Read your Bible, PRAY everyday

11 December. Day 11.

PRAYER. One of the most powerful and un-tapped-into resources us as Christians have at our disposal. “Prayer puts God in full force in the world. To a prayerful man, God is present in realized force. To a prayerful church, God is present in glorious power.” EM Bounds

Prayer is the foundation of all that we do as followers of Christ, whether we are working, parenting, ministering, building friendships, investing in our marriages, empowering others, volunteering for an organisation, and most importantly as we deepen our relationship with Jesus. Prayer is the power behind all we do, the preparation work before any success, the essential ingredient needed for a masterpiece.

Martin Lloyd Jones said, “Of all the blessings of Christian salvation none is greater that this, that we have access to God in prayer. ” And this is made possible by us being adopted into His family as sons (Romans 8:15) and therefore being able to call Him Father. And that leads us to verses 1 – 4 of this 11th chapter of Luke. The disciples ask, “Lord teach us to pray,” and He responds, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”” {ESV}

Prayer is not necessarily something we do to get something. It’s not a magic wand that we wave and expect miracles. It is not something we only do when somebody is sick or something tragic has happened. “Effective prayer is the provision for every need and the solution for every problem.” {W. Wiersbe} Prayer is a continuous conversation with the Lord. Prayer is a custom daily habit. Prayer is a non-negotiable necessity.

Prayer also stems from and grows out of a relationship with Jesus. It is about talking to our Father. Its purpose is discovering who He is and what His will is. Warren Wiersbe also says that ‘Prayer is asking God to use us to accomplish what He wants so that His name is glorified.” The only way (well the best way lets say) to get to know somebody is to spend time with them, right? And the best way to get to know the Lord is to spend time in His word. His word is life. His word is truth. His word is a treasure to explore and His word is full of HIM. “It is important for Christians to know the word of God, for there we discover the will of God. We must never seperate prayer and the word.” {Wiersbe}

For my husband and I, The Bible (The Word) and Prayer go hand in hand. We want to know God, so we read the word. We converse with God because of His word and so we pray. Perhaps we should heed the message of the Sunday School song which sings, “Read your Bible, Pray everyday and you’ll grow, grow, grow!”

This Advent, may your Christmas wish be to know Jesus. May that wish lead you to His word and may His word lead you to prayer.