What is Prayer? -The Importance of Prayer(1)

Why is prayer so important? Learn how prayer protects your spirit, strengthens faith, and opens the way to God’s answers.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” (Colossians 4:2)

1. The Importance of Prayer

How seriously do you think about the importance of prayer? Do you think you should pray if you have time but you do not have to pray if you don’t have the time? Have you heard about the importance of prayer but you haven’t felt the necessity of praying yet in your life? Or are you one who does try to pray hard, feeling the need to pray?

Prayer is not a matter of our choice. God’s children who received salvation should pray. Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;” The first part of Matthew 26:41 warns us, Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation”; And 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing;” This is the will of God towards us in Christ. There are many places in the Bible where we are urged to pray.

The Forefathers of Faith considered prayer to be very important. The Prophet Samuel confessed in 1 Samuel 12:23, “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way.”

Even Jesus, the Son of God, tried His best to pray in every spare moment. He never ceased praying even though he did not have enough time to rest and sleep because he was busy accomplishing the work of God. Peter, one of the foremost disciples of Jesus, also made it a habit to pray. The Prophet Daniel chose to be thrown into a den of lions rather than to cease praying.

2. Prayer is Spiritual Breathing

God teaches us why we should pray without ceasing in many ways and warns us to pray in alertness not to fall into temptation.
A physically healthy person has no difficulty breathing; it is natural. Likewise, a spiritually healthy man thinks it is natural to pray and makes it a habit to pray without ceasing and never thinks that prayer is taxing or demanding. It is because the more he breathes spiritually in prayer, the healthier he becomes, his soul prospers, and everything goes well with him.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of prayer. Prayer is like the breathing of our spirit. If we do not breathe, we die. If we do not pray our soul is suffocated. Prayer is the respiration of the spirit. If one who has been born again ceases to pray, he gradually becomes choked even though he cannot feel it at first. Understanding that he becomes suffocated, if he continues to pray he can get back to a normal believing life but if not, he will have to struggle with adversity in every field of his life. This is being spiritually choked

New believers tend to have difficulty in praying like a little baby learning to speak. Since they do not know how to pray naturally, it must be practiced. But as they continue to pray while depending on the word of God, their spirit will gradually become stronger and will be able to offer powerful prayer. Then by this time, they will understand that they cannot live without praying just as they cannot keep their life without breathing.
Those who try to pray, understanding the fact that prayer is the breathing of their spirit, don’t think of prayer as something difficult. They habitually pray just as they breathe. Then, they are full of peace and hope and have joy in their life since they receive answers and glorify God as much as they pray.

3. Prayer Is Conversation with God

Prayer is the conversation between God and us. In other words, prayer is the pathway of conversation between God and His children, which should be continued without fail. Just as children declare their love or ask something of their parents, we also can communicate with God through prayer.

It is a tragedy in today’s family lives that there is no communication between parents and children. They have no trust between one another, but have only a formal relationship. There is nothing we cannot tell our God. As they have trust and love for God, it is natural for the saved children of God to pray. When you accept Jesus as your Savior and receive the gift of Holy Spirit, you have the right to be a child of God.

Once you know your true Father you are no longer like a child who hasn’t seen his father for a long time. You are confident and want to see Him and talk to Him. Even if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, as a child of God, you are a child who prays since you want to see God the Father and talk to Him.
Prayer is conversation with God. If there is no conversation between father and child, their relationship is not normal. Therefore, prayer is the evidence that one is God’s child who has received the Holy Spirit.

If you love someone, even if you talk with him or her all through the night, you do not feel tired or bored but rather think that time passes by very quickly. Likewise, if you love God, you pray to communicate with God. Even if you profess your love for God, if you do not pray, it is not true love. God is kind enough to listen to us and to talk to us and knows us well since He is omniscient and omnipotent. Since God is in the fourth dimension and we are living in the third dimension, we can communicate with Him only through prayer.

4. Prayer Is a Spiritual Weapon

When we pray in humbleness, asking the helping hand of the Holy Spirit, God gives us the fullness of the Holy Spirit to understand more clearly the will of God and to overcome the enemy devil and the world. But when you do not pray, you cannot experience the works of the Holy Spirit. Then, it is more natural for you to depend on your thoughts and theories and live according the untruth. Consequently you do not receive perfect salvation.
In order for us to fight against the power of darkness while living in this world controlled by the forces of darkness, we must pray without ceasing to fulfill the will of God and to enlarge the kingdom of God until the Lord comes again. That is why Ephesians 6:18 says, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,”

5. Prayer Is the Key to Receiving Answers

God says, “Ask and it will be given to you.” This promise is given to all people in this world. It is because God wants all His children to lead blessed lives by asking God. Since God is the Creator and the Almighty One, if we ask God, He will answer us without fail. Matthew 7:9-11 say, “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

Nevertheless, even if God promises to answer us if you just wait without trying to ask for anything of God, you can never receive anything. Ezekiel 36:37 says, “Thus says the LORD God, “This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock.” We should be wise and diligent enough to ask, seek, know and enjoy the abundant blessing our Father God gives to us.

Prayer is the key to all answers and blessings. We receive answers when we move God’s heart by pleasing Him to the fullest through our prayer. As for believers, prayer is the key to knock on the heart of God and it is a strong weapon that transcends time and space.

We have seen and experienced that many Christian lives changed and they in turn have changed the course of world history. We can be sanctified only when we pray; and we can possess faith, hope and love as well. Only when we pray do we possess the key to receive His answer and the strength to live by His word. We can also fulfill our missions, accomplish the work of God, and lead souls to salvation only though the power of prayer.

6. Prayer and the Growth of Faith

Prayer is too important for us to neglect. If you know the importance of prayer then you should submit everything to God by prayer. Even if you have faith it is useless if you do not communicate with God in prayer. God answers to those who earnestly seek Him. When you ask anything of God in faith He works by your faith. But God does not answer you unconditionally. You need to pray according to the will of God by understanding why you should pray and how to pray. Your faith will grow as you experience the great power of prayer, and understand the importance of prayer, knowing how to pray and how to receive power through the Word of God.

The content of prayer and the heart and attitude to pray are different depending on whether or not you understand the very reason why you have to pray. The greater your faith and the more you love God, the more you pray to God. The forefathers of faith in the Bible did not neglect to pray on the grounds that they had great faith. The bigger the faith you have and the more you depend on God, the more you pray to God about even small things for His guidance. They never ceased to pray.

Since he had faith in God and loved Him so much, Daniel the Prophet prayed without changing his mind, even when he was in danger of being thrown into a den of lions. Thus, it is very natural for you to pray if you believe and love God.

7. Pray with Vision

I hope that you pray with dreams and visions when you ask something in prayer. With what kind of vision are you able to pray then? You may pray with such dreams and visions as follows.

“Father God, I hope my soul goes well with me to enter heaven, a better heaven, even New Jerusalem. I also want to be loved by You. I want to adorn myself well as a bride of the Lord. I want to shine like the sun in heaven. I want to be your good worker so that I lead many souls to salvation, diligently spread the gospel, help the needy and give abundant offering before you with the material blessing given by You.”

If you receive Jesus as your Savior and get the right to be a child of God, you need to glorify God, when you eat, drink or whatever you do. To do so, you should abide in the truth, the word of God, casting off untruth everyday. Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Likewise, when you live in the truth and do good deeds, you glorify God.

The forefathers of faith in the Bible glorified God by perfectly keeping the word of God. As a result, they received much blessing in this world and blessedly they could dwell near the throne of God.