Do you treat God as a butler? Do you mistakenly think that the great Creator of the universe is at your beckon call to magically provide you with whatever you ask Him for? Do you think God is around just to make your life better? To provide you with wealth and prosperity?
That’s obviously not the way to pray. So why should we pray to God? Because He communicates to us through His word, through other believers and through prayer. We need to pray to hear from God. We pray because we love God and we want to be obedient to Him. We pray to God in order to be closer to Him, so He can draw us closer to Himself.
E.M. Bounds said, “That man cannot possibly be called a Christian, who does not pray.” Our prayer life is one way to tell that we are in the faith. That doesn’t mean that we always know what to say when we are praying. There are times in our Christian walk that we don’t know what to say or how to say it. Our wonderful God knows this and that’s why the Holy Spirit groans on our behalf (Romans 8:26-27).
But we are called to pray; so how is your prayer life? What do you model your prayer life after? Obviously, Jesus gave us a great model to follow. Look at what Jesus did before He called the twelve apostles (Luke 6:12-16). He prayed all night long! Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, found the need to pray all night long before a big decision. How much more should we earnestly pray?
Many times Jesus went out late at night or early in the morning and prayed (Matt. 14:23-25; Mark 1:35). He sought time alone with God. Jesus was totally obedient and dependent on God. He intentionally set aside time to spend with the Father. Do you set aside a specific time every day to pray and draw closer to God?
The apostle Paul told us that we should pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). Do you talk to God throughout the day? Paul prayed for his own needs, but he especially prayed on behalf of others – he interceded for them (1 Timothy 2:1). Do you pray for the salvation of others? Do you pray for the physical needs of other people? For their healing? Do you praise and thank God?
Nothing is too small or too large for God (Philippians 4:6). Some people mistakenly think that they can only go to God for the big decisions in life and that they are supposed to take care of the minor details. God wants us to be intimate with Him in all areas of our life throughout our life. I have a couple of close Christian friends who live their lives this way – they ask God about every decision in life. They are totally dependent on Him. I would love to be this way too.
Again, how is your prayer life? Are you “Christ-like?” Do you set aside specific time every day to be alone with God? Do you talk to God throughout the day? What can you do this week to strengthen your prayer life? What specific steps are you going to take to improve your prayer life?