No 4

(Prayer in the Life of a Christian)

Does a Christian need to be told that prayer is important? The Lord commands us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17, 18) and give thanks in everything. Prayer is the life of the Body of Christ; it drives us closer to the Lord and therefore our misgivings are exposed and we can confess them. We cannot entertain sin in our lives and have a life of prayer; prayer keeps us in constant awareness of our dependance on the Lord.

So what are we to pray for? That the Lord save someone who is dear to us? The Lord wants everyone to be saved (2 Tim 2:4) so why should we pray for someone's salvation? I believe the Lord gives us opportunities to speak to the unsaved and lets us partake in the joy of seeing someone come to Him in repentance. Therefore, we should pray for opportunities to witness to people; will this guarantee their salvation? No it won't.

Once, there were these two life-long friends; one was a Christian and the other one wasn't. The Christian prayed earnestly all his life for the salvation of his friend but he never did see him come to the Lord. When the Christian died, his unsaved friend trusted Christ as his Savior at his funeral.

The Lord is in control of everything and I sincerely believe that we are to pray to be in God's will; that we are to pray according to His Word; that we are to pray as Daniel prayed. Daniel chapter 9 from verse 1 to 19 is a true intercessory prayer and in verse 19, Daniel prays: "O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name".

Our prayers ought to be modeled on Daniel's.