Why should we pray?

“Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”                                                                                                                                            Luke 18:1 NIV

The choices that Jesus gives for His disciples are only two.  Either we will pray, or we will give up.  Either we will pray or we will faint.

Prayer connects us to our Father in heaven.  Jesus prayed throughout His time on earth.  He rose very early in the morning, He left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.  When it was time for Jesus to select the 12 who would be His disciples, Jesus spent the night in prayer.  As Jesus spent His last time with the disciples we have His recorded prayer in John 17.  When Jesus was facing the cross, He prayed in the Garden.  And even as Jesus was nailed to the cross, Jesus prayed.

Do we pray?  Do we pray as we ought?  If Jesus gave His time to prayer, to spending time with the Father, do we think that our lives will matter for the Lord and His kingdom when we fail to pray?

As an association of churches, we need the power of prayer.  That is why we have made prayer our first strategy.  Without prayer we will be like an army in the desert without water.  We can have all the weapons, we can have all the strategy, we can even have all the best soldiers.  But without the power of the Lord through prayer, we will never prevail.

How can you pray?  We have resources on the HOKSBA website, www.hoksba.org/prayer, to assist you in praying for the churches of the association.  There you can download a Prayer Guide and connect with a prayer list that will send you the needs of the churches of HOKSBA as we are made aware of them.

The Lord Jesus prayed and taught us to do the same.  Do we think that we can get by without prayer?  I don’t know why our prayers matter to the Almighty Sovereign God of heaven.  But His Word assures us, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Will we pray?

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Glenn Davis has served as Director of Associational Missions for the Heart of Kansas Southern Baptist Association since 2008. He can be contacted at (316) 943-3446 or glenn@hoksba.org.