The Importance of Prayer

I have a crazy proposition. The number one important thing in the life of any Christian is not how kind he is, how much he spreads the gospel, or how involved he is with church. No, I believe that the most important part of a Christian's life is prayer.

(Now I know that's not that radical. But let me pretend it is.) Here's my argument. Jesus made it clear in the gospels what the greatest commandment is. And there were lots of good ones to choose from. But he chose this one,

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."

 So, it's a strange thing to me to say, but one of the best express love or to generate love is to communicate! And we communicate of course through prayer. My love for God only stands strong when I am praying constantly and readily for the sake.

I could also make the argument (because it's true) that we can do none of the service that we are required to do, absent God. And we get that help via prayer.

So prayer is important and you should probably do it every day. More than just once. Here's some thoughts on how to make that happened (ironed out with help from two amazing friends of mine):
1. Plan an extra long time to pray in the morning, or whenever you do your devotions. Make sure you don't have to rush through your prayer.
2. In that time, pray with purpose. Consider creating a prayer journal. Document your requests, and God's answers, in an organized way. My prayer journal is set up like this:
Date          Request                          Date          Answer
9/20/15     Blog Post Idea                9/20/15      Prayer
3. Ask people if they have anything you could pray about. This gives you further things to bring to God and helps make your prayer less self-oriented. It also helps you fulfill the second greatest commandment - love one another.
4. If you have time alone, don't just talk to yourself. Talk to God. It will fill your time nicely.
5. Put up something that will remind you to pray in a place that you frequent often. Whether that be an office or your bedroom, or a car. Whether the reminder be worship music, verses on a whiteboard, or a prayer wall. Put up a reminder. We're carnal creatures. We're going to forget. So let's make it harder for ourselves to do so.

Why Going to Church is Not Enough

There was once a fellow who did everything right. He came to church every Sunday and sat in the front row. He listened to what the Pastor said and found himself yelling "Amen" in affirmation quite a number of times.

He tithed, and not only that, he gave 20%, not just the required 10! He was very liberal with his money, as well as his time for the service of God.

He then went home and continued to pray before his meals, and even read the Bible everyday. It seemed as if he was doing everything right, but yet he didn't seem to be making any progress in his spiritual life.

Despite the amount of time that he spent listening to talk about God or doing service for God, it just seemed that God was just kinda there in his life, and not something fully encompassing. No one around him could see it, but deep down, he knew it.

He knew that the reading he did during the day and the sermons he heard on Sunday were not having an impact upon his life. That although he was doing what he should be doing with being immersed in God's word, his heart was not being changed. But he just kept on reading, hoping that the time would come, when the magic of the Bible would clear up.

But it never seemed to happen. Why did this man never seem to actually grow closer to God. He became consumed with the words of God at all times, but he advanced nowhere.

I am about to make a radical statement (not really, I've not ever actually made one of those on these blogs) - reading the Bible and knowing all of its truths is not a magical formula for growing closer to the Lord.

Yes, reading the Bible is an instrumental part of spiritual development, but if you never open up your heart to hear what the Lord has to say, if you never allow what you hear in the Bible to actually impact the way you study the Word, then it doesn't really matter how much you read the words.

And note that just reading the words will not allow your life to suddenly change. As much as we want to ensure that we understand that we do it all by God's strength, that doesn't mean we have no influence in whether or not we choose to use God's strength in the first place!

So we must not just consume the words of the Lord, we must actually open up our hearts through prayer to allow them to expose our faults. And then we must yield to the Spirit to ensure that we can work through those faults by a still more constant prayer life.

It's not just about going to church, but what you do when you get there. In conclusion, I leave you with the words of Ecclesiastes 5:1,

"Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil."