"Pray" - A great way to start the New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!  It seems like forever since we've been together...we married off our youngest son (see picture below) and it was a beautiful ceremony and event...family and friends came from all over...I thought I would die of happiness!   But the year has started and I've committed to once again reading the Bible through this year.  I add that to my regular devotional and am always blessed when I do.  But one discipline I can never change is my need for prayer.  I can't imagine having gone through Christmas and the wedding without my own dependence upon the Lord or the promise of our friends and family to pray for His work in all the events.  So it seemed appropriate to introduce my new pillow style for 2012 with the admonition to "pray".  I am speaking to a women's group this week about praying for our husbands and I'm using one of my points for this blog.

So, generally, why do we pray?  Oswald Chambers says "it is not so true that prayer changes things as that prayer changes me and I change things".  Besides the fact that we are in a love relationship with our Almighty God and need to spend time with him, the following are 5 possible reasons why you might pray:

1.  We pray because the Bible calls us to pray.  2 Chron. 7:14, Prov. 15:8, Romans 12:12, Phil. 4:6, James 5:16.

2.  We pray because we need to be changed.  Psalm 51:10, Prov. 21:19, Jer. 17:9, Ez. 47:1-12

3.  We pray because there is no other power available to us. Joshua 1:9, Psalm 46:1, James 4:8

4.  We pray because Jesus modeled prayer for us and we are His followers. Matt. 6:9, John 17, Matt. 26:36

5.  We pray because it is our only defense against the enemy.  Eph. 6:10-18.

If you are too busy to pray, then you will find yourself frustrataed and weary.  Stormy Omartian says "there is too much at stake if we don't pray".

May you be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly