When it comes to our close pursuit of Jesus and desire to live a life that follows His patterns, there are few habits or disciplines that are so obviously “Christian” as prayer. Unlike certain faiths and creeds where the form and frequency is mandated and often scripted, Jesus calls us to go to the Father with our own child-like trust/faith (Luke 18:17), and declare the great truths of our salvation and God’s activity on the earth (Luke 11:2-4). God is not interested in many words, endlessly repeated (Matthew 6:7), but he is eager and pleased by words spoken without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) that declare our dependence (Philippians 4:6-7), our involvement in Kingdom work (Luke 10:2), our interconnectivity to His body (1 Timothy 2:1-3) and our continual need to cast our burdens (Philippians 4:6-7, Psalm 55:22) on Him.
Perhaps it is enough to state clearly once again that prayer changes things and therefore we ought to simply discipline our bodies for the purpose of godliness and pray. Perhaps too it would be good to remember the direct benefit to us and those we love when we sow to the Spiritual in our world. The Bible is very clear: Prayer is a powerful resource given by God for good. We hope you take some time to consider the value of prayer in your life and family as well as the context of our church family.
Prayer Changes you!
It guards your heart. It cleans you from anxiety, bitterness, burdens and unbelief. It allows you to complain to the right person and know He cares. Praying as a personal discipline and learning to be honest before God will free your heart and mind to be more in step with our savior.
Prayer protects and cares for others.
Prayer in the context of Dicipleship Teams and larger prayer meetings cares for others. Following the scriptures admonition to ”Intercede”, gives us a very real way to “care” Next time someone shares a burden or a need, don’t wait to pray, just pray!
Prayer allows us to influence Kingdom expansion.
Prayer allows us no matter our gifts or maturity to influence the Kingdom. There are two clear patterns for prayer regarding the lost. Praying for the gospel to go out, 1) is in the form of obedience and boldness and 2) is for laborers to be added. Jesus states clearly that the fields are “white for Harvest”. Could it be that the status of the Kingdom's advance is related not to the belief of those who are perishing but the unbelief of Christ’s church.
Prayer declares our theology.
Our prayer habits, even the lack of them, may be the surest indicator of what we truly believe. The hall of faith (Hebrews 11) is filled with examples of specific actions linked to what people believe. What will our patterns of prayer reveal about our beliefs? Is God good? Is He big? Does He really care? When, how, and what you pray tells the story.
We remain convinced that whatever we accomplish for God’s Kingdom will flow through the prayers of the saints. Likewise, we remain convinced that our experience of the Kingdom will be filled with the peace of Christ to the degree that our lives and hearts are steeped in faith filled prayers.