The Importance of Prayer
The discipline of prayer and intercession is very important to us because without it, we remain ineffective in our walk and work as believers. Prayer is the foundation for our Christian life. Our true freedom and victory in Christ Jesus cannot be enforced in our lives without prayer. Many believers have fallen short of success both in life and spiritually because of defective and or insufficient prayer. Prayer is the key that opens God’s treasure house of infinite mercy, grace and power. R.A Torrey noted that all that God has is at the disposal of prayer, and according to Andrew Murray, “Christ meant prayer to be the great power by which His church should do its work. The neglect of prayer therefore, is the main reason the church has no greater power over the masses in Christian and heathen countries.” If this is true, then it simply means that many of us work and toil without involving God through prayer.
There is nothing the devil dreads so much as prayer, says Albert Richardson. His great concern is to keep us from praying. Someone has said, “Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray” and this means that once we ignore prayer, and choose to work and toil, no matter how successful we may become, failure will always be at our doorstep. We can accomplish a lot more by our prayers than by our work.
Prayer is powerful. It’s one of the greatest responsibilities for every believer in Christ Jesus. Preaching the gospel and serving God and others are all important, but prayer must be our priority.
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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land ~ 2 Chronicles 7:14
Restoration, though promised, will not come by default, but through prayer. Judgements can only be averted through prayer; marriages and families will be restored through prayer; enlightenment, effective service and worship will only be possible through prayer. Your responsibility as a believer is not complaining, pinpointing mistakes or feeling pity for others, worrying and wondering what to do or even watching helplessly; you have the responsibility of interceding for them. People will see the light of God through prayer. If the Kingdom of God is going to be manifested in the world, then it is going to be through prayer. God has given us what we have and He has made us who we are so that we can wage war and fight for our fellow brothers and sisters who are still under the control of the enemy. Victory is not just guaranteed, it is already there. Jesus has already won the battle and ours is to carry that mantle of victory as we go to war. Our work is to actually enforce that victory, and how else can we do it if not through prayer?
Our battle, according to Ephesians 6, is spiritual, and I believe that the most effective way of fighting it is through prayer. You and I have the responsibility of standing in the gap and interceding for others who do not know God and may be facing difficulties in whatever area of their lives. To stand in the spirit between evil and those it would crush is how the kingdom of God changes the world around us. If we want to see change, then one of the things we ought to do is to get back to our prayer closets and call on God to show us what to do, otherwise we will do very little, if anything, to make impact in our areas of influence. When we pray and intercede for others, we do not just pray to get answers, we become answers.
Andrew Murray in his book “With Christ in the School of Prayer” says: “It is in intercession that the church is to find and wield its highest power, that each member of the Church is to prove his descent from Israel [Jacob], who as a prince had power with God and with men, and prevailed … I feel sure that as long as we look on prayer chiefly as the means of maintaining our own Christian life, we shall not know fully what it is meant to be. But when we learn to regard it as the highest part of the work entrusted to us, the root and strength of all other work, we shall see that there is nothing that we so need to study and practice as the art of praying aright….It is only when the church gives herself up to this holy work of intercession that we can expect the power of Christ to manifest itself in her behalf.”
