Ephesians 6:18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

What is prayer? It is our direct line of communication with God. As I write this out it sounds so simple. In theory, it is. In practice it can be difficult to do what Paul is calling us to do in Ephesians 6:18 “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”. I wish I could say I have mastered this art of prayer, but I am far from it. I think more often than not I am more quick to pick up the phone and mull things over with a friend than I am to bring them directly to the cross to give them to God first and foremost.

Much of the time I feel my prayers fall short and are not really important or heard; this is not what we know to be the truth though. We find in scripture that our prayers, as His children, are absolutely heard. That God is there for us in our time of need, and we should draw near to His throne.

1 Peter 3:12 “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

There are too many examples to list here, and many great books on prayer have been written. One of my favorites is Fervent by Priscilla Shirer. She outlines intense battle strategies for prayer and how to implement power-filled prayer in our daily lives.

In this verse from Ephesians Paul is not just lightly suggesting we may want to try and remember to pray. He is URGING us as believers to pray. Pray in all situations. Pray over all things. Pray, pray, pray. So how can we work on making prayer our first resource and go to habit? I think there is no quick plug and play across the board answer here.For some of us, our prayer lives are already in good shape. If this is you, well done. Would you please pray for me?! 🙂 For others, we may have to pick up our self control and discipline and step up to the plate and just do it. Feelings will follow; often times we must first act out of obedience. At least this is how it generally works for me.

Questions to consider:

Has your prayer life been power-filled?

If so, what are some ways you can encourage others to have a more powerful prayer life?

If not, what do you think is holding you back?

Pray this:

Lord we thank you for allowing us this magnificent ability to communicate directly with you. To speak with you and hear from you on a personal basis whenever and wherever we are. Thank you that you not only hear us but also respond in many ways too. If there is anything that is keeping us from having a deeper prayer life please reveal that to us. We want to have a more meaningful relationship with you and we know prayer is such a critical part of that. Help us to press on, and walk in obedience in this way. Help transform our prayer life so that it would be power-filled instead of weak at best. In Jesus power-filled name, amen.