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In the opinion of many, of the many spiritual disciplines, nothing is more important than prayer and holiness. But let’s talk about prayer now. Nothing will quite impact our spiritual development like a well-developed prayer lifestyle. However, prayer has sadly become one of the most neglected of disciplines in our hurried lives today. If you hunger for a closer walk with God, the following six points will help you to develop your prayer life in a more meaningful way.
Importance of Prayer.
With God, everything revolves around relationship. God desires you to know Him, to love Him, and to make Him the number one priority of your life. While He desires our service, it falls a distant second to relationship.
In Luke 10:38 we read of Jesus in the home of Mary and Martha. Martha was focused on service, taking care of her guests and other things. In contrast, Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and drank in the words that Jesus spoke. Martha complained that Mary was not helping. Jesus told her that Mary “hath chosen that good part” and that Martha should not be so “careful and troubled about many things.”
If you are too busy to pray to develop intimacy with God, how do you expect divine intervention in your walk and life? It’s very dangerous to be too busy without God and without the Word of God. Jesus is not impressed with our college degrees, how many books we have written or what positions we hold in the church and society at the expense of our prayer time and relationship with Him. He wants to talk to us in that still small voice and hear us express our worries, problems and needs. He desires our worship and devotion. He wants our heart above all else (Ps. 27:4; 1 Cor. 13:3).
The more you pray, the more you want to pray.
Developing a prayer life begins with understanding the absolute necessity of prayer (James 4:17). It begins in the mind with knowledge and understanding and then moves into the heart. What begin as a purpose soon turns into a passion.
Great prayer warriors often talk of their prayer journey. Over time God leads them to that place of deep communion and devotion, a journey that takes time and persistence.
We have all heard of Joshua and Caleb. All were spies, but only two returned with a vision for victory (Num. 13). But Joshua’s faith began long before the river crossing. In Exodus 33:11 we read, “but Joshua, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.”
Make a commitment to daily prayer. Force your own flesh daily to obey what you know is right in the Spirit. Then observe how your flesh will soon submit to God and your passion to pray will grow.
God is more interested in consistency than quantity or quality.
We are not ignorant of Satan’s devices. He will tell you that if you are not praying more hours a day, you are wasting your time. So you start with an hour or more. You struggle. It’s challenging to pray an hour! So you become discouraged and finally quit; that’s what the devil intended.
You must learn to walk before you run. An athlete does not start by pressing 300 pounds. He starts with 75 pounds and builds from there. Satan will press you to do more than you are able, knowing you will soon quit. Therefore understand this: God is more interested in your daily prayer being consistent than He is in the quantity or quality of your prayer. Focus on praying 30 or more minutes a day, but do it seven days a week at a set time and place (Ps. 55:17). It will soon grow to more minutes, and then more till you are overflow. Before you know it, the time flies past and you are praying an hour or more and the quality of your prayer time will grow as well. Focus on consistency. Pray every day because prayer works. God rewards faithfulness. The quantity and quality will soon come.
Be a Believer and Not a Beggar.
We need a proper mental image of God. He is a good God. He wants to answer your prayer. He enjoys doing good things for His children (Matt. 7:11). We do not have to beg God for answers. We should simply tell God our needs and then thank Him for the answer. As long as you are not asking amiss, i.e. contrary to the will of God (James 4:3), you can be assured that God hears your need and will do what is best; which is also why we must always pray for God’s will, not our own, to be done (Matt. 6:10; Lk. 22:42).
Too many see the parable of the woman before the unjust judge (Luke 18) as an example of the need to beg God. The first verse provides the meaning of this parable: “men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” This parable is not about begging, but persistence. I will never stop asking God to bring my family to salvation. To this end, I thank God every day for directing their path toward truth.
Do not try to fight in the flesh what should be fought in the Spirit.
The Apostle Paul said, “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1). The word “patience” here means steadily, faithfully. Satan knows that if he can stop you from praying, he will soon defeat you. So Satan quickly points out our faults and tells us we are wasting our time praying because we have sin in our lives.
This lie of the devil is most insidious. Having faults are reasons all the more to pray. The devil says you must first overcome your sin before you can rightly pray. But the Bible says, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). The key to overcoming sin is praying daily for God’s strength to conquer them. We are fighting a Spiritual battle. Prayer is warfare. Trying to overcome with the flesh what can only be conquered by the Spirit is folly (Eph. 6:12). Start praying, keep praying, and God will show you how to vanquish every fault by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Lastly, have a specific time to pray, a specific place to pray, and maintain a good prayer list.
David said, “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice (Ps. 55:17). Throughout the scriptures are repeated references to a specific time and place of prayer (Ps. 5:3; 88:13; Acts 3:1; 10:3, etc.). You and I are saved today because of a prayer of someone, this is something unknown to us. A praying father, mother or a friend knees with Bible open, photos spread out, and prayer list stained with tears. They also kept their prayer list and thank God for many answers prayers. In times of discouragement, they remember and thank God for His many miracles, renewing their faith that God was still a prayer answering God.
To this end, consider keeping a prayer journal. Add to it regularly requests, answers, scriptures to inspire, and inspirational notes of encouragement. As prayers are answered, note the date and circumstances. Prayer must never become routine or mundane. It is as real and alive as our God. It is the time in which we meet with a personal God and fight supernatural battles. Start and end each day with prayer. It is the key that unlocks the depths spiritual understanding and the door that opens your heart to unspeakable joy.
My Passion Prayer
Please kindly open your mouth and pray the prayer below now before continue ….
Enter me, my Lord and my God, and transform me. Take my insecurities, my failures, my mistakes and mash them up into something worthy. Blow your spirit onto my spark. Make it burst into a firework of praise and passion, blazing and burning up my doubt. Speak into me. Breathe yourself into my soul. Whisper in my heart.
O’ God, come down from heaven. Crash into earth with your never-ending power. Explode your love into my life and the lives of others. Fill me with your Holiness. I want your passion. I want your love. I want more of YOU in me.
When You’ve Lost Your Passion
Sometimes, life takes away all our passion. Like when you have challenges, pressures and anxiety of life overwhelms you every day. Exhaustion takes over and you have no energy left for the things you were so excited about and love doing.
Other times tragedy strikes your home, leaving you paralyzed. Even if you had time and energy to pursue your passions, you aren’t sure they matter anymore.
But our passion does matter. Priscilla Shirer says, “Passion is the fuel in the engine of your purpose.” In other words, passion is essential. Just like our cars won’t run without gas, we can’t live out our purpose without passion for prayer.
God created us and planned good works in advance for us. (Ephesians 2:10). Passion is what leads us to walk in these goods works to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).
So when we’ve lost our passion, when we lack energy and motivation for pursuing the work God has given us, we need to pray and pray with passion.
Prayers for Lost Passion
1. Oh God, create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:10).
2. Lord remind me that in all I do, I am working for you (Colossians 2:23). Renew my passion to serve you through my work.
3. O God, your lovingkindness never ceases and your compassion never fails (Lamentations 3:22-23). By your great faithfulness, I ask for these gifts right now. Cover me with your love and compassion so that I may walk in your ways.
4. Heavenly Father, remove my heart of stone and give me a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26), one that burns with the passion to seek you and do your will.
5. Jesus give me a servant heart just like you. Help me to be humble and obedient, seeking to glorify God. (Philippians 2:7-8)
6. God, help me to love the people in my life well. Help me to not just look after my own interests but to their interests as well. (Philippians 2:4) Give me the passion to love them just as you have loved me. (John 13:34-35)
7. Lord, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been a shelter for me. A strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of your wings. (Psalm 61:2-4) Restore my strength and my spirit.
8. Almighty God, I glory in your name as my heart and soul continually seek your face. I thank you for this great day for waking me up in my right mind, for the use of my limbs and for keeping my mental faculties in order according to your word. Through my prayer, confession, worship and fellowship in your word, I draw near to you and believe that you are also drawing near to me. (James 4:8).
9. Lord clean my heart from the inside out and remove all impurities from me. May my first priority and passion in life be, to seek first the Kingdom of God and all your righteousness. And as a result of that, that you cause all my needs and the desires of my heart to be added unto me. (Matthew 6:33) My heart and soul thirst after the goodness and the presence of you Lord, as if I was in a dry and thirsty land where there us no water. (Psalm 143:6)
10. My greatest and earnest desire of the Lord is that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and dwell in your presence. (Psalms 27:4)
Conclusion
I can’t promise that these prayers will immediately restore your passion. But God promises, to restore your passion when we “Call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12-13.
Let’s Pray because God will listen and answer us. Pray because He alone can restore your passion with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
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