The importance of prayer goes far beyond what we can see in this our present physical reality. It penetrates deep down into the spiritual affairs and as far as heaven (Revelations 5: 8).
That is why the importance of prayer in the life of a believer in Christ cannot be overemphasized; it is one of the two most basic Christian essentials that are vital to a believer’s spiritual growth.
In prayer, we communicate with God, and to effectively communicate with God, we need to know His will because it is God’s will that we declare to come to pass as taught by Christ (Matthew 6: 11).
So prayer goes alongside studying the word of God to know what to pray about; thus, the importance of prayer with scriptures is that our prayers will align with what is already written in God’s word.
And it helps us grow spiritually and develop a meaningful relationship with God. So the importance of prayer goes beyond the physical, and it cuts across every domain of our lives, even onto eternity.
This is how important prayer is to the believer; it is the only true means to communicate with God. Therefore, the importance of prayer sermons, that is, teachings about prayers, should be emphasized.
The spiritual controls the physical; hence, our spiritual growth determines how we live our lives in this physical world, how we interact with what we see in our society, and how we handle life’s challenges.
And all of these go back to our spiritual strength, which depends on how strong we are in our prayer life. It is in the place of prayer we get to align with the will of God, and the will of God is what we need in everything we do.
This means the importance of prayer in our daily life is that we infuse prayer into our daily routine and let it guide us. How we interact with God determines how we interact with our fellow humans and the daily challenges life brings.
So we can say these are among the reasons why prayer is important. But before we discuss this further, let us briefly look at what is prayer?
What Is Prayer?
If you are asked what is prayer, this is a straightforward answer. Prayer means to engage in a discussion, like a dialogue with God. So it is when we are communicating with God.
When praying, we are having a conversation with the Creator of the universe. It is a time we go into the throne room of God to present our request and to have a personal communion with God.
To take it a step further, the Hebrew word translated as prayer is the word ‘tefillah’, which means to speak to someone in authority, interceding on your own behalf or on behalf of others.
If you have the attention of a person in authority and present your petition, the one in control will have the final say. Hence if what you seek does not align with his interest, it won’t be granted.
This means when we seek God in prayer, to intercede and present our petition before God, it is God’s will that we seek after and not our own will.
So in prayer, we seek an opportunity for God’s will to manifest. So we can say prayer is an act we engage in to call on God to manifest His will in our lives.
Types Of Prayer
There are different types of prayers we can offer to God depending on what we want to pray for. Here are some examples:
1. Prayer of Thanksgiving: this is to show appreciation to God, telling Him how grateful you are to Him for all the things He has done and is doing in your life.
2. Prayer of Praise: this is when you praise God for who He is, calling Him by His names, titles and attributes.
3. Prayer of Adoration: this is a prayer where you place the name of God high above all names.
4. Prayer of Confession: this is when you pray and confess your sins, asking God for forgiveness.
5. Prayer of Petition: this is when you make your petition known to God by telling Him what you want Him to do for you.
6. Prayer of Intercession: this is when you pray for others, either asking for their forgiveness or you make their petitions known to God.
Purpose Of Prayer
With a close look at the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6: 9 – 13 and Luke 11: 2 – 4, Christ gave us the true standard of prayer, which is the right precept to follow when praying.
In doing this, Christ showed us that the purpose and the focal point of prayer is God and for His will to manifest in our lives.
“Our Father in Heaven” talks about the Fatherhood of God, “Hallowed be Your name” is about God’s sacred holiness, and “Your kingdom come” talks about God’s Supreme Sovereignty.
“Your will be done” Is about God’s purpose, “Give us today our daily bread”, God’s providence as a caring Father. “Forgive us our debts,” God’s mercy and grace, “and lead us not into temptation,” God’s guidance and protection.
Why Is Prayer Important?
Have you ever asked yourself why is prayer important? Prayer is important because it is the only means to communicate with God. It is the privilege given to us to enter into the throne room of God to present our petition and request to Him.
Prayer is where humanity meets with divinity; this is one of the most important Christian essentials that help us to grow our faith and increase the depth of our relationship with God.
A relationship with God goes beyond this lifetime; it is eternal. Hence prayer gives us an everlasting bond and communion with God, grounding us deep in our relationship with Him.
And when we keep communicating with God, it makes us closer to God and transforms us to become more like Christ.
15 Solid Reasons Why Prayer Is Important In Our Lives
1. Prayer Is A Form Of Worship
One of the reasons for the importance of prayer is that prayer is a form of worship. Worship is an act of giving total reverence and preference to God and acknowledging the Lordship of God.
So whenever we go to God in prayer, it is an expression of us submitting to His Lordship and Sovereignty. We go to God in prayer because we believe He is the Sovereign Lord over all things.
We believe He can do what we ask of Him in alignment with His will and purpose for our life. We pray to God to ask for guidance and protection because we believe He has the power to guard and protect us.
These are all ways of submitting to His supreme Lordship over our lives, which is an act of worship.
2. Prayer Is A Means Of Communicating With God
Prayer is where we enter to converse with God and present our petition to Him. It is time we get to dialogue with God, express our deepest thoughts and wishes to Him, and align our hearts with His will.
As believers, we cannot do anything without getting a direction from God, without understanding God’s will for us on the subject matter. So prayer is the only means we can table our issues to God; it allows us to have a rapport with God.
3. It Is A Means To Knowing More About God
The Bible is the word of God, and according to the Bible, the word of God is God (John 1: 1). So, for you to know more about God and His will, you will have to study the word of God.
To effectively study the Bible and know more about God, you must communicate with God when studying the Bible. And the only means we can communicate with God is through prayers.
Studying the word of God works side by side with prayers, the more we learn God’s word and pray alongside, the more we get acquainted with God. The more you pray when studying the word of God, the more you get to know God.
Hence one of the importance of prayer is that it is one of the means of knowing more about God.
4. Prayer Revitalizes The Believer
A believer is faced with so many challenges in this world, and there are many distractions in the world that can cause the believer to be spiritually cold and weak.
So, when we are down, feeling spiritually cold and weak, and when it seems all hope is lost, it is in prayer that we revitalize to gain strength and keep pushing.
Prayer gives us the privilege of being close to God to draw strength and power to revive our spiritual life. That is how prayer revitalizes a believer.
5. Prayer Is Therapeutic To A Christian
One of the importance of prayer is that prayer is therapeutic. By this, it means through prayers, we can connect to God and receive physical and emotional healing.
To explain it further, it means one suffering from a physical ailment can go to God in prayer or can be prayed for and receive healing through the prayers.
Also, anyone who is going through emotional distress can go to God in prayer, and God will bring peace into the person’s heart.
As an avenue to communicate with God, it can be a means to help one heal gradually from emotional distress.
6. Prayer Helps Us To Get Our Lives Right With God
As believers in Christ going through the journey of life, the pressures of life can cause us to sometimes miss our steps, and when we fall out of the way, it will seem as if we are lost.
It is only in the place of prayer we can return back to God, confess our sins and ask for forgiveness, and then get our lives right with God.
The place of prayer gives us an avenue to go on a dialogue with God to make things right with Him in areas we have gone astray. So another importance of prayer to believers is that it helps us to get our lives right with God whenever we go astray.
7. Prayer Gives Us Answers To Many Questions
As we go through life, certain challenges come our way, and we get confused and dismayed. Different questions begin to pop up inside our heads, like, am I truly a child of God? Is God truly with me? If God is with me, then why am I going through this.
We begin to doubt our relationship with God. It is with prayers we can get answers to these questions. God is omniscient, infinite in wisdom and knows all things; He knows the end from the beginning.
So when we go to Him in prayer, He will give us the answers that we seek.
8. Prayer Gives Us Peace
Another importance of prayer is that it gives us peace. The peace that prayer gives is of two kinds: peace with God and peace within ourselves when the storms of life hit hard.
To be at peace with God means when we fall short, we come to God to confess our shortcomings and plead for mercy; as He forgives us, we have peace with Him again.
Secondly, when the storms and challenges of life hit hard, when we pray, we trust God that He is with us, and this helps us to find peace within, no matter how terrible the situations may be.
9. Prayer Helps Us To Find Direction In Life
Life is like a puzzle, full of many paths, and as we live every day, we try to find the best possible direction to living a fulfilled life.
Apart from the universal purpose, which is to fear God and keep His commandment, God created everyone with a specific divine purpose that will bring true fulfillment to the person.
Through prayer, we can get a clear direction from God to know the path to follow in life to have true personal fulfillment.
So another importance of prayer that we should note is that through prayers, we get to find our direction from God on how to go about serious issues in life whenever we are confused.
10. Prayer Aligns Us To God’s Will
As we have seen in the definition of prayer, it is not about telling God what we want, but rather it is when we make our petition known to God, submit and align to His will and purpose for our lives.
During prayer, we present our request to Him and seek His will for our lives. In the place of prayer, God’s desires must become our desires, and we must align our wills with God’s will.
1 John 5: 14 (NIV) “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
11. Prayer Gives Us Strength To Overcome Temptations
No human being living on earth can run from temptation, neither can we resist nor overcome it by our own will. Thus, the only way we can overcome temptation is by submitting to God.
James 4: 7 says (NIV), “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
So when we come to God in prayer, it is also a way of saying that we submit to His Supreme Lordship over our lives and depend on His power and supreme will for our lives.
When you submit to God in prayer, you give your allegiance to God and obey His commands, which then gives you the strength and power to resist the devil’s temptation and lead a life that pleases God.
12. Prayer Brings Us Into The Throne Room Of God
Suppose you want to make a request to a king, and you want to make your conversation official. In that case, you must come to the king’s palace, visit the king in his throne room, and officially present your case to the king.
During prayers, we make our request officially known to God; hence we go into the throne room of God to engage with Him in a conversation.
This is why the writer of Hebrews said, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrew 4: 16 NIV).
Furthermore, in the book of Revelations (Revelation 5), prayer, praise, and worship were the major activities in Heaven when the activities going on in Heaven are mentioned.
It is only through prayer that we can approach the throne of God boldly. So one of the importance of prayer is that it takes us into the throne room of God.
13. Prayer Shows Our Total Dependence On God
Looking closely at the definition of prayer from the Hebrew word ‘tefillah’, that means to speak to someone in authority, interceding for yourself or on behalf of others.
Before you make a request to anyone, it means you have come to recognize the person’s position. This means you believe the person can do it, so you depend on the person’s ability to get that thing done.
Whenever we pray to God, it shows that we have acknowledged His sovereign Lordship over all things; hence we believe He is the only one who can grant what we seek.
Doing this alone expresses a sense of dependence and reliance on God; this is why Jesus instructs us to pray: Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, give us this day, our daily bread…, deliver us from evil (Matthew 6: 9 – 13).
This means we depend on His Supreme Lordship; we depend on His sovereign will to provide, forgive, and protect us.
14. Prayer Improves Our Relationship With God
In any relationship, communication is vital because it is through communication you get to know the other person. Prayer is one of the two means we have to communicate with God, which means we get to know God through prayers.
Prayer gives us the privilege to have a conversation with God, where we meet one-on-one with the King of Kings to have a friendly chat with God; we discuss with God like one friend to another friend.
15. Prayer Transforms Our Lives
The upside to regularly communicating with God and a great importance of prayer is that it transforms our lives. It is impossible to converse with God, who is infinite in wisdom and power and remain the same.
You must undoubtedly be transformed. But, when it comes to changing lives, there is nothing more effective than prayers, which are made out of an understanding of the word of God.
The Bible says, “…the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5: 16 NIV). And in the next verse, James explained how effective prayer is by using Elijah as an example (James 5: 17).
This shows that when we pray, it does not only transform our lives, it can go as far as affecting the lives of many others, like Elijah’s prayers causing nature to stand still. That’s how effective prayers can be in transforming lives.
Why Is Daily Prayer Important?
If you are thinking about why is daily prayer important? Daily prayer is important because it gives us the privilege and opportunity to show gratitude to God, share our daily expectations with Him, and make our daily requests to Him.
This shows that we depend on God daily for sustenance and guidance. Furthermore, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus instructed us to say, “Give us this day, our daily bread” (Matthew 6: 11).
This means Jesus expects us to make daily prayer part of our daily routine to show how much we depend on God’s daily providence.
Daily prayer is also essential because it is an act of building our faith and trust in God. As we walk with God, we take it one step at a time, one day at a time; hence we need daily prayer as we take these steps of faith.
Conclusion
As believers in Christ, there is a need to have an effective relationship with God, which can only be achieved through constant communication and prayer.
This means without prayer, we cannot know what the will of God is for our lives, hence the importance of prayer. Therefore, as believers in Christ, we should make prayer part of our daily routine.
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