pursuing godliness. part two.

*If you read Part One, hopefully you’re beginning to grasp the importance of reading the Word and growing in your knowledge of it. The Bible isn’t there for us to simply open on Sunday mornings, it isn’t there to open when we need it most. The Bible is a tool given to us, directly from God, in order to help us pursue godliness and in pursuing godliness we become more like Christ.*

Another HUGE Spiritual Discipline we as Christians must be practicing is prayer. Colossians 4:2 “devote yourselves to prayer”.

What does it really mean to be devoted to prayer? Well, I look at it this way... A couple is devoted to one another. They make time for each other; they sacrifice for each other and make the other a priority in their life. They will do anything to maintain a strong and healthy relationship with the other person. So, therefore when the Bible calls us to be devoted to prayer, I think it’s somewhat similar. We are to make prayer a priority, sacrifice for it and give time to it... God EXPECTS Christians to be devoted to prayer.

So why is it then that so many Christians struggle in their prayer life, feeling as if they are talking into thin air? “We can be prayer pessimists and see the expectation to pray merely as obligation, or we can be optimists who view the command to pray as an opportunity to receive the mercy and grace of God.”  DS Whitney.  If we are only praying because we feel obligated to as the duty of a ‘good Christian’, then chances are our prayer life will not be fruitful. It’s so important to remember that God desires to have a relationship with us. He wants to be in constant communication with him because He loves us and cares for us. Prayer is something we are able to do because of God’s grace, take full advantage of that! “His command to pray is a command of love. In His love He desires to communicate with us and to bless us.” Remember that prayer is for our benefit; It is something we, as believers, NEED because we cannot be like Jesus without it.

“When our awareness of the greatness of God and the gospel is dim, our prayer lives will be small. The less we think of the nature and character of God, and the less we are reminded of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, the less we want to pray.” This statement is so beyond true. This is a main reason why reading and growing in the word is tied hand and hand with prayer. If you truly grasp – even just a little bit – of who God is and what He has done for you – how could you NOT want to be speaking with him. Prayer is an incredible gift that we SHOULD take full advantage of because we WANT to, not because we are asked to...

Finally, it’s important to remember that God doesn’t mean for prayer to be a means of one-way communication. God also speaks to us, we just need to listen. “Where God leads you to pray, He means you to receive.” CH Spurgeon.  The point of prayer is NOT to ‘get’, but it is critical to know that God always answers prayer, maybe not always in the way we desire – maybe sometimes it seems as if his answer to our prayer was the exact opposite of what we were hoping for – but, He knows best. We have to believe that. God has our best interest at heart.

Don’t just turn to prayer when you feel you’ve hit a dead end and run out of options. Don’t just wait to pray on Sunday mornings or bible-study nights. Pray Often. Pray without ceasing. Pray about everything. Talk with God – realize how blessed we are that we can do that.