Close to God in Prayer
How does it feel listening to someone praying for you? Isn’t it delightful and utterly precious? It is a huge blessing. Like Charles Finney has said “Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each others’ hearts in prayer.” Exactly. We can get a glimpse into people’s hearts while praying. People don’t lie before the Lord. Hence when others earnestly pray for you and your concerns…it is touching. It is uplifting. It is priceless.
And how about when Jesus is praying for you? How does it feel listening to Jesus to pray for you? Read John 17 and get a glimpse what it feels like. Jesus cares for you and me. Jesus still prays for you and me. We are so loved and cherished by God Almighty that it is almost unbelievable. But God’s love is real. It heals us and changes us and empowers us to love others.
Jesus does not only continually pray for us but he invites us to be close to God in prayer. The same way we feel close to fellow believers praying for us, we also feel close to God when we pray and hear God speaking to our heart. Prayer is a huge gift from God. It enables us to taste the goodness of God. It empowers us with the grace of God. It fills us with the Spirit of God.
If you want to be close to God, spend a lot of time in prayer. Alone or with your family and friends. The more I pray, the better I feel. I can’t really explain it but there is a powerful connection there. Thankfully I am slowly learning that it is for my benefit that I need to pray. The closer to God I am, the happier I am. That’s why I urge you to draw close to God in prayer. As often as possible. Like Brother Lawrence has said “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.”
Gracious God,
We are grateful for you loving us
and Jesus’ praying for us.
We want to be close to you.
Thanks to Jesus it is possible.
Draw us near to you in prayer.
Enable us to hear you speak in our hearts.
Empower us to love others like you love us.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Q4U: Have you found a connection between prayer and your well-being?
Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you draw close to God in prayer!
* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]
Image courtesy of Pierce Brantley, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday and Faith Jam.
2 thoughts on “Close to God in Prayer”
love this, sis!
Prayer is the ANSWER to it ALL~He longs to hear from us often, an ongoing conversation that brings us close relationship…It settles & comforts, knowing He’s listening & it produces the only true sustainable peace, happiness, well-being, that’s not found in any other thing in this world! I honestly don’t know how people get along w/o Him~Yes, I am the first to say it is a crutch, one that I am grateful & ever thankful to have! My prayer is that every eye that reads this post, if they haven’t yet, discover that closer, deeper relationship through daily conversations w/GOD.
Yesterday our family got a roof raising praise report from Lisa! her most recent MRI findings r clear…giving GOD the Glory!!!
Thank you, & anyone who participated in her healing through Prayer :~)
What an awesome praise report for Lisa! So good to hear this! God is amazing indeed! YES! Thank you for sharing this and thank you for your kinds words. May God continue to heal Lisa and amaze all of us! Hugs & blessings!