Daily prayer can bless you, your family, and those you pray for. It can also invite more peace into your life, help you learn more about God's plan for you, and more.
Prayer can foster a sense of connection, whether it's to a higher power, what a person finds important in life or their values, said Ryan Bremner, an associate professor of psychology at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Prayer can reduce feelings of isolation, anxiety and fear as well.
First, engaging in 12 minutes of personal reflection and prayer each day makes a profound impact on our brain. It strengthens a unique neural circuit that specifically enhances our social awareness and empathy and helps us love our neighbor by developing a heightened sense of compassion and subduing negative emotions.
Prayer is powerful because God commands us to do it, and it is a way of daily communicating with Him. The resources below will help you cultivate a consistent prayer life and a heart for prayer in accordance with His word.
These three powerful morning prayers are the prayers of thanksgiving, the Lord's Prayer, and the prayer of Jabez. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, the Bible tells us to enter his gates with thanksgiving, and Jabez prayed to God and God granted him his request.
Prayer is the Greatest of all weapons
Prayer is not only another weapon, but the greatest of all the weapons as it infuses the rest of the armor with the power needed to fight the enemy. It is the one thing Paul asks the Ephesians to do for him: pray!
God uses our prayers to accomplish His will
Through prayer, God allows us to be involved in His work that will go on forever. When we pray, we participate in God's will being accomplished “on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:9-10).
Prayer is an important way to experience God as the religious believer can communicate with Him. By bringing their problems to God, or asking for forgiveness and help, they come closer to Him. Christians believe they can speak with God in prayer and are taught to pray by Jesus himself.
Our thoughts about God, our feelings toward our neighbors, and the state of our heart all change when we pray to God. In addition to prayer changing us, prayer does change things around us. As Sproul states: The mind of God does not change for God does not change.
According to a study by CentraState Healthcare System, "the psychological benefits of prayer may help reduce stress and anxiety, promote a more positive outlook, and strengthen the will to live." Other practices such as Yoga, T'ai chi, and meditation may also have a positive impact on physical and psychological health.
Prayer is important because it helps us to stay close to God. When we pray, we are opening up our hearts to Him and He is able to work in us and through us. Prayer also helps us to grow in our relationship with God. The more we talk and spend time with someone the more we get to know them.
They are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Jesus emphasized the need to persevere in prayer, and by this, He meant that Christians ought to pray for at least two set times per day, during the day and at night. Notice in the following parable what the text says in verse 1 of Luke 18. He tells them how they should always pray.
“That peace, that sense of meaning and connection that happens with prayer is what is positive," Park says. "Those kinds of things have physiological effects on the body, such as calming your cardiovascular system and reducing your stress."
Instead, Micah listed out the three principles of what God asks of His people: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with Him.
Prayer is like that magnifying glass. It allows the believer to harness all the power of Christ and focus His mighty power upon one place, person, or circumstance on the planet. This is the awesome power of prayer that we so often neglect. A consistent life of prayer will set a spiritual fire around you.
“Prayer is more powerful than any obstacles you face in life!
Life without prayer is a life without power. Praying can change negative situations. It's so important to “be still and know that I am God,”(Psalm 46:10) and to “see if there is any offensive way in me” (Psalm 139:24).
Moreover, it's hard to pray because our focus is too often on praying itself and not on God. We learn about prayer not so that we might know a lot of facts about prayer, but so that we might pray with our focus on God.
Reading the Psalm for today reminded me yet again that the hardest prayer for me to pray is a variation of "Here I am, Lord; I come to do Your Will." (Psalm 40:8-9) When I feel those controlling tendencies creeping in, I try to catch myself and pray, Jesus, give me the desire to know and accept Your will.
The Lord's Prayer
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”