Hi folks and how are you all today? Well it's been about 6 weeks since I first began ministering in church on the importance of prayer in these last days. To be honest with you this subject is so huge that it's hard to know where to begin. We must start somewhere though because prayer is vital if we are to be victorious in our Christian walk.
As one fella said "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!" The main thing is to know the Lord and abide in Him. To know the Lord intimately we must of course fellowship with Him. It would be impossible to know anybody in an intimate way without communication with them. For us Christians this is where prayer comes in.
Prayer simply put is communication with God. It is a two-way dialogue to and from the throne room of the universe. This is our call - to pray. We are God's household and the Father desires His house to be a house of prayer.
Let's look again at Luke 18:1(NIV)
...they should always pray and not give up .
The NKJV says
...men always ought to pray and not lose heart.
Notice how Jesus links both prayer and losing heart together. The word and here is a joining word and you could easily read the verse in this manner for learning purposes ...they should not lose heart and they should keep praying.
I've seen strong prayer warriors in God's army fall into discouragement and it wasn't too long down the road until their prayer life was affected and they quit praying. Why did they stop praying?
Many times because their prayers weren’t answered when or how they thought they should be and they gave up. On the other hand, I’ve also noticed strong praying people to lose their zeal for prayer by allowing other things to creep in as a higher priority. As a result they all weakened spiritually because of their prayerlessness. In every case it wasn't too long afterward that discouragement crept into their Christian walk and in some cases they gave up altogether!
Heh people this is not the time to get discouraged and give up! Jesus is about to return and we need to be ready! Now grab yourself by your spiritual ear and get back up again. Stir yourself up in Christ Jesus. Put that armour back on and start praying like you're supposed to. Get back into fellowship with your wonderful Saviour Jesus. The Holy Spirit is right there by your side waiting to take your requests to the Father. Talk to Him. He's been there the whole time waiting for you.
We often blame God for the lack of results in our Christian walk by saying we are just waiting on Him to move in His perfect timing etc. The truth about the matter is most of the time He is waiting on us to move first. God has already moved for you. He sent Jesus to die a violent death on the cross to pay for your sins. God raised Him from the dead and then gave you His Name, His blood, His Word, and His Holy Spirit to help you pray. If you have been discouraged take heart. If you are weary and the road has been rough in your journey, please don't give up. Pray!
I love you and believe in you…
and until next time bye for now
David
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One day Jesus told His disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up
Luke 18:1 (NLT)