Prayer is a very important part of the Christian's journey. It is the culture of the believer and it's importance can never be overemphasized.
Prayer was designed to be a means of survival for believers and if a believer will amount to anything, he or she must be given to the art of prayer.
Why is prayer very important? What are the reasons that make up for the very important posture that prayer bears?
I am going to unveil nine (9) reasons why prayer is very important.
Prayer is Important Because It Is Our Channel of Communicating With God
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”– Matthew 6:6
Prayer is oftentimes defined as the communication channel between God and man. The goal of God in designing prayer was to afford man the opportunity to commune with Him and have Him commune with man.
There is no way we can talk to God except through the protocol of prayers. God is a Spirit and it is through the Spirit that we commune with God. In order to commune with God, we must partner with His Spirit through the altar of prayer.
Seeking other means of interacting with God aside the protocol of prayer is a move in the direction of witchcraft and necromancy. To talk to God, we must pray. Prayer is our telephone line for reaching God.
Prayer Is Important Because It Helps Us Achieve Intimacy and Fellowship
God's desire for creating man was to have intimacy and fellowship with man. Man was created from the fellowship of the God-head and he was expected to function by fellowshipping with the God-head.
After creating man, God will come to the garden of Eden in the cool of the day to have fellowship with the man He had created. Until the devil came and disrupted that establishment. Due to the fall, man became unable to fellowship with God again.
So prayer was now designed as the means to bring man and God back to that plain of fellowship and intimacy. If we must commune with God, we must be people of prayer.
By prayer, man is enabled to come back to the original status quo of intimacy with Divinity. Prayer creates an enabling ground for God and man to become intertwined as originally designed.
Prayer Is Important For Self-Realization
Prayer helps us realize who we are. It helps us to uncover and unravel the mysteries that shrouds our lives. It gives us an insight into what God had in mind when He was creating us.
God was not careless about creation. Everything God created had a purpose. Nothing was made just because God wanted to fill the earth. God was intentional about creation.
By implication, God created you for a purpose. When God was forming you like the Prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5, He knew you and had made you a solution to a pre-existing problem on the Earth.
The way you were born does not matter here. Even if you were born as a result of an unfortunate night, God allowing you birth is enough reason for you to believe that God has a plan and purpose for your life.
As Late Myles Munroe asserts "the worst tragedy in life is not losing your job or failing an exam but living a life without fulfilling purpose". You will be disappointing God if you refuse to fulfil His predetermined purpose for your life.
This is one of the reasons why we pray. We pray because it is in the place of prayer that God begins to unveil who we are to us. It is in the place of prayer that God through His Spirit makes us to realize who He has made us to be.
The Psalmist said, “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” – Psalms 36:9
In God's light we encounter light which reveals who we are. It was this light the Prophet, Isaiah encountered that made him realize he was a man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5).
To realize who you are in God and discover your purpose in life, then you have to be yielded to prayer.
Prayer Helps Us To Know The Mind & Will of The Father
The will of God is the governing counsel for our lives as believers. Anything a believer does outside of the will of God accounts for nothing. Our operation and conduct must be in synchrony to the will and mind of God.
Hebrews 10:7 gives us a concise insight to what our lives must be about:
“Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”
We live not to bag degrees or build mansions or win Miss World contests or become rich and popular but to do the will of God. The will of God for our lives must be trapped as it is what gives us voice among immortals.
Our resolve always must be like that of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 26:39 which says:
“And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
It does not matter how wonderful our ambitions are. They may even look spiritual. It is a sojourn in futility if the will of God is not captured in it. God's will must be the compass that directs our life.
Prayer then becomes our practice. This is because we can only know the mind and the will of God when we pray. The mind of God can not be discerned by guessing or following your heart. You must labour in the place of prayer to apprehend the mind of God for your life per time.
The Spirit of God is the revealer of the mind of God (1 Corinthians 2:11). We partner with Him to discern the mind of God and the tender upon which the provision for this partnership is laid bare is prayer. Only by prayer can we receive what have been given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:12).
Prayer is Necessary For Spiritual Growth and Development
It is God's desire that we grow until we come into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. You see when we become born again, the experience is like that of an actual birth. We become babies and it is expedient for us to grow.
The components that makes us grow is not physical food as in the case of newborn babies. We are spiritual newborns hence the components responsible for our growth is spiritual.
Prayer is one of the spiritual components responsible for our growth. To grow spiritually, a believer must embrace the altar of prayer and waste his life there.
Jude explains this in verse 20 of Jude where he said:
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,”
We build ourselves by praying. Prayer builds the believer. This is also attributed to why the early church grew rapidly. In Acts of the Apostles chapter 6:4, the Apostles maintained that “we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”
They understood that if they left prayer and began to serve tables their growth and the eventual growth of the church would be disrupted and stunted.
If you must grow dear believer you must be prayerful. Having alternatives outside prayer is a sign you are not ready for growth. Growth is experienced when prayer is practiced.
Prayer Enforces God's Will on The Earth
Prayer is the tool with which we enforce God's will on the earth. Jesus taught that for us to pray effectively, our prayer enterprise must be fashioned in such a way that the will of God is captured in it.
In Matthew 6:9-10, Jesus said:
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
Prayer must be about enforcing God's will else it is will not be effective. Our prayers are potent to the degree of how they align to God's will. God's will is superior to say motive.
It is only in Heaven that the will of God is settled. Men will have to labour in prayers for the will of God to take center stage on the earth. The altar of prayer is the enforcement agency of God's will.
Prayer Changes Things and Transforms Lives
“And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.” – Luke 9:29
"Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." – James 5:17-18
Prayer is able to change the situation of things and transform the lives of men. In the verses above we see this importance of prayer expressed.
The first scripture, Luke 9:29, tells us about Jesus. On one of his several prayer engagements, Luke accounts that Jesus literally transformed. This transformation can be experienced even today. By prayer, men can move from being charlatans and vagabonds to signs and wonders.
I have seen how men who embraced the altar of prayer become transformed. Men who had been vessels and tools in the hands of the devil by the protocol of prayers have become instruments for the expression and manifestation of the glory of God.
On the other hand, James tells us of Prophet Elijah. How that by prayer he(Elijah) locked up the heavens over Israel for three years and six months. And by prayer still he opened the heavens and the land had rain.
There is no situation or problem that is too big for prayers to handle. My father told me how the zeal for prayer was kindled in him. Someone gave him a gift and as he unwrapped the gift, the first thing he saw was the inscription "Prayer Changes Things".
He got that gift long before I was born and it will interest you to know that my dad is still as zealous towards prayers as he was years ago.
Prayer is able to transform men. Praying for my siblings has yielded immense results. Situations orchestrated by darkness can be turned around when we give ourselves to prayer. Truly Prayer changes things.
We Engage In Spiritual Warfare By Prayer
The world we live in is a battleground. Every day we are engaged in a warfare and it is disheartening to see believers live as though we are in a funfare.
There's a raging battle and we have been recruited into it. That was why Apostle Paul urged us to "Put on the whole armour of God..." (Ephesians 6:11). Denying the fact that we are in a spiritual warfare does not negate the fact.
The earlier we come to terms with the warfare dimension of the earth, the better for our safety on the earth. As it is a spiritual warfare, we do not war carnally or with carnal weapons.
“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)” – 2 Corinthians 10:4
The weapons of our warfare and how we engage in it are spiritual. It is by prayer that we engage in spiritual warfare. The man who does not pray is setting himself up as a casualty of war.
I pity many who spend the night sleeping. That timeframe which is strategic for warfare should not be spent snoring and slumbering. Brace yourself and war, life is a warfare. Prayer is the platform for engaging.
Prayer Secures Deliverances
The devil will do anything within his jurisdiction to put and keep you in bondage. He was never happy when God made man and has sought to frustrate God's intention for man by placing man under the bondage of sin.
But the Bible reveals that deliverance is possible. In Isaiah chapter 49:24-25, a question was asked and the answer is very interesting.
"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children."
Deliverance is a possibility in God and we command deliverance by prayer. The devil will back out of your life and family when your prayer fire intensifies. The Bible says the weapon of our warfare is not carnal but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds" – 1 Corinthians 10:6(Paraphrased)
Have you noticed a pattern or a circle in your family? Has the devil kept your family in bondage and made everyone subject to his wickedness? Then it is time you embrace the altar of prayer and shift the devil back.
Prayer secures your deliverance.
James 4:7 says “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” How we submit to God in order to gain sufficient stamina for resisting the devil is prayer. Only by prayer can we entrench the systems of deliverance.
Who Should Pray?
I have spoken to quite a number of people and I discovered that many believers do not pray because they believe prayer is for a particular set of people: Ministers of God.
That's not true. Every man ought to pray. In Luke 18 verse 1, Jesus taught the disciples a parable and His goal was to let them know that men ought always to pray and not to faint. As long as you are a man then you must pray.
I hope you know that by man it does not refer to only male gender but every human. Being a human is reason enough to pray. Stop seeing prayer as an activity for certain groups of people. Engage in prayer today and enjoy overwhelming dividends.
Before you go, share your thoughts with me. I really want to hear from you. Drop a comment in the comments section below. The Lord Bless You.
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