The most important thing about prayer is that God loves hearing from us – His children.
The thing about prayer is that we all need it and we can all do it.
The thing about prayer is that Jesus taught us to do it. He gifted us the Lord’s prayer. We can also recall Him praying on several occasions.
The thing about prayer is that it works in our situations, on us and in us -sometimes in ways we are not always able to articulate.
When in pain we pray and soon feel a sense of relief which begins our healing – be it physical, mental, emotional or Spiritual pain.
When we pray and get into conversation with our God the premise is that we are talking with and asking from someone that cares. When we have someone that cares in our situations and circumstances our burdens automatically become lighter and our hope stronger. Prayer becomes an antidote that many of us run to, also because some of us, have the experience of prayer changing situations.
I remember talking to a friend, and she told me about a time that she was in a meeting and her accountant was trying to convince her to retrench some of her employees due to the financial state of her business. In her distress she asked to be excused, slipped into her office, and got on her knees and prayed to God to intervene. She went back to continue with the meeting. To her shock, she soon, during the same meeting, received a call from a company she had been chasing for years confirming a contract she had forgotten she had applied for. She confessed that she had lost hope in ever doing work for that corporate.
The thing about prayer is that it does not expire.
The thing about prayer is that it connects us to God.
The thing about prayer is that it brings things into existence and allows us new unbelievable experiences when we are answered. Answered prayers are evidence that God hears us, He does not forget what we ask for, cry about and yearn for.
The thing about prayer is that it need not be a request but can also be a statement of gratitude.
Imagine how you’d feel if your child came out of nowhere to say ‘Thank You’? You may respond by asking ‘for what?’ And when she or he responds by saying ‘no reason…just for being you.’ You as the parent will most probably respond with a huge smile, teary eyes and a hug.
Gratitude prayer brings miracles that we think are only brought into reality by prayers that ask God for something.
A pastor friend of mine was distraught and brought down by many of the same things that many of us were affected by during the first lockdown of 2020. She told me that she no longer had any strength to pray.
Her confession broke my heart.
I advised her to give just a minute of gratitude prayer to God.
I am glad she took my advice because a day later she called me to say ‘thank you for your advise my friend, when we got off the phone I did a short gratitude prayer and that evening I received a phone call asking for my banking details. ..I was able to buy electricity and will buy a few groceries.’
The thing about prayer is that it does not need to be an ask or a cry but can also be a ‘thank you God’ or ‘Hi! God’ or just the words ‘Jesus, Holy Spirit. Amen’.
The thing about prayer, for believers, is that once you have prayed you know that you had an important change activating conversation with the most Powerful and important Power there is or there will ever be – a conversation with the Power that has never been defeated or shaken.
May I bring to your attention that: being in close proximity with the power that is God, can only change us, elevate us, heal us and make us better.
When we pray we have a conversation with God.
When we pray we walk into and exist in God’s presence and connect with Him.
When we pray we hand over to God.
When we pray we enter a partnership with God.
It is important that in prayer we leave the situation, request or burden with God and watch Him do His thing.
There is personally nothing that excites me more than seeing God answer prayer…not only my prayer but especially others’ because I want more and more people to know, like I know, that prayer works, prayer heals, prayer helps, prayer is the differentiator. When all seems impossible and overwhelming, prayer makes it possible and not only bearable but easier. ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and burden is light.’ Matthew 11:28
There is a question I often ask my #sisterfriends at the Christian Women Business Network, and I now ask you, ‘have you ever witnessed God answer prayers you forgot you prayed?’
I have.
And at such moments, I see God’s Faithfulness: He said ask and you shall receive, and we do. When we doubt, He answers. May we remember that He also says that His word will not return void but achieves and will succeed in the thing for which He sent it. Isaiah 55:11. So if He said ask and it shall be given to you, given to you it shall be because of Isaiah 55:11. And this makes His Love and attention on His children evident which makes it difficult for us to doubt Him or the power that is prayer.
We pray to request from God.
We pray to connect with God.
We pray to be in the presence of God.
We pray for guidance and protection – ‘Keep steady my steps according to your promise and let no inequity get dominion over me’ Psalm 119:133
So, do what you do best, but, first Pray!
written by arise magazine editor: Kea MM, founder of Christian Women Business Network, Christian Women Business Directory, and author of Amour Daily Planner & Journal and the Armour Gift Shop. Watch: What I do when it is difficult to pray.
