The Importance Of Prayer
"Let me suggest some practical reasons why prayer is so important in a believer’s life.
- Prayer is how we commune with God.
- Prayer is how we receive blessings from God.
- Prayer is essential to winning men to Christ.
- Prayer is the way we slay our besetting sins.
- Prayer is the secret of a holy life.
- Prayer is the source of power in the pulpit.
- Prayer is how we guard our families and our children.
- prayer is the source of our joy before the Lord.
- Prayer is how we resist the devil.
- Prayer makes us Christ like.
- Prayer is how we obtain mercy and grace in our times of need.
- Prayer is how we overcome our anxieties. Phil. 4:6-7
- Prayer is the means to overcoming the flesh and growing in grace.
- Prayer brings blessings to the church, the family, the home, the nation.
- Prayer is one way of glorifying Christ.
- Prayer brings heaven down to earth.
- Prayer is the way to lift up the downcast.
- Prayer is a part of our worship.
- Prayer is how we obtain things from God.
- Prayer is where we find peace and comfort in the storms of life.
The Power Of Prayer
Chrysostom of Constantinople, the great early church orator, described the power and blessing of prayer in the following words:
“The potency of prayer hath subdued the strength of fire; it hath bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by storm. It is the root, the foundation, the mother of a thousand blessings.”4
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones also said:
“Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when, upon his knees, he comes fact to face with God… When a man is (authentically) speaking to God he is at his very acme. It is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition. There is nothing that tells the truth about us as christian people so much as our prayer life. Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer… Even our concern for the salvation of souls, even our concern for God’s blessing upon the preaching of the Word, even our concern for those who are near and dear to us may become truly Christian, even these things must never be given the first place, the first position (in our praying). Still less must we ever start wit our own circumstances and conditions…Before we begin to think of ourselves and our own needs, even before our concern for others, we must start with this great concern about God and His honor and His glory. There is no principle in connection with the Christian life that exceeds this in importance.”5
Let me encourage all of you to pray much for your church, your spiritual leaders, your country, and your friends and neighbors who do not know the Lord. These are wicked days and they call for all of us to be much in prayer before the Lord.
God bless you,
Pastor Dickie
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