This blog post was written by Rev. Marian Hatcher.
Daily Prayer is a Must
Our connection to God through daily prayer and supplication is a must. God never promised us we wouldn’t face difficulties. He let us know we would have storms, encounter mountains and valleys; yet in the end He assures us He will bring us through in all of His sovereignty, mercy and grace.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
This scripture brings us great comfort and encouragement and in the next verses, He points us to communication with Him to help us achieve and stand firm as His purpose plays out.
Jeremiah 29:12-13 “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Spiritual Success through Daily Prayer
On a personal and corporate level, we maintain this connection with God to be successful in our spiritual lives and well as in the natural. When we ignore or do not nurture our prayer life, we feel weary and sometimes exhausted because we are trying to handle things on our own. But the Word of God tells us that such struggle is unnecessary once we have Christ. There is a source of abundant life and it is identified as the Spirit of God which indwells believers and demonstrates beautiful characteristics, or “fruits.”
Galatians 5:22-23: “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control…”
We must make it our business to tap into God as our source through daily prayer. When we do this, we acknowledge our need for Him to maintain our “fruitfulness.” We acknowledge our love for Him. We acknowledge our thankfulness and gratitude for His grace and mercy. It becomes a “we thing”, God and His children against the evil of this world driven by the enemy of our soul. The battle was already won at Calvary, but the Word of God lets us know we must stay close to Him until Jesus returns.
Motivated by our Identity in Christ
The knowledge of our identity in Christ and His great sacrifice and love for us motivates us to acknowledge Him daily and ask for His help to demonstrate spiritual fruit in our daily lives. Without it, we would have no hope of following the instruction in Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
Philippians 2: 1-4 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Caring for others more than for ourselves? This is a tall order without daily prayer, as our flesh wants us to focus on self and make our prayers and petitions about ourselves, our needs and wants. Without constant communication with the Lord we easily revert to that posture and fall short. Even when we are consistent in our prayer life, we will stumble, but the odds of pleasing God are so much better when maintain focus on Him daily.
Pray Daily without Ceasing
Jesus himself gave us the mandate, model and example for prayer. The mandate is found in 1Thessalonians 5:17 where Paul encourages the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing.”
The model and example for prayer were given by Jesus directly to His disciples. Although we call it the Lord’s Prayer it is actually the Disciples’ Prayer. No doubt they wanted to understand how Jesus was speaking to and hearing from His Heavenly Father. It was the gift Jesus gave them in response to their desire to comprehend the mystery of prayer. Thankfully, these many centuries later, it is ours too.
Matthew 6:9
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us this day our daily bread.
12And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Jesus gave us the example, as He faced the cross. He asked God the Father to spare Him from having to go the cross. He ended that prayer, with “nevertheless not my will but yours be done”.
Let us likewise pray this for ourselves and our organizations as we continue working to eradicate human trafficking.
As part of our Faith in Action initiative, Shared Hope is mobilizing our faith networks and faith communities to fight sex trafficking and protect children. As we enter this new year, our 30 Days of Prayer will take place in January to coincide with Human Trafficking Awareness month beginning January 1, 2021 to culminate with a National Day of Prayer to End Child Sex Trafficking.
Due to overwhelming interest, our initial 4pm ET event has filled up, so we have opened up a second, earlier prayer event at 1pm ET/10am PT, also on January 31, 2021.
Sign up and join us here! https://sharedhope.org/what-we-do/prevent/awareness/30daysprayer/
