Is Prayer Still Powerful?
Let’s be honest, prayer is typically the first thing to go when we feel too busy and pressed for time. If we will truly grasp the benefits of gaining the Father’s perspective when we go to Him with our raw thoughts and emotions, as Natalie reminds us, He will continue to prove Himself faithful over and over again!
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2
Prayer is the spiritual discipline we put off until later, but then time gets away from us and the next thing we know we are waking up to a new day. Sometimes taking the time to sit at the feet of Jesus and have a conversation with Him is the hardest thing to do.
I have seen this pattern in my own life. But why do we do this? Why is prayer the first thing to go in a busy schedule? I think we could all list a ton of “reasons” (aka excuses) as to why we “do not have the time” to pray. But instead of getting into those, let’s look at the reasons why we should be spending time talking with our Heavenly Father?
- Prayer builds our relationship with the Father. You are not going to get to know people well unless you spend time talking with them. When I have felt distant from the Lord, it was usually because I had chosen not to spend time with him. It was because I was not doing the one thing that would bring me closer to Him and allow for Him to speak truth into my life. It makes logical sense. If we want to deeply know Christ with not just a head knowledge, then we must converse with Him and listen to Him.
- Prayer produces faith and trust in the Father. When we ask big things and He shows up, we start to see the power of prayer and the faithfulness of our Father. It is like we know that if He showed up once, then He will show up again. All of a sudden we start to pray with more confidence and more authority because we know the God we are serving is more than capable. I believe He delights when we ask big things from Him. When we ask Him to do the impossible because we know He is who He says He is.
- Jesus prayed. Plain and simple. If the Son of God prayed, how much more do you think that you and I need to pray? All throughout Scripture we see Jesus going off to pray. He goes off into the mountains to pray. Before He is crucified, He is praying. If Jesus’s life was full of prayer, then our life should be full of prayer. We need to be in communion with the Father, just like Jesus was in communion with the Father.
Prayer does not have to be eloquent or full of big words we don’t understand. Prayer is simply talking with the Creator and allowing Him to meet us where we are. Let’s not be a people who, get to the end of life with a list of things we never talked to our Father about. Rather let’s able to testify to the ways that He showed up when we asked big things of Him.
Camper Corner:
What is your prayer life like? Do you believe in the power of prayer? Why or why not?
