this, and go and abide in Him for our prayer-life that our fears of not being able to pray aright will vanish. May Jesus Himself give us a large and strong heart to believe what a mighty influence our prayers can exert!