The Daily Nugget- Why Pray
Hi All
One of the greatest blessings all Christians have been given is the ability to communicate directly with God through prayer, as it helps us to develop a personal relationship with Him. Prayer also allows us to express our gratitude,repent of our sins and align our hearts desires with those of God and the plans He has for us. Praying is also an act of obedience which allows us to intercede for others and through prayer we gain the strength we need for the challenges of life.
Be Blessed And Encouraged
Why We Pray
1 It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples." 2 And He said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.3 'Give us each day our daily bread.4 'And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.And lead us not into temptation.”(Luke 11:1-4)
The only thing the disciples asked Jesus to teach them was how to pray,,...and Jesus gave them guidelines about how God wants us to pray. These instructions became what we all know as Lord's Prayer.The disciples knew that prayer is the key to everything. If you look historically and biblically, every big move of God started with prayer. Every revival started with a few people on their knees praying !
At times we can all question why prayers have not been answered how we think they should but could it be because it's so easy to go to God with our “wishlist”. This is understandable as the English word pray means to “ask earnestly or beg”. However the Hebrew word for prayer is Tefillah which means to self evaluate or examine oneself.So to the Jews of the Bible, prayer was not a time when they asked God for things,it was a time when they examined themselves.They would use prayer as a way to compare their actions, behavior and attitude against God’s holiness.If we pray in this way we then begin to align with God's will for us as The Lord's prayer tells us “Thy will be done”(Matthew 6:10). We can all at times tend to pray with a heart for what we want,but in reality we should pray with a heart that wants what God wants for us!
Through His love for us and His infinite wisdom He always knows how to answer our prayers in a way that is best for us Matthew 6:8 tells us”for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” and in Romans 8:28 we are told “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Amen !