08 Mar Persistent in Prayer

As a young child, I had this idea in my mind of what prayer looked like. It meant bowing your head, closing your eyes, and reciting “God is Great” before a meal.

I’m thankful that is not all communicating with God is, a respectful recitation, because that seems purposeless.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why parents teach their children these prayers to memorize. Until a child is old enough to understand what prayer is, it’s good to develop the habit of prayer in their lives, and teach them to be thankful to God.

But as an adult, prayer is not meant to be a list of items to check off of the list to thank God for. There is power in prayer. Over and over again in the New Testament, you will see Jesus go off on His own to pray. He also took time to teach His followers about prayer. Prayer is a means of communicating with God throughout the day, it is also how we express ourselves, and our belief, to God.

“If you knew all of your prayers would be answered this week, what would you pray for?”

“Be persistent and devoted to prayer, being alert and focused in your prayer life with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Colossians 4:2

As a believer, there are going to be seasons in your life when your prayer life may seem dry, mundane, or virtually nonexistent. It can be difficult to remain focused on communicating with God when you don’t have someone sitting directly across form you listening to what you are saying. At the close of our service at the Anderson campus last week, we were left with a challenge. “If you knew that all of your prayers would be answered this week, how would that change your prayer life?”

How would that change my prayer life? It was a convicting question for me, because it revealed there are things I don’t pray about because ultimately, I don’t believe God will answer them. But I serve the one true God, the God of the universe. He is capable of anything. God will answer us, sometimes yes, sometimes no, but He always hears our prayers. And no matter the outcome, God is working everything for good.

I would like to extend the same challenge to you. If you knew all of your prayers would be answered this week, what would you pray for? How would that change your prayer life? What things are you not taking before God in prayer because you doubt He will answer them?

– Catie Chance, Anderson