DEVOTION TO PRAYER

DEVOTION TO PRAYER

Col. 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.  NLT

        Prayer plagues most people in the Church.  We know we need to do it, but most of us don’t do it well or enough.  We make excuses about being too busy to pray.  We don’t place prayer high on our list of things we need to do daily.  We get the idea that public prayer in church is enough.   Our churches do away with altars and concentrated public prayer meetings.  We get comfortable with the idea of not praying. 

     We are to be devoted to prayer.  Prayer should be the primary thing we do together in public and in private.  It should be at the top of our list of things to do.  Prayer is the lifeblood of the Christian life.  It is where we have our most intimate fellowship with God.  It is where we grow best in our love for God and others.  The more we wait before God, the more we grow in our ability to love.  Prayer is an expression of our love and devotion to God.  It is the ultimate sign of our respect of Him.  It is a true reflection of how much we really do value our relationship with God.  Prayer is where things happen between God and man.  A person who prays faithfully and fervently moves the hand of God.  Great things are accomplished in the Kingdom of God only when we pray.

       When we pray we need to have alert minds.  We need to be aware of being in the presence of a holy God.  We need to be aware of our need for Him.  We need to be aware of our sins and the need for forgiveness.  We need to be aware of the needs around us.  We need to be aware of what the Spirit is moving our hearts to pray for.  We need to strive to be at our best when we pray.  We know we aren’t always at our best, but our prayer time is most effective when we are.

      When we pray we need to have thankful hearts.  Thanksgiving is always a part of effective praying.  We need to be thankful for all the Lord does in our lives.  The list is endless.  We owe our very existence to God.  We should never take for granted the life we live.  Thanking the Lord for salvation and His constant presence in our lives is always appropriate in praying.  Prayer without thanksgiving is not really praying at all.

       Yes, we pray for needs, and rightly so.  We pray for God to move in our churches and across our nation and world.  We pray when we are down, when we are frustrated and we feel all alone.  We pray for a countless number of reasons and God wants us to.  But, never to forget to pray with thanksgiving.  An attitude of gratitude moves God to act when we pray.