Good morning prayerful ones!

PRAYER is a powerful tool for living a victorious Christian life.  The Apostle Paul advises the church in Thessalonica to “pray without ceasing” (see 1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Even before Jesus was arrested and crucified on the cross, He asked Peter in the Garden on Gethsamane, “Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  Watch and PRAY, lest you enter into temptation (see Matthew 26:40-41).

So, what makes PRAYER so essential to the life of believers?  What should we pray, and how can prayer alter the circumstances in our lives?

I would like to give you two answers to these questions:

One is that Jesus called us to PRAY.  He exemplified our best example of how to live the Christian life here on earth, and the Bible often talks of Him going off to seek the Father in prayer.  Luke 5:16 says,

• So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and PRAYED.

Jesus practiced a daily ritual of quiet time away with the Father in PRAYER, and so should we.  It was through PRAYING to the Father that Jesus found power to do miracles for the people He encountered.  It was through PRAYER that Jesus attained the grace to fulfill His call to surrender His life on the cross for the redemption of the human race and gain victory over sin.

So, PRAYER was a first priority for the Savior in effectively fulfilling His purpose here on earth.  Even now, He sits at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly realm.  The Bible tells us in Romans 8:34,

• It is Christ Who died, and furthermore is also risen, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also makes intercession for us.

So, if Jesus PRAYS to intervene on our behalf, we should follow suit.

My second reason I believe we should PRAY is simply because it works.  All through the Bible and the history of the Christian Church, when God’s people cried out to Him, turned their faces in PRAYER to Him, interceded on the behalf of others in supplication to Him, or called out to Him in faith, the Father was faithful to answer His people.  Jeremiah 29:12-13 says,

• Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

PRAYER is our way of reaching God in our time of need and getting an answer that comes directly from Him.

I love what James 5:16 from the Amplified Bible says,

• The earnest (heartfelt, continued) PRAYER of a righteous man makes trememdous power available [dynamic in its working].

Whatever you have need of, it’s through the pipeline of PRAYER that we attain answers to those needs.

I am praying for you,

Lisa Gordon

Assistant Pastor

Jesus City Church