To every believer, hear this: prayer is non-negotiable. We all must pray. To fulfill your God-given purpose, prayer is needed. It is a very big responsibility. To make power available, you just have to pray. Prayer is linked with power; if you want to get things done or make things work, then you must be a person who loves to pray. If you hate losing, then love praying. Ultimately, we must accept the responsibility of prayer to see God’s will manifest in our lives.
Prayer Should Be a Habit
When Jesus was praying on the Mount of Olives concerning doing God’s will on earth, He prayed to a point where His sweat was like drops of blood. God did not say, “Since you are my Son, you do not need to pray.” Instead, angels came to strengthen Him (Luke 22:41-44). You will need strength in the inner man to sustain a prayer life. Another way to put it is: you will need discipline. Among the habits you have built over the years, Among the habits you have built over the years, the responsibility of prayer is the one that remains non-negotiable.
Some of you may know people who do nothing but pray; they take no action, and their lives do not seem to be getting any better. You already know why their lives aren’t working. On the other hand, you might be taking action, but seeing no change. Whichever spectrum you fall into, prayer can never be left out of a believer’s life. If you hate prayer, you will hate your life or what you eventually turn out to be.
Jesus prayed His way to the cross, and His sacrifice saved us. Look at Elijah, who prayed for hours so that water would be made available to the world. He prayed until he saw clouds. He ended a world famine by praying. Yes, he started the famine in the first place, but there is a key truth here: you can decide to start or stop things happening in your life through prayer. If it is bad, stop it. If you want something good, start it. Our lives and our families are resting heavily on the shoulders of our prayer life. It is our responsibility of prayer to ensure that God’s ability is seen firsthand.
Prayer and Worrying Do Not Mix
All of God’s resources are available to us, and it is by prayer that we make good use of those resources. Like money in the bank, you access it with your ATM card. Complaining about the color or the beauty of the card doesn’t matter; what matters is putting the card in the machine to withdraw what is yours. Therefore, complaining about life’s issues is evidence that you have not been praying.
Philippians 4:6 tells us to pray rather than be anxious. If you pray, you won’t worry. If you worry, you are not praying enough. To be anxious means you are uncertain; so, pray to bring certainty to the issues you need to address. If you keep worrying, you will be stuck, but if you keep praying, you will soar.
Some people complain while others take charge. Where you fall lies solely on your devotion to God. Devotion is a thing of emotion and intimacy—it is about just you and God. Jesus spent more time alone with God in prayer than in group prayer. Luke 5:16 shows us that our time of solitude must exceed our time with the multitudes. Praying more in church than you do at home will not help you win your battles; it just shows how casually you are taking life. A casual attitude will bring casualties along your way.
Start Your Day With Prayer
If things are not going well, it is your fault. Take up the responsibility of prayer and change your circumstances. It is strange when a believer is shy about being told to pray; that usually means you do not pray on your own. The more you pray, the bolder you become. Scripture says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). As you pray, you will become bolder and take the steps necessary to obtain that mercy and grace.
Set out time to pray. Jesus woke up a great while before daybreak to pray (Mark 1:35). God showed me a powerful truth here: when does your day actually start? Once you identify that, wake up long before then. If you start preparing for work at 4 am, then your day starts at 4 am. If your house cleanup starts at 5 am, then your day starts at 5 am. Wake up a great while before that—perhaps an hour—to pray. By this, the day is won before it even begins. Let’s keep winning by praying.
Building on these principles of spiritual discipline, you can further explore how to maintain this focus in our previous study, Watch and Pray: The Priority of Prayer.
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