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“PRAYER REALLY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE”

By Pastor Mark Taylor

When we rely upon education, we get what education can do;  When we rely upon skill, we get what skill can do;  When we rely upon technology, we get what technology can do; When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do;  When we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.  Those devoted to prayer do things by prayer-they begin with prayer, not tacking prayer on as an afterthought, after decisions are made.

When we pray, we receive the gift of God Himself-Prayer is communion with God. He wants us to know Him.  If we never gain anything from prayer but the opportunity to commune with God, that should be sufficient for us.

Jesus counted on prayer as a source of strength that equipped Him to carry out a partnership with God the Father on earth.

Prayer makes a difference in receiving forgiveness for your sins.  It is a second chance that is given to you every time you go to your Heavenly Father.

Prayer makes a difference in our relationship as children of God with our Heavenly Father.  Apparently God is the kind of friend and Father who rewards friendship and relationship with Him.  No one in the Old Testament directly addressed God as “Father”, but Jesus did so 170 times and told us to also:  "When you pray say: Our Father Who is in Heaven." ( Matthew 6:8-10).

Prayer makes a difference in what we can receive from God.  “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2)  But that asking should be as a loving child who is asking for things to make him a better person and better serve his Father.

Prayer will make a difference in how much and how effective we will be in our service for the Lord.  Prayer is more than a reflective time to consider God’s point of view.  It is also a time to find a way to accomplish God’s will in the work He calls us to do.  

After entrusting His creation of people with the gift of free choice, God invited them to act as partners, even to argue and wrestle with the One who created them.   He asks us to pray for that which He wants to do.

Prayer makes a difference in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  I spend time with my closest friends not because of what they can do for me, but for the pleasure of their company.    In one hand I hold the truth of God’s vastness, and in the other hand I hold the truth of God’s desire for intimacy.  Prayer that is based on relationship and not transaction may be the most freedom-enhancing way of connecting to a God who’s vantage point we can never achieve and can hardly imagine.  “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer”. (I Peter 3:12)

Prayer makes a difference in feeling the presence of God in your life.  Prayer is not my way of establishing God’s presence, rather as my way of responding to God’s presence that is a fact whether or not I can detect it.  My feelings of God’s presence – or God’s absence- are not the presence or the absence.  Prayer means keeping company with God who is already present.  God has time for you.  A God unbound by our rules of time has the ability to invest in every person on earth.  God has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us.  “For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night” (Psalms 90:4).  

Contact with Him is not our achievement.  It is a gift coming down to us from on high like a meteor, rather than rising up like a rocket.  God finds ways to communicate to those who truly seek God.  I need to think more about God than about myself when I am praying..

Prayer will make a difference in our lives in increasing our faith.  Before the words of prayer come to the lips, the mind must believe in God’s willingness to draw near to us, and in our ability to clear the path for His approach.  Such belief is the idea that leads us toward prayer.  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6). The more we pray, the more faith we will have.

Prayer Really Does Make a Difference!!