Praying to God allows us to talk to Jesus one on one and is our chance to get to know our Savior intimately. According to E. M. Bounds: “Prayer honors God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid.”1 And the more we honor, acknowledge, exalt, and adore the Lord in prayer the more we will draw closer to Jesus and secure His aid. It’s in prayer that we can learn the heartbeat of God and carry out His will in our lives.
The more we develop a strong, vibrant, and consistent prayer life not only will we get to know Jesus better but every area in our life will be blessed. Hopefully prayer will be our most enjoyable and treasured activity of the day. My friends if Jesus spent so much time in prayer with the Father don’t you think we should follow His example? After all prayer produces intimacy with God and power to prevail.
And in addition to the things, listed by E. M. Bounds, that prayer does, Pastor David Jeremiah shares eight things that believing prayer can accomplish. According to Pastor Jeremiah: “Prayer is the way you defeat the devil, reach the lost, restore a backslider, strengthen the saints, send missionaries out, cure the sick, accomplish the impossible, and know the will of God.”2
Let’s take a brief look at the eight things that, according to David Jeremiah, prayer does:
Prayer defeats the devil
The devil is absolutely no match to believing prayer. The Scriptures are full of examples where Satan’s schemes are defeated when a believer gets on his knees. I challenge you to study the lives of Moses and Paul and see how the devil had to bow when these two giants of the faith prayed to God.
Prayer reaches the lost
I don’t fully know how prayer works but I know that prayer plays a key element in bringing the lost to faith in Christ. Prayer can open the eyes of the blind and sometimes is the only way to reach the lost. J. Sidlow Baxter said it well: “Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.”3
Prayer restores a backslider
I am totally convinced that no backslider is out of the reach of fervent prayer for restoration from the Lord. On my daily prayer list I pray for several backsliding Christians and believe with all my heart that they will come back to serving the Lord. My role is to pray and leave the timetable of these prodigals return to the Lord in the hands of Jesus.
Prayer strengthens the saints
I don’t know about you but when I know that Christians are praying for me and my needs I get encouraged and find strength to go on. Let’s face it we all need prayer to help us overcome the daily struggles in life.
Prayer sends missionaries out
We read in (Matthew 9:37-38): “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” Here we see the Lord speaking of the spiritual harvest of souls for salvation. And notice what we are called to do: pray for men and women to become missionaries for Christ!
Prayer cures the sick
I am totally convinced that one of the main reasons we hear about miraculous healings of the sick in third world countries is because, since there are so few doctors, prayer is often the only way to see people cured of their diseases and infirmities. Believing prayer sometimes is the only way to see the sick healed. So let’s bathe our doctors in prayer and watch how God moves.
Prayer accomplishes the impossible
Prayer is often the vehicle that makes the impossible possible by invoking our omnipotent God on the scene. God is still in the miracle business and I believe the main way that God performs miracles today is when we pray for the miraculous to occur. Sadly, many Christians don’t believe in miracles and as a result don’t pray for them. However, we should never place limits on what God can do, especially since our God specializes in doing the impossible!
Prayer helps us to know the will of God
Often we struggle to know God’s will for our lives because we spend too much time on wanting to do our own will and neglecting asking the Lord what His will for our lives is. I believe if we come to God with an open heart desiring to know and do His will, and pray that He reveals it to us, that He will.
In closing may the following words by E. M. Bounds encourage you to never stop praying: “Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer. ”4
1 74 E.M. Bounds Quotes | ChristianQuotes.info
2 37 Powerful Prayer Quotes To Revive Your Prayer Life | Think About Such Things
3 37 Powerful Prayer Quotes To Revive Your Prayer Life | Think About Such Things
4 37 Powerful Prayer Quotes To Revive Your Prayer Life | Think About Such Things