Prayer 

God longs to have a relationship with us. 

 

Prayer is direct communication between us and our Heavenly Father. It helps develop our relationship with God. 

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Reflect on these questions before we begin. What’s a relationship without communication? How are you able to build a life with someone special if you both don't talk? Can a relationship work if only one person is doing all the talking?

 

By answering these questions it’s safe to say communication is an important part of developing and maintaining a good and healthy relationship. This is no different from our relationship with Christ. Prayer is our way of communicating with God. He is so in love with you that He wants to know and be a part of every detail concerning you.  God wants you to pour your heart out to Him.

 

He cares for us. 1 Peter 5:7. As you come close to God, He is near to you and He hears you. James 4:8. You have God’s full attention. He listens to every word you say and His eyes are always on you. Peter 3:12. He loves hearing your voice.

 

We speak to God and God also wants to speak to us. The Word of God tells us to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2. When we pray, we look to God. We take our focus off the world and look to God. The world comes with distractions and troubles, and it may be hard to pray. But the Bible declares we should pray without ceasing. "Ceasing means to come to a stop or end." 1 Thessalonians 5:17. 

 

Fear and worry should be an alert to remind us to it’s time to pray and seek God. Prayer allows our worries and our fears to be heard by God. With every moment and with every chance, prayer should be the first thing we do. When life gets tough and we feel like our minds or thoughts are too sinful to approach God, remember God already knows our thoughts, and your heart. He’s just waiting for you to tell Him.

 

As we seek God and ask to forgive our sins, we must repent. Some of you may be thinking “Okay we spoke about prayer but what’s repenting? To repent is a change of mind. We are all sinners. And every day we sin against God. As we pray, we ask God for forgiveness and repent. As you repent, you're saying to God “I acknowledge my sin, I know I did wrong but I am choosing to change my mind and not fall into the same sin again.” But even if you do, there’s grace. We serve a loving Father that through prayer we can ask Him for His mercy and His strength to sin no more. Ask God to transform you to live a life fully submitted to Him.

 

God has been patiently waiting to hear your voice. He has been waiting for this moment. Don’t let this time pass you by. He has so much waiting for you and I’m sure you have a few things to share with him. 

 

God wants to leave you with this. “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8. 

 

Father, thank you for the ability to have direct communication with you. Help us, Jesus, to acknowledge you in all we do. Help us to make prayer a priority. Give us a craving, a desire, a hunger, and a thirst after you. In Jesus name. Amen.

 

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