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2nd April 2024
TuesdayReflection
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Richard Wallace
Making prayer a priority will change your life
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Want to change your life?
The world?
God says,
"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
Jeremiah 33:3 NIV
The possibility of accomplishing great things rests in your commitment to prayer.
Jesus said,
"Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you"
John 15:16
If I want to change my life, find success in the world, and help others, I must make prayer a priority.
What is prayer?
It is how we communicate with God.
Prayer is simply conversation with God, and we are always welcome to approach the great God of the universe for a personal audience.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the veil that separated us from God was torn in two, allowing us as individuals to call upon the name of the Lord.
Prayer is a time we can draw near to God.
A time we can spend talking with and concentrating all of our thoughts upon God.
Jesus told us to enter into a closet and pray, because in the solitude of the moment we become more acutely aware of God's presence.
It is also an opportunity to sharpen one's spiritual ear.
In these moments of quietness, where the only presence other than ours is God's, we learn how to hear and respond to his will.
A young mother soon learns the sound of her own child's cry no matter how many other children are present.
In a nursery full of children, with many crying at the same time, a mother can pick out her child's voice.
The reason is, a mother spends the vast majority of her time with the baby, and she develops a familiarity with the sound of its voice.
The same works with prayer:
The more time we spend talking with Jesus, the more acquainted with his voice we become.
Prayer is absolutely necessary in this life.
If God commands us to pray, that tells us it is of great benefit.
Too often we look at God's commandments through a negative lens, but they are not meant to be a stranglehold or prevention upon the individual; they are meant as a protection that produces benefits in life.
In order for our lives to experience success, we need to pray.
In fact, prayer ought to be our first response in every circumstance in this life.
Our lives are not of quiet desperation, but of divine inspiration.
God has placed each one of us in this world and commanded us to pray in order that we might bring his presence and blessing into our present reality.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we are instructed to
"pray without ceasing."
He expects us to be people of prayer.
Our lives are to be saturated with prayer, identified by prayer.
The very words "without ceasing" imply the idea of never ending.
That means we ought to be praying all the time and about everything.
Prayer is one of the main attributes mentioned in the Bible about the church; Jesus called it a house of prayer.
We might even say that if the old adage is true,
"Brick and mortar don't make a church - people do,"
then every Christian ought to be a "house of prayer."
There is one last reason to consider about prayer, and that is that others benefit when you pray for them.
Everyone knows somebody who needs prayer, and who better to pray for them than you?
><(((°>
Richard Wallace
(Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
is senior pastor at Hebron Baptist Church in Meridian.
He can be reached at lifeprinciples103@gmail.com
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