There is no other thing that will take us further in our faith than the time we spend in prayer. Early on in our faith, we do not understand the value of prayer and all that it does in our lives. Only prayer can take us higher than ourselves. Only prayer can receive an answer from God.
The more you can believe, the higher your prayers will go. “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes’” (Mark 9:23 NKJV).
You will only come to know God through the practice of prayer. The time you spend alone with Him will determine just how close you are to Him. The pinnacle of prayer is when we understand just how privileged we are to be in His holy presence.
To be near to God, you need to be alone with God. “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray [in seclusion]” (Luke 5:16 AMP).
Too often, we think prayer is only successful when God answers each request to our liking. We have too much worldliness in our thinking. The success of prayer is never in what we get out of it but in the faith we pour into it.
Pray first for faith that your next prayer will have legs to stand on. “A man cannot please God unless he has faith. Anyone who comes to God must believe that He is. That one must also know that God gives what is promised to the one who keeps on looking for Him” (Hebrews 11:6 NLV).
If we always got what we prayed for, especially after only asking for something once, then we would not require any faith as we are praying. The more times that you must ask for something, the more that your faith will grow. Faith is proven by those who never give up in their prayers.
Be stubborn in your prayers, not willing to give up until they’re answered. The Parable of the Persistent Widow: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1 NIV).
The problem most of us have is that we don’t really believe that God will answer our prayers. We say the words, and just as soon as we say amen, we start to do things on our own as if He will never help us. The measure of your belief is in what you will wait for Him alone to do.
Pray confidently, knowing God can do anything. “As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me” (Micah 7:7 NLT).
If we are honest with ourselves, too many of our prayers are selfishly focused on the earthly gains we might have in our natural life. Such prayers often fall flat and never make their way into the throne room of heaven. To pray higher, you must look higher, to the Lord who dwells in heaven.
Selfless prayers are the purest requests made known to God. “…pray for one another, that you may be healed…” (James 5:16 NKJV).
Many times, we will find that prayer is a process of “this and that.” We will pray for the “this,” but God, in His wisdom and His desire to teach us, gives us “that.” At first, we will think our prayer is ineffective and even counterproductive. But know this: God always knows what He is doing.
Sometimes, God answers your prayers in ways you cannot yet understand. “Jesus replied, ‘You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will’” (John 13:7 NLT).
When we pray for patience, God will often give us a circumstance in which greater patience is required. When we pray for peace in the storm, God will often give us a greater storm so we can experience a greater peace that can only be found in Him.
Living worry-free doesn’t mean your life is without problems; it is only that you’ve given them to God. “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel” (Philippians 4:6-7 CEV).
One time, I prayed that God would draw me nearer to Himself, and a few hours later, I was in a motorcycle wreck. I want you to know that out of that wreck, and with the problems it still causes me to this day almost twenty years later, God has drawn me closer to Himself.
The path to God is on the wings of a prayer. The measure by which God moves in your life is the degree to which your life is devoted to Him in prayer. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8 NKJV).
Don’t be afraid to be daring in your prayers, for God will always catch you. Don’t go to God with the answers but with the requests, and then have faith that He will have the perfect answer to everything that you really need. Ask and then rest in peace, knowing that He has you.
Pray for God to help you, then let Him. “For He will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper” (Psalm 72:12 NKJV).
If you want to please God in your prayers, then be honest in all your shortcomings. If you don’t trust Him with your worst, then you don’t trust Him at all. Stop trying to impress Him with how holy you are pretending to be, and just go to Him as you are, and that will surely please your Father.
Be honest about where you’re failing, and then let God help you overcome it. “For You light my lamp; the Lord my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run at a troop of warriors; and by my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:28-29 NASB).
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
“The pinnacle of prayer is when we understand just how privileged we are to be in His holy presence.”
Yes! The Christ of God, our attentive, affectionate, Abba Almighty, in Whose Name above every name, privileged we pray and praise, being forever fully God and forever fully man, is infinitely more beautiful, blessed, and beneficent than all the sons of men.
His ardent, actualizing, ceaselessly compassionate, carefully caring Spirit of intercession and holiness indwelling us and infilling us, immersing us in and overflowing us with Himself provides our vitalmost, conscious love union, our intimate, abiding prayer communion, our matchless, constant celestial companionship with our All Magnificent Eternal King, patiently, persistently conforming us to His champion character and enlarging our capacity to receive that which He divinely deigns to impart and so sublimely delights to infuse for His and others and our everlasting enjoyment.
Can you imagine, someday, sitting in the prayer room of Christ in heaven? And to have Him kneeling besides us and hearing Him pray, I think we will be so filled with awe and adoration, that we could barely be able to keep from falling flat on the floor.
This is wonderful. I’ve been looking for something to spark a light back into me after my son’s cancer battle. This touched me greatly. Thank you for these emails. I have not tended my garden and allowed fear a place. This is very reassuring to me. God bless you
Prayers for you that the Lord would be with you in your garden, bringing you comfort, and bringing you the light of His glory. The Lord knows exactly what we need and when we need it, and He may use a mule, or maybe a few written words, but everything He brings us is for our good. May His goodness overwhelm you.