Power of Prayer

When you see or hear the word prayer what is the first thing that comes up in your mind? Think about that question for a minute. While you thinking I will tell, what few teenagers in my age, between the ages of 17 - 19 think what prayer is. Prayer is when mommy and daddy calls us for family prayer. Prayer is when I got church. Prayer is when I go to sleep. Prayer is a ceremony that’s very boring and long. Prayer is talking to God. A lot of various ideas and versions of prayer is coming to this new generation. In this essay I am going to walk you through various different topics concerning the topic of prayer.

What is prayer? As I mentioned before, people have different opinions on what prayer is. Prayer is not a practice only reserved for people that are “holy” or people that are in “high positions”. Prayer is simply communicating with God-listing and talking to him. Through prayer we actually experience relationship with God. The quality of our prayer life then determines the quality of our relationship with God. Prayer is listing to God. Prayer is enjoying the presence of God. Prayer is not simply saying a bunch of words. It is not babbling a chant. It is heartfelt prayer that God honors and looks at. We are told by Jesus not to make meaningless repetition of words when we pray.(Mathew 6;7)”When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do”. “They think their prayers are answered only be repeating their words again and again”. There is a lot of false prayer as we can see from the book of Luke 8:9-14. We all know the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The tax collector prayer was consisted of telling God at least I’m not like this guy or that guy. I’m not like the robbers or adulteress. Or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week listen to my prayer. But the tax collectors prayer was consisted of repentance. He wouldn’t even look up to God and pray. Rather he would beat his chest and say “God have mercy on me for I am a sinner”. Who do you think prayer got heard? Yes the tax collectors. Because he didn’t exalt himself he humbled himself down in the presence of God, and showed humility. Like it says in verse 14 “those who humble themselves will be exalted and those who exalt themselves will be humbled . So our prayer should be heartfelt. That is exactly what prayer is. A heartfelt communication to God.

Why should we pray? Lets try to break down a scenario. If we never speak to our parents or never listen to anything they have to say to us. Our relationship with them will quickly deteriorate. It’s the same way with God. Communicating with God helps us grow closer to him. Prayer develops our relationship with God. One of the simplest reasons to spend time in prayer is because the Lord instructed us to pray. Obedience is a natural by-product of discipleship. Matthew 26:41 "Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak!" For Christians, praying is like breathing. Medically speaking you cannot live without breathing. The same way without breathing spiritually (praying) your inner man is dead. For on thing prayer is a form of serving god (Luke 2:36-38) and obeying Him. Prayer is exemplified for us by Christ and the early church (Mark1:35;Acts 1:14; 2:42). If Jesus thought it was worthwhile to pray, we should as a body of Christ should also. If he needed to pray to remain in the Fathers will, how much more do we need to pray? Another reason to pray