The Power Of PRAYERSample

Prayer Is The Practice Of The Presence Of God

Prayer is the Practice of the Presence of God. It is the place where pride is abandoned, hope is lifted, and supplication is made. Prayer is the place of admitting our need, of adopting humility and claiming dependence upon God. Prayer is the needful practice of the Christian. Prayer is the exercise of faith and hope. Prayer is the privilege of touching the heart of the Father through the Son of God, Jesus our Lord- Matt Slick.

Prayer is an inexhaustible topic, and no matter how often we hear sermons or read books on prayer, we can always glean something new on this subject. When one takes the posture of prayer it is a sign of great humility because it is in this act we recognize there is someone greater than us, and we need his help. Prayer is so much more than just asking God to do stuff for us, to bless us, to open doors for us, and nothing is wrong with asking God we are encouraged by Jesus to ask and keep on asking. (Matthew 7:7)

But prayer is the actual practice of the presence of God, this statement gives prayer so much more meaning because so often we pray on the go, or we are rushing to catch the seven o’ clock headlines on the news, or we had a long day, and we just want to get to bed early. No matter what the reason, we all have experienced rushing prayer. Practicing the presence of God means I must take time to sit, pushing aside everything else, ready to engage in conversation giving God my full attention. 

Sometimes I find it easier to understand spiritual things by comparing them to the natural. So if we are talking about practicing someone’s presence, we can look at the relationship between a husband and wife. Often I am in the same room with my husband, lying on the same bed, and he is catching up on emails, and I am reading; we are in each other’s presence, but we are not practicing each other’s presence. But if we put everything aside and we engage in conversation, we then practice each other’s presence. So too with prayer, we can talk to God but all the while our minds and hearts are no way connected to him. I know this feeling in my times of on-purpose prayer my mind becomes the most bombarded with my to-do list. I have learned over the years not to view prayer as a chore or work, but as the act of practicing God’s presence, therefore prayer has become more of a delight for me.

If you struggle with prayer or are intimidated because you don’t have all the right words, or you run out of things to pray about I want to encourage you to start off slowly by coming into a quiet place with some soft worship music, this will help you sense God’s presence and then you can share your heart in your own words, and that will lead you to great times of prayer. 

“Prayer is not learned in a classroom but in the closet.” E. M. Bounds