The Power of Prayer

My one and only New year's Resolution is this: To Pray More!~ I do pray every day and several times a day at that. My Morning Prayer is the longest and most committed. By committed I really take the time to get into thanks and gratitude, as well as offering up my prayer list for loved ones. But, the prayers throughout the rest of the day and even bedtime are just simple conversations with my creator. Now, that is a good thing and it has certainly served me well the last few years. I've had some major prayers answered just by being faithful in turning things over to Him.

But, I know I can do better than that and I plan to pray more. Not, that I intend to become some fanatic living in a bubble of prayer and excluding the world around me. Not at all. I just know now that he answers prayers. So, I intend to use the Power of Prayer even more, to strengthen. sustain, develop, and encourage myself and my loved ones. I need to grow in my own faith walk, and I have loved ones who do too.

I've studied on Prayer using the concordance in my Bible.

I Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray without ceasing."

is good advice and I've made an attempt at that over the course of the last couple of years.

Acts chapter 6:4 "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word."

I am not in the ministry but when I consider what happened in the lives of the Apostles, and the people they preached to I am encouraged to pray more.

Not many people consider this chapter. St. John 17. The entire chapter is a prayer Jesus prayed during his final hours. He prayed for glory, for the strength and sanctification of the disciples and he prayed for us, his church. In verses 22-26, some of my favorites, Jesus prays,

St. John 17:22

22."And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them: that they may be one, even as we are one:

23. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

24. "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world."

25. "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me."

26. "And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Only after reading and thinking on these verses and pondering the verses did I see so many powerful words. So much information too. These few verses are packed with information about My God, his love, and his dwelling place, not to mention his plan from the beginning (foundation). Amazing. So, knowing how Jesus prayed, and knowing that having found glory in this life, I will strive to pray more and find more glory and watch for prayers to be answered.

Jesus prayed this prayer right BEFORE he went into the Garden of Gesthemane, where he then prayed for hours. I am so thankful this prayer is in my Bible. I take such comfort and encouragement from his very words. It means so much that in his final hours before his agony in the garden, and his sacrifice on the cross, he left this immortal prayer for me. I am so blessed and so are other followers who read and take his comforting words to heart. Ihad to study and reread the verses over and over to see his intent. I think the darkness that tries to invade my mind, sometimes clouds my perception in gleaning everything there is for me in scripture. So, again, I need to pray and pray and pray.


footnote:
If anyone reads this they may be wondering about the comment "having found glory in this life", I will wait for another time and post to elaborate on that one.