Tag: why pray

Fighting Temptation by Prayer

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Matthew 26:41 We all, are tempted on a daily basis, from all directions, and from all sorts of things. And we as Christians, are commanded by God, to pray, and fight temptation. When we read in Matthew chapter 26, we can see, that the disciples of Jesus, were ‘pressing the snooze button’ and nearly breaking it from pressing it again and again.

Jesus goes to them, and warns them, that unless they pray, they could fall into temptation. By saying that, Jesus points out for us, that we should always pray to our heavenly Father God, so that we can fight temptation in our own life too.

The Bible says that sin easily entangles us, and that whomever thinks that they stand, they should be careful that they do not fall. So, we all as Christians, have the daily potential to fall into sin, and sometimes, we do fall into sin, because we give in, to temptation.

But, that is not God’s desire for us, and one of the way to fight temptation, is for us to pray. But how does prayer help us to fight temptation? Well, we could pray to God, and ask him to help us fight the temptation and to overcome it, and God will help us do that.

But, that is not only asking God to help us. I believe, that our lifestyle of praying regularly, and also praying in tongues, by the Holy Spirit in us, can make us stronger spiritually, so that we can fight temptation, with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, which God provides for us.

You see, unless the Holy Spirit helps us by his presence and power in us, to fight temptation, we can not, and we will definitely, fall into temptation, if we are fighting it, only on our own, by our own strength and devices.

That is why it is important to pray in tongues regularly, because the Bible tells us, that if we pray in tongues, we edify ourselves. How? Well, to edify ourselves, it means we become stronger in our faith in God, our spirit is growing up in the revelation of God, and we have more power, to withstand temptation.

Prayer, helps us grow spiritually, and unless we grow spiritually, we will remain a spiritual babies, and babies are not very strong or able, to stand against the storms of life, and they most of the time, need help, because they can not manage on their own.

How And What Should We Pray For

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Sometimes, we as Christians can be wondering, what should we pray for, or for who we shall pray for. But the Bible has shown us clearly, what and for who we shall pray. 

If we look at 1 Timothy 2:1-3, we can see that Apostle Paul is giving us divine instructions, about who shall we pray for, and what shall we pray. Paul urges believers, to have petitions to God, and to pray for believers, that is for other Christians, and also, for people in authority. He also mentions intercessions and thanksgiving. Also, Paul says that we should pray for those things, first of all. Now that means we have to put those things on the top priority in our prayer, when we pray to God.

Well, that includes some of the main things, for which a Christians should pray for. Let us look at each one of those instructions. 

Petitions and prayers, to be made for all people. Now, it does not say that we should pray for Christians only, but it says for all people. What does the word ‘all’ mean? Well, it means all, and that includes non believers and Christians. Petitions and prayers for them means we can pray what we want to pray for them, whatever the need they have is. We can pray for Christians that they will know God better, and come closer to God, and have strong faith in the Word of God, and we can pray other things about Christians. 

But it also says, that we should pray an intercession type of prayer, when we intercede for certain individuals before God, on their behalf. One example of intercession, is when we as Christians pray for another Christian, to be healed from a disease. We ask God to heal them, and in that sense we intercede for them, before God. 

And thanksgiving is also mentioned by Paul. Well, I would suggest that every time we pray a petition or intercession types of prayers, we should finish our prayers, with thanksgiving. Thanking God for answering our prayers, at the end of our prayers, shows God, and demonstrates to God, that we really believe, that he has answered our prayer. If we do not really believe, that God has answered our prayers, I do not think, that we will really thank him for the answer. If you do not believe that God is going to answer your prayer, then I do not think that you will thank him for the answer of your prayer.

You thank God for the answer of your prayer, only if you believe that he has answered your prayer. Simple like that! And of course, we can give God thanks, not only for answering our prayer, but for million other things, like what God gives us in our life, either as a spiritual or material blessings, and for many other things.

And another prayer is that one, for people in authority. Paul says that if we pray for people in authority, like praying for the government of our country, that would result in us, living a peaceful life. What more we need these days, with all those Covid 19 havoc creating days, than having a peaceful life. The whole world is messed up, so we really need a peaceful life. And that life is possible, we if pray for authorities. What shall we pray for the people in the government? Well, one think we could pray, is that God will grant them wisdom, in order to make good and proper decisions, for the glory of God, and for the blessing of the people of that country.

Pray And Praise God Without Ceasing — MRS. T’S CORNER

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Have there been times you did not feel like reading your Bible? What about times not wanting to pray? Have you ever felt weary and did not know the reasons? This happened to me on the morning of Thursday, August 20, 2020. When I woke up something was amiss and I could not figure out […]

Pray And Praise God Without Ceasing — MRS. T’S CORNER

Pray or Slumber – Matthew 26:40, 41

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Pray or perish. The more we press the snooze button, the less we pray, and the more we are tempted. The less we pray, the more we sin. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. That is a command, not an option.

How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit if we do not pray?

Jesus said in another place that we are in error, because we do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. How can we know the power of God, if we do not pray? Knowing and even acting on the Word of God is not enough.

If we do not pray, we lose communication with heaven, and when we do, the communication we are left with is this world and what it has to offer.

The image of God shines brighter and is shaped more and more in our life, when we pray. Less prayer, less image from heaven in us, and more from the fallen human nature in us and this world.

Surely Jesus prayed more intensively, the closer he came to the cross. That is why he urged the disciples to do the same, shortly before he was captured and crucified. In the most crucial time in the garden of temptation, they pressed the snooze button. I am sure God wanted them to press the prayer button instead of the snooze button.

The less we pray, the more we sleep. The more we sleep, the less we have what heaven has to offer. When we press the spiritual snooze button, we drop the Sword, and lose the battle.

The less we pray, the more we sin. The more we sin, the less we grow in maturity in Christ. The less we mature in Christ, the more of the solid food for us God has we miss. We carry on drinking only milk and stay like a spiritual infant.

The enemy knows that the less we pray, the more we can be tempted, so he is watching for an opportunity we give him, when we press the snooze button.

Persistence in Prayer-Matthew 15:23-28

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Was it because of the persistence of the Canaanite woman, that Jesus answered her prayer in Matthew 15:23-28? Maybe.

Jesus said that her faith is great. But why did he said so?

In verse 23, Jesus did not even answer her. But latter we see, that he said her faith is great.

What made Jesus to say that? Is it possible that he saw her persistence and not giving up of what she wanted to receive from God? Jesus very plainly refused to grant her request but latter he did.

We know that Jesus said in other parts of the Bible, that we should be persistent in prayer.

It is possible, that our persistence, shows to God, that we believe that he will answer us. The measure of our persistence, and the length of our persistence, reveals how strong or how big our faith is.

If we have a little faith in the promises of God, then our persistence in prayer, will be not so strong, and not for long.

Our persistence in prayer shows to God, that we believe his promises, and that we believe what he said, therefore, we persist and wait for the answer.

It is possible that sometimes, God does not answer our prayers, just because he wants to see, how much we believe that he will answer us.

If we give up quickly, in our prayer and hope for the answer, that shows to God, that we are not really believing his promises for answering our prayers very much.

The quick giving up of waiting for the answer of our prayer, shows that our faith is little.

It is similar with the case of the blind Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus was very persistent, to get from Jesus, the answer of his request.

People were trying to stop him going to Jesus, but he continue to shout and ask Jesus to help him. Eventually Jesus paid attention to Bartimaeus, and healed him, by answering his request.

In the Psalms, we can also see that we are told to wait on God. The longer the wait, the longer the persistence, and the stronger our faith appears to be.

Maybe God sometimes makes us to wait, in order to grow our faith, and make is even stronger.

Closing the Door-Mathew 6:6

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Closing the door, is not just to shut things or people out..  Mathew 6:6

If we look at the context of the whole chapter, we can clearly see that closing the door, is about separating ourselves from people for a time being, not because we want our prayer not to be heart by other people, or to cut out distraction, but so that other people will not have any relation to our prayer.

Our prayer is between us and God, so when we close the door, there is only one opportunity left, our prayer to be heart from God and nobody else, so that other people can not hear us praying.

Jesus was referring about some people, praying with the main purpose to be heart from people, not from God.

That is why he said that we should close the door, so that we can pray and be heard from God only, and nobody else.

Jesus said that we should pray to be heard from heaven, and not be heard from the earth, and those who live on it..