Prayer: Our Life - Line to Heaven ~ by Sarah

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens,

Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,

that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

(Hebrews 4:14,16)

What an unspeakable privilege it is to be able to commune with our Heavenly Father through prayer! This is a gift that was bought for us with the blood of our Lord Jesus, our High Priest. He has said, “the prayer of the upright is His delight” (Proverbs 15:8), and also directly commands us to bring our petitions before Him without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

As our form of communication with the Lord, prayer must be cultivated diligently in our lives, for Christ is our only source of spiritual victory. In the midst of life's busyness and frequent distractions, we as daughters of the King must make a conscious choice to “stay” our minds in Christ, and come before Him in prayer—closing the doors, so to speak, to the noise around us and activities of the world—to commune with Him.

Psalm 55 gives us an example of one whose prayer came unto the throne room of God continually, even during great trials. He wrote, “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17). This attitude of continual prayer and supplication is one that we should strive to emulate as believers in Christ—evening, throughout the night, when we awake to a new dawn, and throughout the day.

As we wake up each morning, it can be our goal to immediately begin communing with the Lord. Psalm 5:3 beautifully says, “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” Sometimes this attitude of prayer does not even have to be a “formed prayer”—but simply the mental act of “looking up” and meditating on Who our Lord is.

Prayer is also an essential part of our devotion time with the Lord. Each morning, I pray as I open God's holy Word, knowing that I cannot, without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, understand or apply it in my life. I ask the Lord to open my eyes and allow me to behold wondrous things in His Law. Making time to pray during our daily time with the Lord is vitally important and powerful. This spiritual discipline can also be equally as difficult, since we war against the flesh. I have found that making a minimum goal of time to pray, helps me discipline my mind during the opening minutes of my prayer time; otherwise, I tend to get distracted and think I prayed for 15 minutes when really I only prayed for 42 seconds. Prayer is work of the mind, but we must apply diligence. At first, the seconds of prayer may drag by, but once we have “broken the ice,” it will become a great delight and unparalleled joy as the time flies by!

A prayer journal can be a great blessing to the prayer life of a believer. A few years ago, I began using a prayer journal, which has sections for worship, prayer requests, answers to prayer, thanksgiving, and notes. Through recording prayers and requests over the years, my faith has been tested and I have seen over and over the Lord's faithfulness in providing in incredible ways. Sometimes we tend to think that only “others with great faith” experience big answers to prayer—however, keeping a prayer journal helps the believer see God's direct answers to prayers that otherwise might not be noticed.

Prayer should be our continual line of communication with the Lord throughout the day, as we strive to offer our service as a sacrifice well-pleasing unto the Lord. This can be a simple whisper to the Lord as you go about your duties—“Lord, give me wisdom for this situation,” or, “Lord, I need your strength at this moment to guard my mind.” Prayer should be our delight and refuge!

The joy of communing with our Lord Jesus cannot be told or estimated; it must be simply  experienced. I  challenge you to establish a life of prayer, and thus to know the fullness of joy that is found in abiding in the Vine. Our Father delights in our prayers—let us therefore come boldly unto His throne, that we may obtain His mercy and help in our need and weakness! (Hebrews 4:16)