Prayer~Not Only Because It Is The National Day of Prayer But Because It's Important

Since today is the National Day of Prayer - here in the USA anyway. I thought I would do a little study on prayer. And I wanted to share a few things that really stood out to me.

First of all, I think it is a good idea to look at the life of Jesus Christ and see how important prayer was to Him. Throughout the Gospels you will find many times that Jesus went off by Himself to pray. And the very night that He was going to be betrayed He spent a lot of time in prayer.

Prayer is the special way that we have to communicate with our Heavenly Father. What is so awesome is we can pray anytime. In fact 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "pray without ceasing," We can have an ongoing conversation with God. We can talk to Him about anything and anywhere that we are.

This year the official verse of the National Day of Prayer is: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance." Psalms 33:12

Another awesome verse that has been used probably more than once as the official verse is:

"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

What a powerful verse.

James 5:16 tells us to pray for one another. And in Matthew 5:44 we are told not only to love our enemies but we are to pray for them as well.

In 1 Samuel 12:23 Samuel says"....far be it for me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you..." It looks to me to be a pretty serious thing not to be praying for others. What I have found in my life is that when I am going through really hard times, is that if I will change the focus from me and start praying for other people - I end up feeling better and better dealing with what ever I am going through.

And because:
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8

It is important to remember this verse:
 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

 Matthew 26:41  

And because there will come times in our lives that we pray and don't see any changes taking place we are reminded in Luke not to lose heart: 

"Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart," Luke 18:1 

I was truly blessed by my study on prayer. There are many more verses and if you get a chance you may want to do your own study and see what gems you can find. Oh and one more thing in John it says that Jesus Christ prayer for us! Isn't that awesome?!