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Prayer


            Prayer is a wonderful blessing given to us by God. I once heard it said, “The bible is His words to us and prayers are our words to Him.” Amen. We need to talk to Him and do it regularly. He wanted us to hear Him to the point His words resonated deep within us (Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 4:12).  Then He goes on to say that we are to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:1). This lets us know that He wants to hear us and our words matter to Him. God makes no mistake in emphasizing the need to pray and the need for us to lay things at His feet.
            God wants our prayers. He wants to hear our heart cry out.  The things that are deep within us are His too. We often try to hold those in and hide those things. They are also the same things that rot our inmost being. God wants those thoughts and desires. He does not want well planned and well-orchestrated prayers that are done to be seen by men. Matthew 6:9-13 makes it clear how God wants us to pray. Take some time one day and study what Jesus prescribes for us to pray for and like. Every word carries so much weight. Now He did not mean this example to come a proscribe must prayer. He wanted it to be a starting point for us to understand what God desires to hear from us. We are broken, we are hurting, and we are in need God knows these things. These are the things we are to be giving Him.
              When we pray, we need to know He will answer (Mark 11:24). We see here that not only is God going to answer, but when we pray for what is right, we will receive it. That is a very tough thing to accomplish. That is a very tough mindset to have. James helps us in getting into this mindset. God tells us that the prayers of a righteous man “avails” much (James 5:16).  The rest of this verse has something for us to focus on. He says the effective and fervent prayers. We need to be praying for what is written according to the word, and we need to pray fervently.
            The widow (Luke 18:1-5). The widow is the one we need to think about. I struggle with this. I have always felt one prayer is enough. Pray it, and the answer is what it is. However, this verse makes it clear that we need to avoid heart.  We need to pray, pray, and pray. We must be fervent, accurate, and persistent. We see here that the persistent prayer can seemingly wear God down. I do not think that is the case. I do think that we need to be in a state of begging when God answers our prayers to understand His answer. I also think that there is some maturity that takes place as well.
            Prayer is powerful. Not because we can pray or that our words are magical, but it is powerful because of who answers them. We need to believe in Him, and we need to hold to Him. We need to understand that the groaning of our hearts is what He wants to hear. We to know that He wants us to be blessed and have what is right. So we must not give up on our prayers. We must not stop praying. We must always talk to our King.

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