Let us Pray and Continue Always To Pray

We are encouraged to pray for others in church, for missionaries and different people from our lives. Often we are asked to commit to a prayer vigil for a person, a missionary, a situation and many churches have a prayer list. Sometimes we hesitate to make prayer commitments because we are not sure that we will be able to live up to it. We ask ourselves will we remember to pray every day? It isn’t that we don’t want to, we’re obviously taking the matter of prayer very seriously and we really want to be certain that we can be faithful before making a promise to pray. How often do we just not make the commitment to pray? What a sad choice that is because prayer means so much to us all. It is our own way of staying in communication with our Creator, our Lord and Savior in building our relationship with Him. It is also a wonderful privilege to be able to go directly through the name of Jesus Christ into the presence of our Lord God and pray for ourselves and for others anytime, day or night to talk to Him about anything. It is very important to remember that by going to God in fervent prayer we are following the example of Jesus Christ. 

Our Lord and Savior, God in the flesh made it His practice to pray in public, go to the local synagogue and take part in public worship. He instructed us in Hebrews 10:25 to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Meaning for us to gather together as God’s children, as brothers and sisters through Christ to worship, study His word and pray. He lets us know that where two or three are gathered He will be in our midst. Matthew 18:20. By following His example would also teach us to make use of private prayer. In Matthew 14:23 we see where after His sermon Jesus went up into the hills to pray in private. We are instructed to go and spend time in a room, closed off from others to talk to God in private.  Matthew 6:6. We can also see where Jesus had personal prayers to Our Heavenly Father. The prayer was given to us as a beautiful example guiding us as to how we are to pray. In Matthew 6:9-13 The Lord’s Prayer was only 70 words long it isn’t meant to be said exactly word for word as a repetitive recitation. It is to serve as a example to address God for who He is, to praise and honor His Name and His powerful position as The One and Only True God. To then pray that His will be done as He knows what is good for us and for His Kingdom. To repent when we fail Him and to forgive others in the same way God has forgiven us if we have been born again through believing and acceptance of Jesus Christ into our own hearts. To pray and ask for our needs to be met and to make our own failing right between our hearts and God. Then teaching us to close praying in the precious name of Jesus Christ because it is only through Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father. We are shown how we are to give Him all the glory, all of the honor and credit and give Him every single praise. Jesus also shows us persistence when He pleaded with His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane Matthew 26:36-46 where you can feel the anguish through His words.  He desperately needed His Father’s strength to get through what He knew He would soon be facing. He also knew and showed us who it is we should go to when we are in such dire need. Romans 12:12 tells us to be instant in prayer, and to be faithful to continue in prayer. 

We have so many reasons to pray if only for praise and thanks. We learn in 2 Corinthians 13:14 that all blessings flow from God in heaven above down to us and we should praise Him always. James 1:17further tells us that all  good and prefect gifts come from above. We should look at our lives daily and give inventory to the many ways God has blessed our lives. Look at the good more than the bad and the happy more than the sad. Give God thanks for all that He has done for us. Colossians 3:27 tells us that whatever we do in deed or say in words should be done in the name if the Lord Jesus Christ giving our thanks to Him and to The Father in heaven. Jesus also gave us the example to pray for friends. We find Him repeatedly praying for His friends and for us. The Holy Son of God prayed for us. Give that some serious thought right now. In John 17: 6-19 He prayed for the disciples, His friends, many becoming so close with Him. Then in John 17:20-26 He prayed for us, the believers. Again, with all Jesus The son of God was about to face His thoughts turned to others. 

Jesus also prayed for His enemies, the ones seeking to kill Him. For those who hated Him, spit at Him, Beat Him, Tortured Him, yelled expletives at Him, taunting Him. Finally He prayed for those who nailed Him to the cross. Imagine being there looking up to Him on the cross, bloody, beaten, barely able to breathe and hear Him say “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. As it was with Jesus, so it must be with us, His followers. We too are told in Mark 23:34 to love our enemies and pray for all who persecute us. Being faithful in praying for others we will find that our own hearts are cleansed. Our own thoughts and ways will be adjusted through the studying of God’s word and the time with Him in prayer.

So in closing let us never hesitate to take on the commitment to pray for others, for a situation, a group, a mission, missionary, for ourselves, our friends, our families and even our enemies. It is a wonderful privilege and blessing to have been given this opportunity.  To be able to stop at any moment, day or night for any reason and spend time with our Creator, The Maker of the Universe and all Creation, our Lord, our Master, our Savior, and that is a blessing of all blessings. Let us never forget how special prayer truly is. Let us each take a moment right now after reading this to spend time with The Lord in prayer.