Read the full article here. This promise of an intimate relationship with a loving Father encourages us to bring not just occasional things or major concerns, but everything to him.
I once attended a church conference in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the central idea of the evening sermon was that…. Contact Information. Skip to content.
Theology Lindsley begins by emphasizing the central place prayer holds in the Christian faith: Faith in Christ, if true, is of infinite importance. This, too, helps us see why prayer is so powerful and important to the Christian life: Bibles read without prayer, sermons heard without prayer, marriages contracted without prayer, journeys undertaken without prayer, residences chosen without prayer, friendships formed without prayer, the daily act of prayer itself hurried over or gone through without heart — these are the kinds of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy or reaches the point where God allows him to have a tremendous fall.
Lindsley concludes: Believers stress the importance of prayer in all kinds of circumstances. All rights reserved. For reprint permissions, contact info tifwe. Have our latest content delivered right to your inbox! Further readings on Theology Read More. What does powerful prayer look like?
Would you feel the earth shake? Would your enemies fall to the ground? Now step aside as I perform everything that you just asked? Prayer is actually very simple. It is based not upon a step-by-step formula, but upon a relationship with the Lord. Walking with the Lord is all about your relationship with Him, and prayer should be an extension of that relationship. The Lord is so good that He gave you His Spirit to help you pray. When we pass time with God, we are actively avoiding evil.
Prayer strengthens us in our daily battles against the Devil and temptation. Our lives are one enormous spiritual war, and prayer gets us battle-ready. Through the power of prayer, we summon the Lord to our aid and prepare ourselves to overcome the onslaught of enticement the Devil reigns down on us at every turn. When you are cementing a friendship or falling in love, investing time in the relationship is the only way to get it off the ground.
The same applies to getting to know God. Why would we want to spend eternity with Someone we ignored during our entire earthly lives? Mike Schmitz, a dynamic, down-to-earth college chaplain with an online following through Ascension Press , shared a perfect illustration of why time with God matters. He recounted a time when his father was building a backyard shed. Instead of simply building it himself which would undoubtedly have been easier and more efficient , he invited his six children to help him.
This time together allowed the children to see how their beloved dad labored, allowed Dad to see his children learn and work together, and gave dad and kids the opportunity to create something meaningful together.
This example of a human father warmly inviting his children to spend time with him reminds us of our Heavenly Father always seeking and beckoning His children to spend time with Him. One simple meditation to ground one's ego, shared once by a wise confessor, is:. Coming to God and kneeling at His feet brings us to a place of humility. Prayer reminds us of the Creator: creature relationship. We, as the creatures, can approach our Creator with everything.
Praise, thanksgiving, needs, intercession on behalf of others. When we consciously pause throughout the day to recognize that we are completely dependent on God for every heartbeat, each breath, the lives of our children, the food and clean water, out of His Divine Providence, the natural reaction is one of humble gratitude. When we are the center of our own universes, our own self-importance explodes to grandiose proportions - and quickly! Prayer brings back balance.
We live with unrelenting distraction which bombards our ears, eyes, brains If we allow it. Prayer reattaches you to the next world. The Deceiver loves nothing more than our frenetic pace, perpetual distraction, and dopamine highs because they relegate prayer to the bottom of the barrel.
We need silence to hear God's voice speaking in our hearts, and we require quietness to wholeheartedly funnel our thoughts toward the Lord.
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