Be careful with nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God, Philippians 4:6. Prayer is a vital facet in the life of every believer; it is one way Christians draw strength from God. However, there are certain situations in life that make it hard for one to pray; devastations and challenges deceive us that God has forsaken us whereas He hasn’t. Thus, we tend to draw away from Him and fail to pray. But this shouldn’t be the case! Because in every situation, we should pray in faith and trust; and God will surely hear us. As it is said in Psalms 55:22, Cast your burdens unto the Lord and He will surely lift you up.
Prayer is the spiritual communication between us and our Father in Heaven; not only is it us talking to God but also us listening to God’s voice. Our inner man is strengthened when we lead a prayerful life. Remember, God’s begotten son Jesus Christ prayed so many times by Himself: even during the night before His arrest, He went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray so that He could have the strength and spirit to go through what awaited for Him. God’s son in His prayer said, “Lord take this cup away from me. But if this is Your Will, then let Your Will be done.” We are not in a position to change certain situations that happen to us, only God can. And God has a reason for us going through certain storms in life and the best thing we can do is pray to God and ask that He will be done and for His grace to guide us through. Just it is written in James 5:13 we are encouraged to pray when we are afflicted.
How then should we pray? While going through His daily teachings, Jesus once taught His followers on how to pray and as well as the Lord’s Prayer, which we do pray up-to-date. Jesus advises us against praying like the Pharisees, who to Him were hypocrites since they always wanted to be seen while praying. Instead, the Son of God encourages us to pray in secret and God will surely reward us openly, Matthew 6:5-7. Other than praying in secret and offering genuine prayers to God, we are also encouraged to pray everywhere, according to 1 Timothy 2:8, while lifting up our Holy hands without wrath and doubting. For every prayer we make to the Almighty, we should have faith that God has already answered our prayers.
Other than praying for ourselves, we should also pray for one another, James 5:16; not only for our family and allies but for enemies too. As stated in Matthe5:44, we should pray for them who despitefully use us and persecute us. This is ideologically hard but practically possible. One may wonder, why would I pray for someone who did me wrong? It is tough and in our human nature we tend not to care for those go wronged us, leave alone to pray for them. Yet we are encouraged to pray for our foes! But Jesus shows us a perfect example of praying for our oppressors. Remember, He too was oppressed; and even though He had the power to destroy His persecutors with just one word, He instead chose to pray for them and forgave them. Right before we go before God in prayer, we should ensure that we forgive those who have wronged us so that God too can forgive our transgressions, Mark 11:25. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes.
Prayer should be a lifestyle; something that we do, not because we are asked to but because we desire to have a close relationship with our Maker. Every prayer we make should be made in truth, faith and trust in God. Matthew 21:22 states that whatsoever we ask in prayer, by believing, we shall receive.
In every season, we should pray without ceasing and give ourselves continually in prayer.
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