You Are Called to Pray!

Not everyone is called to be a preacher or a missionary in foreign lands, but everyone is called to pray.

For a Christian, praying should be as natural and as essential to your spiritual body as breathing is to your physical body.

The Bible gives countless promises about what God has given to us through the power of prayer. James 5:16 tells us that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.”

So why is it that many Christians neglect the kind of regular, disciplined prayer life that God calls us to? There may be many reasons, but two of the most easily corrected are unbelief and laziness.

Jesus clearly links answered prayer to believing prayer:

Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you” (Mark 11:22-24).

When we truly pray in faith, we see the answer to our prayer even before it actually arrives. As Jesus tells us in Matthew 19:26, “All things are possible with God!”

Likewise, James encourages believers to “ask in faith without any doubting,” for the person who doubts “ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7).

God wants you to believe His promises when you pray; and if you don’t have that belief, perhaps it’s time to look deeper into your own level of discipline when it comes to prayer.

The Discipline of Prayer

Although prayer should come naturally to a person who has been born again by God’s Spirit, it also requires discipline.

Despite the wonderful promises the Bible gives us about prayer, many believers are simply unwilling to engage in the hard work required for a successful prayer life.

Look at these quotes from some men of God who challenged Christians to be more devoted to prayer:

“Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of times, which flesh and blood do not relish.” — E.M. Bounds

“The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray.” — S.D. Gordon

Are you willing to sacrifice a portion of your time to meet with God each day? This is a vital key to a powerful Christian life. It unlocks the treasure chest of God’s wisdom, His guidance, His power, and His blessings.