Prayer is a privilege. It's amazing to think that we get to talk with the creator of our DNA. We should delight in spending time conversing with God, presenting our requests, and thanking him for his goodness. God doesn't need our prayers. Yes, he wants us to value him enough to raise our voices to him. But, prayer is for the benefit of our faith. It is a deterrent of sin, a weapon during spiritual warfare, and an invitation for God's presence.
1) It reveals how we could be the answer to our own request. When you pray for someone to have comfort during a difficult time, sometimes God whispers that it's your job to be the shoulder they cry on.
2) Praying blesses us in the process of our attempt to be a blessing. When you speak to God on behalf of someone, it can warm your heart knowing what you're doing is important to the kingdom of God.
3) It works. Prayers have power. They can work in people's lives in ways you don't even know about. A lot of times we don't even pray big enough prayers. Don't let your small prayers limit what a big God could do. Trust & believe in God's supremacy.
4) Prayer strengthens communication with God. He wants to hear from his children and he cares about what is on our hearts. If we talk to God more, then we will naturally be able to hear his answers more than if we had been neglecting him. Friends don't talk to friends that don't respond. God is the same way. He won't give us revelations every day if we just go through life expecting to hear from him. We have to invest in him too.
5) It might show us that we need to be praying the same prayer for ourselves. Often, I pray for healing in someone's life or help for their struggle with a specific sin, only to realize that I need to work on it myself as well. God can use our prayers for other believers to reveal our own weaknesses we were tuning a blind eye to.
6) Prayer gives us a greater love for the person you pray for. We may not be very fond of someone, but by lifting them up to God, it can change the way we view them. When we talk about someone to God, and ask for their needs to be met, we are looking at them the way God would. We see them out of love and not any negative emotion we may have tied to the thought of them previously. Even if we respect the person, we can gain an even deeper level of care when we ask the God of the universe to work in their life.
Prayer shows us how to give up our self knowledge and methods to receive God's plans for our lives. The more time we spend with someone, the more like them we become. The same goes for our relationship with God. The more fellowship we spend with him, the more and more we will hunger for him and the things he desires. This will produce a deeper longing for God and time spent in prayer. It's a beautiful cycle drawing our heart ever near to his.
