Hello my loves! If you follow our Facebook page you know that this weeks topic has been on prayer, what it is, how to do it, and the importance of it. But for those of you who have yet to join us over on Facebook, let me recap this topic for you.
For hundreds of years, prayer has been a mysterious thing that could be explained but most people couldn’t understand what is was, why they should use it, or even how to use it effectively. So The Holy Spirit pressed upon me to do a bit of light teaching on the subject. Now we know that a week is not a lot of time to teach on a subject as deep or as heavy as the topic of prayer, especially when that teaching is done primarily on social media. However, I tried to hit the major points in the simplest way I knew how. But my loves, here on this blog, I get a chance to really dig into the topic and slow walk my readers to and through each point I tend to make. So buckle up, grab a pen and paper, and of course, don’t forget your bible because we are going to dive into the topic of prayer in the most simple and complex way I know how. 🤪
Prayer is simply talking to God. A more complex definition would be that prayer is a spiritual communion with God as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or confession. Most people when asked about the topic of prayer can not explain prayer in these terms because they aren’t quite sure what prayer really is. Growing up in the church we’ve heard people praying many many times. If you grew up in a Baptist church, you’ve probably heard the deacons of the church, reach way back and pray as if their lives depended on it. They’d said things like “guide me over thy great Jehovah pilgrims through this barren land I am weak but thou art mighty hold me with thy powerful hand bread of heaven feed me till I want no more.” Most have heard this devotion/prayer said a thousand times over, but are we only saying it when the deacon opens his mouth to say it at church or have we adopted a prayer life separate from the deacons?
So how important is prayer? 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to “pray without ceasing.” So it’s that important to God that He wants us to do it all the time? Nah, surely we are misunderstanding His feelings towards prayer. Well Ephesians 6:18 says, “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” There it is again, pray all the time. Maybe that is only a coincidence, I mean He only put it in the bible twice. Right? Well Colossians 4:2 says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. That’s three times God has said pray and pray all the time! Can’t be a mistake! I mean He put it in the good book, three times, in three different books of the bible. It’s funny, cause He didn’t stop there. He said in Luke 18:1, “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Well I’ll be a goldfish’s auntie. There it is again, pray all the time. Surely by now we realize that prayer is really important to God. We know that He commands us to pray and commands us to pray all the time. So let’s recap what we’ve learned so far. We know that prayer is just simply talking to God and having a conversation with Him. We’ve learned that God wants us to talk to Him all the time, every day, about everything. There’s nothing too small or too big that He doesn’t want you to tell Him about. There is nothing too personal, nothing to embarrassing that He doesn’t want to hear about. There is also nothing too sad, too hurtful, or too anything, that God does not want you to tell Him about. He wants to hear from you because He loves you. I mean let’s be honest loves, what person do you know who would allow their only child to go and die for someone else’s mess? I don’t know any. So if He did that then it’s obvious He loves Himself some YOU! Now that we are done with our recap, lets look at the reason for prayer.
We now know that prayer is not optional its required, so let’s figure out why God requires prayer besides the fact that He loves us and wants to hear from us daily. Praying to God builds relationship with God. He is the creator of all so He knows us inside and out, but prayer allows us to get to know Him the same. In prayer is when God reveals Himself to us. He shows us things about Himself that we would have never known had we not experienced Him in prayer. Ephesians 1:9 says, “Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.” It is easy to say that God is a healer because that’s what we’ve heard growing up, but when you are in prayer and you experience Him actually heal your body from a disease, aliment, or wound then you truly know Him as your healer. Or when we scream behind the pastor that God is a way maker. It’s not until we’ve experienced Him making a way for us that we truly know Him as a way maker. It is the same in prayer. In prayer, you get to experience God and His goodness for yourself. In prayer, you are not depending on hearsay, or what your mama said, or your auntie said, or anyone. You’re experiencing God’s goodness for yourself and once you do, you will forever be changed.
These revelations in prayer don’t just stop with God revealing Himself to us, He also reveals things concerning our own lives, people that may be in our lives, things He wants us to do or stop doing, etc. The list goes on and on. The revelations received during our prayer time extends far beyond us and reaches far and wide. That kind of reach is priceless. Don’t you just want to stop reading right now and go pray? Pray is awesome right? I bet you didn’t know praying could get you all of that and then some, but now you know my loves!
Having revelations in prayer is not the only reason God commands us to pray all the time. Another reason is that pray protects us from things we can see and then things we can’t see. That car that almost rear ended you last week but somehow stopped just in time, prayer did that. Or that tree that fell right as you were passing by, prayer did that too! It may not have been your prayers that did it, but somebody’s prayers covered you! 🤣
Most people think that God protects regardless or that He blesses regardless but that isn’t true. James 4:2 says, “…you do not have because you do not ask God.” We can see that God says we have to ask for option A if we want option A. If we do not then we can’t really be upset when we don’t get it. And I know many people say, well God knows everything and He knows what I want, so why do I have to ask for it? Simple. Because God said so! Instead of doing so much questioning of God’s word, why not trying just doing God’s word and seeing what kind of fruit come of it? But to bring satisfaction to your curosity, the answer to that question is because asking God for things shows Him our reliance on Him for good things. He is our Creator and our Father, so He wants to be the one to give us good things. Isn’t that every father you’ve ever come in contact with? They want to be the one to provide and give good gifts to their children. God is the same way. He wants you to rely on Him and asking Him for good things, shows your reliance. And the plus here is that He says often that all we have to do is ask and we shall receive. Matthew 7:7 says, “Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” See, all we have to do is pray and ask and we shall receive all the good things God has for us. At this point, I know you are so ready to jump into prayer because now you see how important it is, and why we do it. I’ll teach you soon how to do it properly. Oh you thought there wasn’t a wrong way to pray? There is. We will talk about it in the next post. Be sure to join our mailing list to be notified when that post will be up.
Let’s say a quick prayer for those of you who feel the fire of God right now and are ready to go pray to God right now.
Father God
Thank you for reigniting a fire in me for prayer
I want to repent for my lack of prayer
And promise to do better
I want to know you on a deeper level
And I know that I will only reach that level in prayer
I ask that you help me on this prayer journey
To not only get to know you but to hunger and thirst after you
I know that you are my source and your goodness and love is my inspiration
In Jesus’ name
Amen!
If you’ve prayed that prayer my loves, then remember that God works with faith so make sure you believe the words that you just prayed and it shall be done.
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Until next time my loves, be blessed!
-Katina L Jenkins