“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” — James 5:16
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Steph Curry is one of the best players in the NBA. But he couldn’t be a great player without hard work — he shoots for hours every week, practices passing drills to handle the ball effectively, and constantly works on rebounding and other aspects of the game. At 36 years old, it’s not easy to sprint up and down the court, make jump shots, pass to teammates effectively, and play great defense unless you do a lot of sprints and jogging throughout the week in preparation.
We can think about practice and conditioning as preparation for games, just as prayer is preparation for daily life.
Even though prayer should be one of our highest priorities, the devil doesn’t want us to pray. He knows there is power in prayer. When he tried to stop Daniel from praying, Daniel kept on speaking to God anyway. Though Daniel worked long hours for several kings, he still made time to pray. We can learn a lot about prayer by reading Daniel’s prayers. He knew how to pray because he knew Scripture. Daniel read in the Book of Jeremiah about the Israelites being delivered from Babylon after 70 years and asked God to keep His promise, and Daniel bowed humbly before the Creator and Redeemer and poured out his heart on behalf of the people (Daniel 9:1-18).
In response to Daniel’s prayer, God sent the angel Gabriel to reassure him that God would do everything He promised and all would be well. “While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill — while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, ‘Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding'” (Daniel 9:20-22).
When we pray, we may not see an angel (though God often sends angels to help us through our situations in answer to our prayers). And we may not have fewer problems when we pray more, but we can handle most difficulties better when we seek God for solutions.
After Daniel prayed, God answered his prayer and also told him about Jesus coming several hundred years in the future (Daniel 9:25-26). Daniel’s prayer brought him to a deeper understanding of God. As we pray more, God gives us more wisdom, helps us grow spiritually, and we are more of a blessing to those around us.
So let us make prayer one of our daily delights. Then we’ll draw closer to God and be more like Jesus every day.
— Bill Kent, Pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, Sylvania, Georgia
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