Pray – It's Crucial

May 22

“So he himself (Jesus) often withdrew
into the wilderness and prayed.”
Luke 5:16

Prayer. Anything accomplished for the Lord must be bathed in prayer. Prayer is the tool God gives us that moves in the supernatural realm to bring about the will of God in the lives of men. If Jesus himself spent a lot of time in prayer, how much more is it necessary for us!

One could say that Jesus didn’t need to pray, he was sinless, he knew the Father intimately, yet his habit was to withdraw into the wilderness and pray and we learn from that that prayer is CRUCIAL. If you want to be used of God, how much more do YOU need to regularly withdraw to pray. It must be the foundation of your life.

“Then he spoke a parable to them,
that men always ought to pray
AND NOT LOSE HEART…”
Luke 18:1

Don’t lose heart —

When we pray, things happen in the background that we are not aware of. The prophet Daniel prayed with fasting for 3 weeks before an angel came to bring the answer to him.The angel told him that a fallen angel had put up a big fight to prevent him from coming. There was a battle taking place as the result of Daniel’s prayer. What would have happened had Daniel given up after a week? Two weeks?

The lesson in this is that there ARE things happening that we are not aware of when we pray, so we must press on and not give up.

“Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
bearing seed for sowing,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.”
Psalm 126:6

Prayer changes things.

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man
AVAILS MUCH.”
James 5:16