Embracing God's Presence Through Prayer预览

Prayer is foundational to your individual Christian life and also to the life and ministry of your church. Like a foundation that secures a building, prayer gives you something trustworthy on which to rest. No wonder Satan works overtime to keep you busy and distracted so that you lose regular in-depth communication with your heavenly Father. But there’s one person against whom Satan couldn’t make headway when it came to trying to disrupt His prayer life: Jesus. And He’s the great example of what your prayer life should be. He began and ended His public ministry in prayer.

In Mark chapter one, on one of the busiest days of His life, we see Jesus getting up before daylight to pray. Luke writes, ‘He…often withdrew…and prayed.’ It was His regular daily habit! In the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed with an intensity that none of us will ever know. No wonder the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. Just how important is prayer? Ask Peter.

It was the prayers of Christ that kept him from being destroyed completely when he denied his Lord; they salvaged him and eventually promoted him to leadership in the church. And the only reason youdon’t fail more often is because Jesus is praying for you, too (John 17:20; Hebrews 7:25). The application is pretty obvious: if Jesus needed to pray—so do you. Furthermore, if you’re waiting until you feel like it or for the Spirit to move you to pray, you’re missing something. The Holy Spirit has already moved you to pray—through the instruction and example Christ left you.