Prayer is an important spiritual practice in many religions around the world. Christians believe that prayer allows them to communicate directly with God and strengthen their relationship with Him. Prayer can provide comfort, guidance, and connection during challenging times. Understanding the purpose and power of prayer is key to getting the most out of this spiritual practice.
What is prayer?
Prayer is communication with God. Believers use prayer to offer praise and thanksgiving, confess sins and ask forgiveness, make requests and intercede for others. Prayer allows people to align their will with God’s will and humbly submit to His authority.
There are many different types of prayer:
- Adoration – Praising God for who He is.
- Confession – Admitting and asking forgiveness for sins.
- Thanksgiving – Expressing gratitude to God.
- Supplication – Bringing requests to God.
- Intercession – Praying on behalf of others.
Prayer can be done silently, aloud, individually, or with others. Christians pray spontaneously throughout the day in addition to setting aside time alone with God each day to pray. Prayer postures like kneeling, standing, or bowing reflect humility before God.
Why is prayer important for Christians?
Prayer is vital to Christianity for several reasons:
- Jesus instructed his followers to pray – In the Gospels, Jesus provides a model of a life of prayer. He withdrew to solitary places to pray and asked the disciples to watch and pray.
- Prayer deepens intimacy with God – Persistent prayer cultivates awareness of God’s presence. Prayer allows Christians to know God’s heart better as they bring their concerns before Him.
- Prayer aligns believers with God’s will – As Christians present their requests to God in prayer, they surrender their own desires to what He desires for them. This alignment brings peace.
- Prayer activates God’s power – Christians believe God responds to prayer and can intervene miraculously in any situation. Prayer taps into this supernatural power.
- Prayer changes the heart of the pray-er – Regular heartfelt prayer softens, humbles, and conforms Christians to become more like Christ.
For Christians, consistent prayer is essential to living out their faith. It is a means of grace God has given believers to draw closer to Him and live according to His purposes.
What are the benefits of prayer?
Prayer blesses and transforms believers in several measurable ways when practiced diligently:
| Benefit | Description |
|---|---|
| Feeling God’s presence | Regular prayer cultivates an awareness of God’s presence and nearness as believers intentionally focus their minds on Him. |
| Receiving comfort/peace | Prayer invites God’s supernatural peace that surpasses understanding. Believers draw comfort from God’s Spirit when they give anxieties to Him in prayer. |
| Gaining wisdom/guidance | As believers present decisions and dilemmas to God in prayer, He grants wisdom and direction to guide choices. |
| Being healed/delivered | Prayer accesses God’s healing power. Christians have witnessed miraculous physical and emotional healings in response to prayer. |
| Overcoming adversity | Prayer sustains and strengthens believers to endure trials. Communicating with God provides perseverance. |
| Having needs met | God desires to provide for believers’ needs when they are presented to Him in prayer with faith and submission to His will. |
| Defeating temptation | Prayer for deliverance helps Christians resist and overcome temptation, addiction, and destructive habits. |
Experiencing these types of breakthroughs and blessings motivates Christians to continue pursuing intimate communication with God through heartfelt prayer.
What are obstacles to prayer?
Despite understanding prayer’s importance, Christians often struggle to pray consistently and overcome these common obstacles:
- Distractions – Activities, responsibilities and worries compete for attention, making it hard to focus during prayer time.
- Impatience – Believers sometimes expect immediate answers and give up praying about a matter prematurely.
- Boredom – Repeating prayers or praying for extended times can become tedious without intention.
- Doubts – Uncertainty about God’s power, goodness or answers can hinder persistent prayer.
- Fatigue – Physical tiredness or mental exhaustion makes prayer feel laborious.
- Discouragement – Unanswered prayers or unchanged situations breed disappointment.
- Sin – Unconfessed sin hinders intimacy with God and undermines prayer’s effectiveness.
- Busyness – Hectic schedules crowd out consistent prayer times.
Christians must guard against these hazards to maintain a vibrant prayer life. Small adjustments like finding a prayer partner, praying on the move, and varying prayer methods can help overcome hurdles.
How can Christians improve their prayer lives?
Believers who want to revitalize their prayer lives can try applying these tips:
Set aside time daily
Making prayer the first priority of each day ensures it doesn’t get crowded out. Arranging a consistent, uninterrupted time to pray enables focus.
Use prayer lists
Compiling specific prayer requests for yourself, loved ones, church, and world aids concentration versus general prayers.
Study God’s Word
Letting Scripture guide prayers and teach about God’s character focuses the mind and provides material for praise and requests.
Change locations
Altering physical prayer spaces counteracts boredom. Many Christians enjoy praying outdoors, at a park, or at a church.
Listen
Pausing after presenting requests to God and listening for His wisdom steers prayer time away from only talking to God.
Fasting
Fasting heightens focus during prayer. It clears away distractions and demonstrates dependence on God.
Keep prayer journals
Recording prayer requests and God’s answers provides encouragement by documenting His faithfulness over time.
Pray with others
Praying as a couple, family, or church keeps prayer lives vibrant. Mutual encouragement builds persistence.
Use music/art
Incorporating worship music or creating art can ignite new passion and interest for communing with God.
Trying a combination of these tips and experimenting with fresh approaches keeps prayer exciting rather than dull religious obligation.
What are the most powerful prayers?
Certain types of heartfelt, persistent prayers unleash God’s power in remarkable ways, including:
Prayers offered with faith
When believers pray earnestly for God’s will according to His promises in Scripture, expectant faith unleashes His power. God may answer in unexpected ways, but He delights to show Himself faithful when His people trust Him.
Prayers for salvation
Humility and surrender to God’s grace when imploring Him for salvation assuredly gets Heaven’s attention. God does not ignore a broken, repentant heart seeking restoration.
Prayers of agreement
Jesus said, “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19). There is exceptional power when believers agree together in Christ’s name.
Prayers born out of deep needs/crises
Heartfelt desperation tends to get God’s immediate response. When believers cry out earnestly to the Lord from a place of complete dependence, He is swift to rescue them.
Prayers offered with purity of heart
Prayers offered with right motives and clean hands, rather than selfish agendas, carry more weight because they seek to glorify God above all else.
Prayers supported by praise and fasting
Combining fasting and praise with petition demonstrates humility and sincerity. It shows the request is not casual but earnest.
While God hears all prayer from His children, some prayers unlock more supernatural power based on the depth of faith and passion behind them.
What are hindrances to answered prayer?
Though God desires to meet the needs of His children when they pray according to His will, several factors can obstruct answers to prayer:
Praying with wrong motives
Prayers aimed at fulfilling selfish desires or pride tend to go unanswered because they do not align with God’s purposes.
Unforgiveness
Harboring bitterness and refusing to forgive others blocks blessings in prayer. God requires His children to extend mercy as He has extended mercy to them.
Cherished sin
If believers refuse to surrender sinful habits and embrace obedience, this compromises their relationship with God. Lingering sin interferes with their prayers.
Doubt
Praying while overwhelmed with doubt fails to demonstrate true faith. Believers must take God at His word to unleash His power.
Harmful relationships
Toxic relationships and associations with ungodly people can sabotage the positive effects of prayer. Righteousness is required.
Not abiding in Christ
Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). Apart from Christ, prayer lacks power.
While delays to prayer answers confuse believers, examining one’s heart and walk with God reveals obstructions that can be removed through repentance and renewed faith.
Why does God sometimes delay prayer answers?
When a prayer seems to go unanswered, Christians must avoid assuming God is indifferent, uncaring or impotent. Here are some biblical reasons for delayed answers:
God has a different timing in mind
God works on an eternal timeline, not an earthly one. What He deems as coming too slowly believers may see as right on time according to His wisdom.
The answer requires spiritual growth first
Sometimes God waits because He knows the blessing would prove harmful at the present time. More spiritual maturity must develop first.
God desires persistence in prayer
Delays test and strengthen the depth of believers’ faith and trust in God’s goodness. The persistence demonstrates sincerity.
Sin is obstructing the answer
God withholds or delays answers to motivate believers to search their hearts for unconfessed sin or misplaced priorities needing realignment to His will.
The timing will maximize God’s glory
God sometimes waits until the perfect moment so that when He answers, all can clearly see His hand at work and give Him glory.
Rather than giving up hope, Christians should probe deeper through prayer and Scripture to understand delayed answers. Often they lead to a multiplied blessing down the road.
How should Christians respond to unanswered prayer?
When prayers seem to go unanswered indefinitely, the temptation is to abandon hope and prayer altogether. But Scripture provides better responses:
Wait patiently
Rather than acting hastily, believers must trust God’s character and wisdom. His delays always have good purpose.
Search for hidden sin
Examining one’s heart and life for anything displeasing to God helps get answers. Even secret sins can block God’s blessings.
Consider wrong motives
Requests aimed at fulfilling selfishness or impressing others likely get ignored. Checking for impure motives keeps prayer righteous.
Look for spiritual roots
Sometimes persecution, demonic attacks or curses lie behind unanswered prayer. Seeking spiritual discernment is appropriate.
Persist in prayer
Rather than quit praying about a matter, Jesus urged persistence in parables about prayer. Demonstrating perseverance pleases God.
Trust God’s goodness
Even when it seems prayers are unheard, Christians cling to the truth that God is perfectly good, loving and wise. His way is best.
Let go of control
Attempting to dictate terms to God is futile. Surrendering outcomes to His control brings peace even amid confusion.
Rather than wavering, Christians who hope in God’s faithfulness will receive amazing rewards for persevering prayer.
What are keys to a dynamic prayer life?
Establishing a vibrant, two-way prayer life with God requires:
Fixed time daily
Consistent, unhurried time meeting with God daily strengthens the relationship and deepens understanding of His heart.
Bible meditation and study
Regular Scripture reading informs prayers and keeps them aligned with God’s truth versus mere opinions or emotions.
Stillness and listening
Pausing to let God speak through His Word and Holy Spirit transforms prayer from monologue to intimate dialogue.
Right heart motives
Purity of heart and selflessness keep prayer centered on God’s Kingdom priorities rather than selfish interests.
Yielded spirit
Laying down personal agendas to embrace what the Father says brings answers and spiritual breakthroughs.
Persistence
Praying relentlessly about concerns dear to God’s heart expresses faith that He hears and will answer in His timing.
United prayer
Agreeing with other believers widens the capacity to receive and compounds effectiveness of prayer.
Mastering these prayer essentials takes discipline but enables ordinary Christians to experience extraordinary communion with their Creator.
Conclusion
Prayer serves a vital role in the lives of Christians seeking to relate to God and live out His purposes. Through routine prayer, believers build intimacy with their Heavenly Father and align themselves with His perfect will. Though prayer poses challenges at times, its faithful practice yields spiritual fruits and innumerable blessings. When Christians comprehend prayer’s immense power and learn to pray biblically, they gain access to the throne room of Heaven and unlock all the resources of the Almighty on their behalf. A dynamic prayer life fuels and sustains every other aspect of Christian living and ministry.
