Agape Love
Prayer
Our Connection with God in Prayer
Prayer is conversation with God and should be made without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). It is an expressive way of conversing our love to God for God,
Prayer is Partnership with God
Prayer releases God’s power and moves Him to accomplish what we could never do on our own. It is well within God’s power and will to do anything He wishes; yet, He chooses to accomplish His will and purpose largely through a relationship with us. The outcome of His purpose has been and continues to be empowered by the prayers of believers. We are privileged to partner with Him to accomplish Kingdom purposes. Therefore, in order for God’s blessing on our lives, our families, our churches, our communities, our prayers must increase. This is a spiritual law as reliable as the natural law of gravity. The law of prayer says what ascends to God in Spirit-led, believing prayer will bring down God’s answers and blessings.
Prayer Connects Us with God
Prayer helps us to connect with God in three ways: with God, with one another, and for God’s purpose. Connecting to God in prayer is a reminder to slow down, to take time to reflect on His presence, His nearness, His goodness, mercy, love, grace, favor—all of the marvelous attributes that make Him God. It is taking time to be still and know that He is God and appreciate whom we are addressing. Oftentimes there is so much on our minds that when we go to prayer, we rush to petition with our list of things we need God to do for us and for others. God wants to hear us say: “I love You, I worship You, I adore You, I magnify Your name, You alone are worthy of be praised and adored!” As we sincerely bless His name and give Him the honor due Him, He is pleased to hear our petition and to grant us His favor.
It is mentioned in the bible that the face of God is a reference to His manifest presence. It is more than casual or familiar. When we are invited to boldly or confidently enter God’s presence, we must understand the God we are approaching; honor, glory, and praise due His holy name. We must take care that we not cause God to turn His face away from us through sins, but through sincere praise and adoration cause Him to turn His face toward us, we have His attention and He is attentive to our heart’s cry. When we approach God with intentional and sincere praise and adoration to Him, we can move into the realm to voice our petitions. With a great intensity, there’s a sense in our hearts that we truly have entered into God’s presence and that He hears us. We have that assurance because there is a release, a lifting of the burden we are carrying as His face turns toward us in response to our cry. We have connected with God!
Prayer is Required of All
Prayer is not an Option. To see God's purposes accomplished, we must pray. Everyone must pray. Prayer isn’t a discipline relegated to only a few peoples or elective prayer teams. As Paul states in 1 Timothy 2:8, “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer.” Furthermore, prayer is not to be an occasional practice. As Jesus began teaching His disciples about prayer in Matthew 6, before He gave them the Lord’s Prayer, He instructed, “When” you pray…,” Prayer is for everyone because it is so vitally connected to our spiritual health and well-being. Praying well provides strength to the spiritual life just as breathing well provides strength to the physical life. A prayerless Christian often is weak, helpless, and afraid. Gaining victory over life-controlling issues, fears, habits, or whatever else creates bondage, requires seeking God’s help through prayer and becoming a person of prayer. There is power in prayer. There is deliverance from every kind of bondage through prayer. Forgiveness and peace come through prayer. Help with life’s decisions comes through prayer. Healing comes through prayer. Provision for life’s basic needs comes through prayer. Restored relationships with God, a spouse, children, or coworkers will come about through prayer.
Proper praying is balanced by attention to the Word of God. True, believing, Spirit-led prayer is always rooted in the Word—its teachings, doctrines, truths, promises, and principles. Its very existence and character is dependent on revelation made by God to man in His Holy Word.” That is why praying and reading Scripture should be combined in our devotional life.
Praying well gives us spiritual strength as breathing well gives us physical strength, it could be suggested that reading well in God’s Word gives us spiritual strength as eating properly gives us physical strength. We must observe both disciplines—prayer and Bible reading. They are integrally interwoven and crucial to our spiritual strength and well-being.
Prayer is vital also because it keeps us in alignment.
We are prone to get out of alignment spiritually. Prayer matches our will with God’s will. God is a constant; He never moves. We do. We tend to be all over the place. However, if we pray regularly and ask forgiveness for our sins and shortcomings, and sincerely seek to know and follow God’s will, our lives will line up with His will and purpose. As humans, we have to practice this process of alignment regularly. Perhaps that is one reason why Paul admonished us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). When we are continually in communication with God, we will stay in alignment with His will and purpose. It’s a matter of practicing His presence—daily. When we stay in continual communion with God, we will not wander off.
Connecting through Prayer: Prayer Connects Us with Others
Prayer also connects us with each other. Through prayer we connect with others too, whether through intercession for people we do not even know, or praying directly with a person.
Acts 2:42 tells us that believers in the Early Church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (verses 46:47).
Something wonderful happens when the body of Christ comes together and prays together, whether personally, in groups, or around the altar. May we not lose that in our churches today! Something wonderful can also happen when we pray with people we have just met. The unique thing about prayer is that it provides a divinely ordained relational dynamic unlike any other mode of human interaction. When we pray for another person, directly or indirectly, we purposefully enter a sphere of relationship with that person that requires of us a heightened level of concern or compassion for that person. There is a connectedness that happens when we pray for one another that dissolves barriers and binds us together in godly love.
The dynamics of connected prayer makes prayer a powerful tool for evangelism as well. Though some people might be reluctant to mention a need for prayer, most people will respond positively to an offer such as, “Before we go our way, would you mind if we have a word of prayer together?” It is then that the Holy Spirit can help direct our thoughts and words as we pray that something may be touched deeply within the heart of the other person. An offer to pray is often accepted and will linger long in the heart and mind of the recipient. God’s loving, compassionate, caring nature is conveyed to a person through sincere prayer. Afterward, we should pray that God will send others to water and tend the seed that has been planted.
Prayer Connects Us with God's Purpose
Each person has an awesome purpose in God’s eyes. Prayer helps connect us to that purpose. Paul summarized our overall purpose as believers in Ephesians 2:10 where he stated that we are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” He added in 5:1-2 that we are to be imitators of God and live lives of love, “just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” That summary presents a large purpose. Essentially we are to be Christ’s representatives in our spheres of influence and bring others to Him. Purpose cannot be fulfilled without prayer. At the same time, prayer must be coupled with action. While prayer can, and often does, marshal the forces of heaven to act in certain situations, we must be ready always to act on what we are praying about.
Paul often requested that believers pray for him that he might accomplish the mission God had sent him to do. “Pray also for me,” he said, “that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19). “Pray for us . . . that God may open a door for our message” he asks in Colossians 4:3. Then in 2 Thessalonians 1:11,12 he writes, “We constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The beauty about prayer is that it matters not what one’s station or title is in life; it is an equal-opportunity means by which every believer, young or old, rich or poor, well-known or obscure, can move the hand of God to bring about His purposes for time and eternity. As we connect to God, one another, and our purpose in life through prayer, we have the opportunity to make a world-shaking, life-transforming, eternal difference in our homes, communities, churches, nation, and world. Let’s pray all the more!
18With 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, 19and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 22I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts. 23Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.
TYPES OF PRAYERS
The Bible reveals many types of prayers and employs a variety of words to describe the practice. For example, 1 Timothy 2:1 says, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.”
1. The prayer of faith: James 5:15 says, “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.” In this context, prayer is offered in faith for someone who is sick, asking God to heal. When we pray, we are to believe in the power and goodness of God (Mark 9:23).
2. The prayer of agreement (also known as corporate prayer): After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples “all joined together constantly in prayer” (Acts 1:14). Later, after Pentecost, the early church “devoted themselves” to prayer (Acts 2:42). Their example encourages us to pray with others.
3. The prayer of request (or supplication): We are to take our requests to God. Philippians 4:6 teaches, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Part of winning the spiritual battle is to be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Ephesians 6:18).
4. The prayer of thanksgiving: We see another type of prayer in Philippians 4:5: thanksgiving or thanks to God. “With thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Many examples of thanksgiving prayers can be found in the Psalms.
5. The prayer of worship: The prayer of worship is similar to the prayer of thanksgiving. The difference is that worship focuses on who God is; thanksgiving focuses on what God has done. Church leaders in Antioch prayed in this manner with fasting: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:2-3).
6. The prayer of consecration: Sometimes, prayer is a time of setting ourselves apart to follow God’s will. Jesus made such a prayer the night before His crucifixion: “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will’” (Matthew 26:39).
7. The prayer of intercession: Many times, our prayers include requests for others as we intercede for them. We are told to make intercession “for everyone” in 1 Timothy 2:1. Jesus serves as our example in this area. The whole of John 17 is a prayer of Jesus on behalf of His disciples and all believers.
8. The Bible also speaks of praying in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:14-15) and prayers when we are unable to think of adequate words (Romans 8:26-27). In those times, the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us.