Why should I pray? Does it really make any difference? God knows everything anyway, you might think. But prayer has been part of Christianity from the beginning. Jesus prayed and he taught us to pray. The Bible is also full of exhortation of prayer.

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. (1 Timothy 2:1, MSG)

Prayer seems to be important. I personally vouch for it. I could not live without prayer. God is real and prayer works. By praying we reach out after the unseen but essential elements in life. By praying we communicate with God Almighty. By praying we fight the good fight of faith.

But what if we don’t know how to pray? What if we have run out of words? No need to worry. When we pray in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, we are never alone.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.(Romans 8:26-27, NRSV)

We are never praying alone. The Holy Spirit is praying is us, for us, through us. The main thing in prayer is the Holy Spirit, not us. Prayer is God’s work in us. We just need to show up. Can’t we do that?

Let’s fight the good fight of faith with prayer. Then we are not battling on our own. God is in us and for us. Who then could be against us?

Prayer is much more than we can ever imagine or understand. We just need to trust God and  keep on fighting with prayer even when we can’t see results. We need to press on because God is at work behind the scenes. We need to keep on praying because it’s always too soon to quit when we lean on God.

 

Gracious God,
Thank you for being in us and with us as we pray.
Thank you that even prayer is not about us,
we can just lean on you.
Help us, Lord.
We need you.
Pray for us, in us, through us.
In Jesus’ precious name,
Amen

Q4U: How do you persevere in prayer?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you keep fighting with prayer! God is with you!

Photo courtesy of Cody Jensen, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke.