Importance of Prayer
How often do you really pray? Just before meals? In church? When you find yourself completely stressed and a quick, “help me to get a good grade”, or “help this to all work out” is your last resort? If you’re like me, I get into really good prayer habits and then really bad ones shortly after. I like to begin some weeks by texting 5-10 people to ask how I can pray for them. I find even with people whose struggles I think I know well, asking them allows the opportunity for them to be vulnerable and specific. This is a great way for me to be thinking of others and thoughtfully lift their burdens up to God. Sadly, this fire to pray for people I care about usually dies about halfway through the week and I am hardly consistent in texting people week to week. If you’re like me and desire to stay committed to lifting prayers and petitions to God, let’s walk through powerful reminders about prayers and practical habits for prayer.
The first thing I have been reminding myself of is the importance of prayer. It can be so easy to forget that prayer is a means granted to us for communication with the Father! Jesus taught us the simplicity of prayer in Matthew 6 with the Lord’s prayer. He reminds us that it should not be an elaborate performance where we heap up empty phrases, but an intimate time of fellowship with God. Even when we do not have the words to say, we have been given the Holy Spirit to intercede for us, and we have the confidence that God knows our hearts and needs even before we do!
Prayer is a reminder to shift our focus from the broken world and instead to look towards heaven, to the one in whom our hope comes from. Nothing in this world can save us from our suffering and sadness here, but God is faithful to His people, so look to Him!
Prayer is a way for us to get to know God better. We have a God who wants to listen and communicate with us. More than that, we have a God who hears our cries and has the plan that is best for us in store.
Prayer reminds us that the troubles of this world are not in our hands. We can find satisfying peace in the knowledge that our troubles are instead in the hands of the Maker, and how much better is that than our own sinful, dirty hands?
Even after these reminders we can still find ourselves coming up with excuses for our lack of commitment to prayer. Even in the busyness of life there is always time for prayer. Go on a walk, rid yourself of distractions and spend that time communicating with the Lord. Or maybe you have a routine of getting in your car every morning on the way to work or school and listening to music. Turn that music off and spend time with the one who allowed you to get that job, drive that car, wear those clothes.
In times you feel you don’t know what to say, pray direct Scripture! Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching and equipping, so you can never go wrong with that. Even just praying the Lord’s prayer is a beautiful conversation.
Pray song lyrics! My church sang the song, “Show Us Christ” by Sovereign Grace and the lyrics are beautiful words asking God to reveal His glory and reminding us that He is the only place we can go to for true hope, peace, and comfort. There are so many wonderful hymns and praise songs that can help humble us before God.
For many people, prayer becomes essential in their routine when they are in the practice of writing it down. Writing it down is also a special way to look back and see what God has done in your life since you said certain prayers! Pray for others. Pray for big and small things. Pray continually.
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18