Spiritual Discipline -- Prayer

When I think of a Spiritual Discipline I do not know if prayer is one of those that comes to my mind at first. But, if you really give it more thought it is something that requires discipline to maintain in our Christian walk. What is prayer? Some may look at it as something we do when we are in a difficult spot in life. Others may think it is something we do before eating. And others will say it is important to do before travelling. While these particular answers are right but there is more to it when it comes prayer.

Prayer is a two way fellowship and communication with our Father in heaven. God desires to be in a loving relationship with His children and prayer is one the ways to maintain this relationship. Throughout the Bible there are examples of prayers, commands to pray, and encouragement to pray is used. Doing a word search for "pray" online I found 367 verses listed in the Old and New Testament of where the word or the form of "pray" was used. This shows me that prayer is an important topic to God or otherwise He would not have mentioned it as often as He did.

Look at the following lists of some of the examples of Scripture on prayer:

Commanded:                                Encouraged:                               Postures for:
Isaiah 55:5                                      Job 33:6                                      Numbers 16:22
Matthew 7:7; 26:41                        Psalm 6:9; 32:6; 66:19                  Joshua 5:14
Luke 18:1; 21:36                            Zechariah 13:9                              I Kings 8:22
Ephesians 6:18                               Luke 11:9                                     II Chronicles 6:13
I Thessalonians 5:17, 25                 Romans 10:13                               Matthew 26:39

Prayer is something we should be doing all the time. Many times we do not because we get so caught up with our earthly lives we fail to think abut it. We are often talking to our friends on the phone or in person because that relationship is important to us to maintain. What if we never talk to either our friends or family? How long would that relationship last? If our earthly friends and family are important enough to constantly talk with, wouldn't be just as or even more so to talk with our Heavenly Father as often? Make prayer a Spiritual Discipline in your Christian walk. Keep a journal of your conversations with God and go back and look at the prayers He has answered in your life. You will be blessed!!