The Importance of Praying
     The importance of prayer cannot be understated. Prayer is the very life blood of Christian existence. Jesus Christ is both the example and key to the importance of praying. We come to God through Christ, thus Jesus opens the door that we might enter into that child relationship. Jesus is also the living, breathing example of praying.  Luke wrote that prayer was a lifestyle for Jesus when in Luke 5:16 he says of Jesus –
“But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”
Time and time again we find Jesus starting His day by slipping away from the disciples to spend some one on one time with God. The thought behind this is: If Jesus felt the necessity to spend daily time in prayer with God, while He was God, then does it not follow that prayer should be that important to us, mere mortals.


Or consider Jesus’ command in Mark 14 to His three favorite disciples:
"Keep watching and praying, that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Mark 14:38 
Prayer is important if we are to protect ourselves from falling into temptation, and to protect us sometimes from ourselves. 


Prayer is vitally important if we want to learn the character of God. By using Scripture and Prayer we come to learn who God is. We begin to glimpse the unfathomable, to understand more of the infinite nature of God. We learn what He likes, what He dislikes, what God’s desires are. Prayer is important because we learn to love what God loves, will that things that He wills and to think His thoughts.  Prayer is so important that it should never be a part of our lives, it should be our lives. Prayer should not be our "second nature" it must be our nature. It should become a part of our mental process.  Jesus encourage this very thing in Luke 18:1 –
“Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart...”


And Paul reiterated it in 1 Thessalonians 5:17  “pray without ceasing;”
So – how important is prayer in the life of the Christian? So much so that it should be their life. Ask God today to help you learn to pray without ceasing and to not lose heart.


I know MANY of you out there who are in deep struggles... let me encourage you to not lose faith - pray. I know that many of you are in a high water mark of life, all is going even better than you could have expected... let me encourage you to not forget who is the great Provider - pray...

“Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God.”
     Edwin Keith