Why is Prayer Important?

In its simplest and purest sense, ‘prayer’ is talking to God. This is exciting when you realize that God also speaks to us. Therein lies the building blocks of a growing intimacy with God the Father, for a believer, in Christ Jesus. Prayer and communication with God is the key to staying connected to Him and growing in Him. Right communication ('right' in terms of an attitude of reverence, humility, faith etc.) with obedience 'breeds' intimacy with God.

Prayer is the heartbeat of your relationship with God. Prayer, its amount, level and effectiveness, is a gauge of the presence and power of God at work in and through your life.

Oswald Chambers said that "Prayer does not prepare us for the greater work, it is the greater work." This is a true statement which you will most likely only discover as you begin to spend time in prayer. This present age, and above all, eternity, will reveal that those whose works were greatest and most effective in God's eyes, were done by people of prayer. These were people who were truly fruitful branches that merely had their abode in the True Vine, Jesus Christ. A life of prayer and obedience is the secret to true fruitfulness that will be rewarded by God.

In summary, prayer is the medium through which you interact and build relationship with God. It is the activity through which you receive God’s wisdom, instructions and counsel and are able to proceed to declare and produce His will on the earth - as it is done in heaven. Prayer also connects you to the Source of your spiritual strength for endurance. This is vital as we encounter times of deepening darkness, and as we stand on the brink of seeing the glory of God, of His Christ, and of the Church revealed upon the soon return of Jesus Christ.

Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in prayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to Him, make prayer a rare and feeble thing.

E. M. Bounds

‎"Prayer is the secret of imparted power from God, and nothing else can take its place. Absolute weakness follows the neglect of secret communion with God — and the weakness is the more deplorable, because it is often unsuspected..."

A. T. Pierson

Maybe you are reading this and you are mentally assenting to it, but at the same time you really question whether prayer makes this much of a difference in a person's life. After all, perhaps you pray daily and it has been your habit since childhood (or since you began to go to church), but you do not see this radical difference in your life. What we will come to see is that the life of prayer I am referring to is more than saying prayers. It is about nurturing an ever-increasing relationship with God. It is about walking with God. This is precisely why everything else must change.

Please continue through this mini series with me. Later on I will also direct you to far more comprehensive and weighty works by saints of yesteryear who have lived, proved and died in the fruitfulness and fragrance of a life of prayer.


[This is the third post in a series on the subject of prayer. Last week we looked at what the word 'prayer' actually means. These posts are interspersed among other blog topics so for the easy identification of related posts, look for the label 'praying effectively - series' in the sidebar. I hope to share practical keys and insight into praying effectively, in bite-size blog posts which you can easily follow.]