let us pray, let us pray.

everywhere and every way
every moment of the day it is the right time
for the Father above
He is listening in love
and He wants to answer us so let us pray

hehe praise the Lord for 90's contemporary christian music.

But seriously, prayer is probably one of the most important if not the most important aspect of one's walk with God. Charles Spurgeon even goes as far as to say this: "You are no Christian if you do not pray. A prayerless soul is a Christless soul." More quotes from him later.

I have always desired intimacy with God. I wanted to know him better, to feel him closer, yet I was not willing to set aside time (legitimate time) to spend with him. It was a few minutes here, a couple seconds there. Nothing near what He deserves.

Then, about 3 weeks ago, my pastor took a break from Proverbs and took a whole Sunday to exhort the church to pray. He talked about how corporate prayer leads to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then it just hit me: You can't have intimacy with God and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your life unless you spend time asking God for it in prayer. And not just once...but to ask continually, without ceasing.

I think that there are (at least) 2 things that the Lord really desires in our prayers: faith and fervency. We are told in the bible that without faith, it is impossible to please God. The rest of Hebrews 11.6 says that "...anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." As for fervency, read the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:2-8

So, in the time that I have been taking to spend with the Lord, He has moved in mighty ways in my life. First of all, attending prayer meetings was something that I did because I felt like I was supposed to do, not because I really desired to seek God corporately. I am actually kind of shy sometimes, especially in big groups of people that I don't know amazingly well. Can anyone relate? Anyways, for the longest time, I hated praying in large groups of people because I feared that people would be assessing the "spiritual-ness" of my prayers. So when I didn't pray, I felt guilty because I was the only one who didn't pray out loud. So then I would blame that on the prayer meeting itself and not want to go to the next one but go anyways because I felt as though it was my duty and so on...But then God started to do a work in my heart and showed me that I wasn't praying out just because I was shy, but because of the fear of man. And furthermore, that that fear wasn't from God, but rather, it was from the enemy. Once I realized that, I also realized that I needed to ask God to remove that fear and replace it with faith and trust in my Father to give me the words to pray. And also to remember that I wasn't praying for men, but that I was praying to God.

Anyways, can I just say that I love prayer, now? Like, almost to the point of obsession (Praise God). I so look forward to our prayer times before our college ministry meets, in the Upper Room for our campus, and at our church for our church at the weekly prayer meeting. God has revolutionized my walk with the Lord and my love for The Word simply through prayer and for that I am eternally grateful.

So I said that I would mention Charles Spurgeon again. You can read more about him here if you like. What really strikes me about this man was his heart for prayer. He really sensed the urgency and need for it and spoke so strongly about it that I can't help but feel convicted to pray more and more. Here are a few quotes.

Unbelieving prayers! Shall I call them prayers? Prayers without faith! They are
birds without wings, and ships without sails, and beasts without legs. Prayers that
have no faith in Christ in them are prayers without the blood on them: they are
deeds without the signature, without the seal, without the stamp—they are
impotent, illegal documents.

He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire, if there is no fire in our prayers. Many prayers fail of their errand because there is no faith in them. Prayers which are filled with doubt, are requests for refusal.

You never heard that a man began to backslide, or that a sober man became a
drunkard, through praying too much. Did you ever hear of a person becoming unkind
to his wife, ungenerous to the poor, negligent of public worship, or guilty of grievous
sin, through being too much in prayer? No; the case is the reverse.

Prayer is the natural out-gushing of a soul in communion with Jesus.

And I will end with this one:

Many hours are spent with men, how many with your Maker?