Prayer

Prayer is a direct communication that we have with our Heavenly Father. Frequent prayer is among the most important attributes of the Christian life. It is so important, that not praying is a sin, 1 Samuel 12:23. Jesus taught His disciples to always pray, never giving up or to lose heart when tempted. As a Christian, if we are not praying to God, then we are basically saying that we do not need Him. This non-communication shows a lack of love and respect for not making the time to talk to Him. The Bible is very clear on how important prayer is and without it, moves us further away of a personal relationship with Christ.
Our prayers are not just about "getting things" or getting answers. Our prayers are answered on His time and according to His will. Christians should give thanks and acknowledge the true love that God has for us. Most importantly giving thanks to Jesus and the blood He shed for us.

Luke 18:1 "And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." Jesus says that we should always pray and never "faint" or give up.

Romans 8:26 "Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." There may be times we struggle to put into words what we are trying to say. These "groanings" are the spirits interpretations of the believers innermost feelings. **The word prayer comes from the latin word "Precari", which means, obtained by begging, to entreat. In Hebrew prayer is, "Tefilah", which means, self-evaluation.

Matthew 6:5 "When ye pray, use not vain repetitions." Don't babble or ramble on about things without putting your heart and mind into it. It is not necessary to repeat things over and over again when speaking to God. He knows our heart and understands how important certain things are for us.

John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Although this verse does not talk about prayer specifically, we should always come to God in Christ's name.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 "pray without ceasing" This does not mean continual prayer such as breathing. Its impossible to pray continually throughout our day, but we can have an attitude of constantly praying by interval thoughts of God and the blessings He has given us. During the course of our day, there are always times that we can be thanking God and acknowledging His power and glory, we just have to take the time to practice it.

Psalm 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." If we are not willing to abandon all sin in our lives, God will not regard and answer our prayers. There must be a genuine effort to forsake all forms of sin in order for prayers to be heard.

Isaiah 59:1-2 "your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that He will not hear you." We must confess our sins and clear our hearts of any unrighteousness.

***Prayer helps Christians develop A more mature relationship, A stronger relationship, and helps to sustain that relationship during our walk with our Heavenly Father. Prayer also gives Christians the opportunity for direction and guidance throughout our daily lives. Its very important that we establish a healthy dialogue with our Lord.

1 John 1:9 "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Confess our sins to God. Don't be to proud or ashamed to leave out certain sins in our prayers. He knows everything we have done, but God wants us to humble ourselves before Him.

Philippians 4:6 "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." In this verse, "careful" is meaning anxious or worry. Don't let worry and anxiety rule over you. Hand it over to God.

Prayer is an act of worship and communication to our Lord. In our time of prayer we should give Him adoration, confession, praise, thanks and supplication, also acknowledging Jesus Christ as our Savior. Sin often times gets in the way of our prayers being answered. An example would be someone praying for financial stability, yet gambling the money coming from their pay check. Worry and stress also gets in the way of unanswered prayers. Experts say that stress and anxiety is the most destructive forces to the human body. Our body is God's Temple, so we must let God take care of our worries and stress.

Praise Jesus. How can I pray for you today.

Thank you I disagree with you about "if we are not praying" . I fully understand what you said yet you can only speak for you no one else. There are so many reasons why I have not prayed. so WHY do you pray? Can God (Christ holy spirit) go against your will? Christ told Peter once that Satan wanted to swift him like wheat. One version "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat” Christ said what? "but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." Bad evil things not just sickness are happening all over the world...why do we pray? Are we not the light of the world and do we not have all power/authority over the enemy?

We know why Christ came but when they came to get Him why did He not fight back? He said This is not my kingdom if it was my servants would fight and not allow you to me. We know this world belongs to Satan. Can God just come in rush in and do what ever HE wants? There is a reason we NEED to pray. Paul (holy Spirit) told us to be praying always. To be praying about all things. For me one of the greatest gifts power whatever word one wants to use is PRAYER! A warrior!

Have you ever been doing something and out of no where you start thinking about someone that you have not for awhile? time to Pray! God will not force us to do anything. The more we ignore this it will just stop. He just finds someone that will say yes. Always easy to get back on that path. This is what I personally believe God told Daniel (Daniel 10) that God heard you the moment you prayed but the enemy with stood that angel that had to call on Michael for help. Thats where the battle is.. another reason why we NEED to always be praying.

When you pray, do you listen?

Psalms 46:10) Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Brother William Oldham, in his book Reformation Theology, had these thoughts about prayer:

"Prayer is our most effective tool as a Christian, for it strengthens our relationship with the Lord. Unfortunately, too many Christians shirk this area, or at best give it a quick run through before going out into the world. It is through Bible Study, Prayer and spending quality time alone with God that we are able to open our heart to God, and God, in return, can open His heart to us.

Prayer is similar to one using the telephone, in that one might say it’s our own private line to God. If we’ve ever called someone on the phone and find that they won’t say anything back to us, we tend to get annoyed with them. Likewise if we get a call from someone who talks constantly and never lets us respond to what they are saying, then we also do a slow burn on our end. The same is true of God, for when we pray and then not let God get a word in edgewise before we say “Amen”, then we’ve just told God that we’re really too busy to wait long enough to find out if He wants to talk with us too or not. In fact all we’re really doing with that quickie kind of prayer is, what some use to call in the military, just showing up for morning roll call, or, we’re just letting God know we’re still here, and then get on with our daily duties…….."

I had to think about this, but I realized that I am sometimes guilty of this…..got things to do, places to go, oh yeah, better read my Scripture for the day and have a wee short prayer……..and it’s off I go…….

Sadly, I have found myself doing this more than once or twice………and while I struggle to “be still………..and know that He is God……..” I get caught up in myself instead of being filled up with Him.

But I’m praying, and I’m working on it, and with His strength and guidance, I’ll get there……….there being that state of “quality time” that I truly desire to have with Him.

When we become aware of the Lord, when we understand that the Lord knows all our thoughts so we are never without Him in our life, then our very thoughts are shared with Him, all is conversations with God.

David taught us to meditate. The secular world saw that there were wonderful results from meditation, so they tried to copy what David taught only they ruined it. They said it was emptying the mind or filling it with nonsense words. David said it was filling the mind with the word of God in absolute concentration. It is an intense way of listening to God.

Often our prayers are simply explaining to God what God already knows better than we do even---what our troubles are.

Um... that's not what 1 Samuel 12:23 says.

Samuel is talking about intercessory prayer specifically. He says, "Far be it from me to sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you."

Further, there is context to be taken into account. Samuel was the judge of Israel; he was the senior leader of the nation. That can be extrapolated reasonably to say that leaders (in any context) have the responsibility to pray for those under their charge. However, it still does not say that "not praying is a sin."

That all said, it would be foolish for someone to hope to grow in Christ without praying.