Prayer So Precious

It gives me immense joy when I see my two-year-old praying to God with all his innocence. Being born into a believer's family, I have also learned to pray since childhood. Over the years, praying became a habit and then, sadly, a ritual. As I was meditating about prayer, I examined my prayer life.

I asked myself, Am I praying just like a newsreader, stating a few pages of prayer matter before the Almighty as if God doesn't know how to read? 

Does my prayer have a life, a heart, and a genuine concern in it, or is it just a chanting of numerous words? 

Do I really know the preciousness of prayer? Over the years, have I become negligent in my prayer life? Do I underestimate this greatest privilege that heaven has blessed me with? So I tried to understand what prayer really is.

Below are a few points about prayer that changed my perspective and helped improve my prayer life.

1. Prayer: a blessing

A famous quote by Spurgeon says, Anything is a blessing that makes us pray. Getting an answer to a prayer is indeed a blessing, but to know that the very act of praying itself is a blessing is amazing. All our needs, sorrows, trials, losses, pain, and unanswered prayers that make us fall before the Almighty are a blessing. So let's praise God for all the prayer matters in our lives, as that is forcing us to sit in His presence and drawing us closer to Him.

2. Bricks of prayer

We all know how a building is constructed. A layer of bricks laid on top of each other to make a beautiful structure A Christian life of faith is built with the bricks of prayer.

Some are filled with tears of joy, some with praises to most high, some with tears of need. Some with deep anguish, some with overflowing joy, some with the pain of disappointment. Some with feelings of loss.

Each brick of prayer builds our faith, trust, and our relationship with God, ultimately shaping us into the image of Christ. To grow up to the stature of Christ, we need to build every layer with prayer as brick and the Word of God as cement.

3. Prayer : the breath of God in man 

Prayer is the breath of God in man returning from whence it came.You cannot perish with God’s breath in you. How wonderful it is!

4. Prayer: a heart-to-heart conversation

Spurgeon saw prayer as 'that sweet converse with God in which our mutual secrets are revealed—our hearts open to Him, His heart being manifested to us'. We come into His presence with all we have in our hearts: our sorrows, our pains, our frustrations, and our complaints, and He manifests to us His joy, love, and peace.

5. Prayer : our greatest weapon

Do we ever realize what a powerful weapon we hold through prayer? Devils may surround us on all sides, but through prayer, the way upward is always open, and as long as that road is unobstructed, we will not fall into the enemy’s hand, but you will run into God's arms.

Oh, how amazing it is to know that the silent sighs of our hearts reach heaven and the words of our mouth reach His ears. We must pray because the Almighty hears our prayers. Let this be the only reason to make us fall to our knees.