Pray!

Psalm 55:¹⁷ “Evening and morning and at noon, I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.” (NKJV)

Why do we pray? We began to answer this question yesterday and we will pick up today’s devotional from our first point which is, God commands us to pray. The second reason why we pray is Prayer Empowers Us To Resist Temptation. Matt.26:⁴¹ “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (NKJV). What this scripture reveals to us is that prayer empowers the body. So, living a life without prayer can leave us weak and exposed. When you get to the office – pray! When you look at your business – pray. When you look at your career – pray. Just pray!

Thirdly, we pray because We Depend On God. He is our source; He is our life. Col.3:⁴ “And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.” (emphasis added). Jesus is my life, He is my life! Through prayer, we receive the comfort, strength, and other resources we need in life both naturally and spiritually. Prayer releases the resources that we need in life. I have been in situations where I did not know what to do. I just kept praying. Read, open your mind, and keep praying. Boom, the answers come. Prayer is as necessary to spiritual life as the air we breathe is to natural life. And it because prayer ushers us into the presence of God and secures the presence of God. The presence of God is really the air that we breathe in our spiritual life. So, prayer is like the nostrils with which we can access the air that we breathe.

The fourth reason why we pray is that We Love Him. Just like a man and woman in love desire to be together and to talk. If we love God, we will desire to be with God and to fellowship with God. James 4:⁸ “Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.” That is prayer. The fifth reason why we pray is that God Loves Us. We and our prayers matter to God. God is not a distant father who is unreachable and uncaring. God is not a distant father who we have to shout, pray, sweat, and hope that He hears us. On the contrary, He is Abba. The name Abba is like Daddy. God is not just Father, or parent, He is daddy. Daddy is relational. God is our dad, and He wants to hear from us.

Gal.4:⁶ “And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” The Holy Spirit actually prompts us to relate with God as Dad. For people who are unable to relate with God as Dad, they only see God as ‘Almighty, Omnipotent…’. Such people, probably lack the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes us beyond all that into the heart of the Father as our dad.

Prayer: Father, I declare according to Your Word that evening and morning and at noon, I will pray, and cry aloud, and You, my Dad will hear my voice, in Jesus Name. Amen!