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Why Prayer Is So Important

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Five reasons why prayer is the answer when life turns upside down.

Written by Janet Perez Eckles on 18/04/2017

Series: Weekly Devotional

Tags: Prayer, Healing, Reassurance, Confidence, Anxiety

The Lord is there to rescue all who are discouraged and have given up hope.

Psalm 34:18

The doctor’s news crushed me. I squirmed on the examining chair.

“There is nothing that can be done for this retinal disease,” he said as he pulled back from examining my eyes. “No one knows how long you’ll have your sight. You need to prepare for the inevitable.”

He was right. Despite my frantic search for a cure, a few months later my vision closed in completely. Horrified, anxious and desperate, I trembled at the notion that without sight, I would not be able to care for my three small sons. I tossed awake at night questioning God.

Where was He? Why didn’t He hear my prayers as I begged for a miracle? Hope threatened to leave me.

But one day God showed up. That day a friend invited me to a Christian church, and everything changed. My eyesight wasn’t healed, but my heart was. I faced my need to know Christ. I realized the emptiness that ruled my life was because I had prayer all wrong. I had asked and asked some more. But prayer required something more, something that made our communication powerful. And that involved listening.

To my relief, after months of soaking my soul in His Word, I added listening to my prayer time. And through that prayer relationship with Him, He revealed these five promises to calm my soul:

1. He will transform.

God was about to transform me as I invited Christ to be my Lord of all. And through Him, God made me righteous. He saw my tears, knew my desperation, and heard my cries. “If you obey the Lord, he will watch over you and answer your prayers.” Psalm 34:15

2. He reassures.

When loneliness tried to come in, God reassured me I wasn’t alone. His army of angels would stand with me, by me, and around me. “If you honor the Lord, his angel will protect you.” Psalm 34:7

3. He strengthens.

Those days when I lacked the emotional strength to be a mom and wife, God’s promise to provide soothed me. “You rule with strength and power. You make people rich and powerful and famous.” 1 Chronicles 29:12

4. He guards.

When tempted to succumb to anxiety, worry or fear, God’s instructions were clear and beautifully reassuring. “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.” Philippians 4:6-7

5. He answers.

When I needed comfort to face a lifetime of blindness, or in small things like sorting my sons’ clothes or finding rides to doctors’ appointments, I trusted. I believed. And I was confident that God would help me because…“We are certain that God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases him. And if we know that God listens when we pray, we are sure that our prayers have already been answered.” 1 John 5:14-15

God’s healing came, not through my physical eyesight, but through the spiritual eyes of my heart. I saw how prayer is a sweetly personal conversation with Him. It’s the direct connection between me, a mere human with the divine Lord. And it’s the channel through which I receive all that’s good in order to bring peace to my nights and joy to my days.

Pray this week:

Father, I praise you because you heard my sobs at night. You saw my struggles as you’re aware of my inadequacies. And I praise you because our conversation-filled prayer gives me the confidence to believe that there is no battle I face that you won’t win for me. And there is no struggle I encounter that you won’t bring victory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Your Example Lasts for a Lifetime

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Moms and dads, don’t underestimate the impact you have upon your children!

Written by Luis Palau
Tags: Family, Fathers, God, Jesus, Mothers
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).

People always say children learn by example. I know that was true in my own life.

My dad was a consistent man; the same person at home as he was at church. He rose early on cold winter mornings in Argentina to start a wood fire in the stove. I should have been sleeping, but often I sneaked out of bed just to watch him putter around the house.

If I watched long enough, I might see him go into his office—a little study he built on one side of the house—and kneel alone. Wrapped in a blanket or poncho, he would read the Bible and pray before going out to work. Though I was not even eight years old yet, I would steal back to my bed, feeling warm and grateful that I had a good dad.

Daily Bible Reading
One day Dad told me he read a chapter from Proverbs every day, since it has 31 chapters and most months have 31 days. That has stuck with me all my life, and I still practice it. In spite of all the other Bible studying and reading I do, I try to start the day with my chapter from Proverbs. And I have learned to do it on my knees.

I don’t want to be legalistic about it, but there’s nothing like studying the Word of God and praying on your knees. I have never shaken the habit of spreading my Bible and study materials out on the bed and kneeling to read and pray. It sure keeps your heart and mind in the right attitude.

An Example Even in Death
My dad died when I was only 10 years old. The way he died impacted me as much as the way he had lived. Though I wasn’t there during my dad’s illness or last moments on earth, my mom later told me what had happened.

“Papito began to sing,” she said, “‘Bright crowns up there, bright crowns for you and me. Then the palm of victory, the palm of victory.’ He sang it three times, all the while clapping in time, as you children did when you sang it in Sunday school. Then, when Papito could no longer hold up his head, he fell back on the pillow and said, “I’m going to be with Jesus, which is far better.” Two hours later he had died.

As I grew and my evangelistic fervor grew, I knew God was calling me to tell entire cities about His love and forgiveness for them. I don’t want anyone to die without the joy my father had found in the Lord!

What About You?
Moms and dads, don’t underestimate the impact you have upon your children! I could give you example after example of how my father influenced me in the 10 years I had with him. I could tell you of the spankings I rightly deserved, of the bills Dad always paid on time, of the chapel he helped pay for, supervise, and build, of the times I sat in that chapel with my parents and sisters, receiving the Lord’s Supper. My father’s legacy to me came not only through his discipline, but also through his example. And that legacy’s impact is multiplied every time I get to tell another person about Jesus Christ.

Are you a mother or a father? Parenting is hard! It's important to have support as you parent your children.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member