An Abundant Prayer Life

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18  Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I’ve been listening to some podcasts and interviews recently and it got me to read the above passage and it really convicted me that I needed to pray more. So I just wanted to highlight the importance of prayer and especially corporate prayer in a church. I think we do a good job of it in my church, but in my personal prayer time I’ve been lacking. 

With personal prayer I think most people, including myself, get too busy with life and fail to pray due to a perceived lack of time. But that’s just an excuse. We should carve out time in our daily lives for prayer. Keeping to a rigid schedule of prayer time might seem too religious to some but it might be a needed thing for some others to keep them in prayer. That is not to say we should be praying a certain prayer at a specific time but that each day we find a different topic or people group to pay for. Having some structure in it I think will ultimately lead to a more robust prayer life.

As for corporate prayer, or prayer in a church setting, this seems to be something a lot of American churches are lacking in. I just mentioned American churches because I don’t know much about other churches outside of America. At any rate corporate prayers are a way of unifying the church body. Prayer with and for members of your church is a very rewarding experience. It’s pleasing to God and lifts up the broken members of the church body.

Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

We see in Revelation that prayers of the saints are like incense to God, it is a  pleasing aroma to Him and it’s one way that we worship Him. So don’t ever take your prayer time lightly and seek to pray without ceasing.

We should be praying more as we are growing in our sanctification. This is something that I’ve come to realize in my own life and walk with Christ.