Devotional
Prayer
Prayer. A concept that is hard to grasp if not by faith. How is it that you speak a request to One that is unseen and receive a response back, unless you do it by faith? It takes faith to pray. But do you have enough faith to pray?
When it comes to prayer, so many questions flood our minds: How often should you pray? Is there a specific number, limit, or way to pray? Why should we even pray at all? What is prayer anyway? All valid questions that tie to the importance of prayer.
Prayer is our way of communicating with God. We do this by praising Him, confessing our sin before Him, thanking Him and asking Him for our needs and desires. Prayer is communion with our Creator. When we pray, we engage in loving fellowship with the Maker of heaven and earth. We can do this because of Jesus, who tore the veil of separation between us and the Father and made a way of fellowship for us to boldly approach the throne of grace and submit our requests to God. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. [16] Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16). Pretty awesome right!
If we have such grace and freedom to pray and come before the creator of the universe then why don’t we pray as often? Some of us may pray before eating or every morning and night, or solely when we need help or during times of hardship. But why? Why not more than that? Why not when you wake up, or while you’re driving, showering or doing laundry? Why not during a soccer game or as you read or on a walk? Most bring up not having enough time or not knowing how to pray. But the real reason we don’t pray is because we don’t believe that we need it or that it works.
If we believed that prayer worked and that we needed it, we wouldn’t be praying for 5 mins every morning and never again throughout the day until we go to bed. If you don’t pray, you don’t see the results of prayer, therefore you don’t believe that it works. Prayer is a lifestyle, acknowledging God’s presence throughout your day, not just when you feel like it, find the “right time” or the “right words”. If Jesus himself retreated to desolate places to pray, what gives us the thought that we don’t need to pray as well?
Therefore believer, I encourage you to pray and invite God in your day, every second of it: ask, seek and knock until you find Him. Praise Him. Give thanks to Him. Plead to Him. Cry to Him. Talk to Him about the little things and the big things. The mundane moments and monumental moments. The Lord isn’t hiding in such a hard place that you can’t find Him. He is hiding in plain sight waiting for you to seek Him, find Him and have a conversation with Him. Make Him your best friend. Make Him your lifestyle. Remember, it takes faith to pray. Do you believe in it enough to do it?
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)
Joyce Mondo
