Why Prayer?
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. -Acts 12:5
From this chapter, we learn that prayer is the most fearsome weapon for the Believer against the works of the enemy.
The same ruler that had ordered the killing of disciple James and succeeded, also ordered to do the same thing with Peter.But by the strong prayer of the church, we all know he has been miraculously saved by the Angel of God.
Prayer is a powerful tool for us to withstand every evil in our lives. Prayer in faith and faith alone can move mountains and quench the blazing heat of fire and destroy the power of a storm.
Prayer is taking one step towards acting in our faith. Prayer is an action of faith. Whether we speak the words of faith or whisper it through prayer, God always listens and acts on our behalf to perform the miracle our heart waits for.Besides, the Lord will answer our prayers when we pray interceding for others, according to God’s will.
Prayer is a two way communication between us and the Lord. Sometimes we think we have to be the only one who are actually talking when we pray. That would be the case if we are not listening while we are praying. Praying in the spirit requires a humble and contrite spirit that will always expect the voice of the Lord in our spirit.
Sometime we found ourselves stuck in a fruitless one way communication with the Lord, where we are the only ones talking and not allowing the Lord to speak on our behalf.Prayer also requires a heart that always adores God and trembles when God speaks.
Without a humble and innocent heart, it will be useless to communicate with our God. All the gifts that we bring to God are nothing compared to the nature of heart in which the motive derives from.
When we pray we must be obedient to God’s corrections and teachings. We should not harden our heart when the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins. We should be willing to change into what God wants to do in our lives.
When we pray, we must first accept that we are sinners. The following verses are good learning point of our nature to sin and what we should do about it.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. -Romans 1:26
The beginning of the desire to sin is the deficiency of the fear of God. If we don’t give God the proper respect, that means we are given to ourselves that is to our selfish desires.
God spoke in the Book of Malachi that if he is God, then he expects the respect that he deserve from the works of his hand, Us.
A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. - Malachi 1:6
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;” -Romans 3:10
There is no one except Jesus who can be sinless and able to help those who sin. We all were under the umbrella of universal sin and personal sin of the heart before the Lord sanctify us and make us holy.
This also indicates that without the blood of Jesus shed on that cross there is no way we can be sanctified and made whole. Jesus was the only way to God because no one was able to make it by work. Only faith in Christ was considered the way to God even before Jesus came to earth.
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.-Romans 3:20
Everyone needs Jesus, sinners as well as the so called "righteous"
May God gives us grace and wisdom to pray more efficiently to our Lord Jesus Christ.