One of my favorite TV personalities is talk-show host Conan O’Brien.
If I told you that I was friends with Conan O’Brien, you’d ask, “How often do you get to see him?”
If I answered, “I haven’t met him yet, but I’ve watched his show every day and I’ve read a lot of articles about him,” you’d say I was nuts. We can’t know someone or have a real relationship without spending time together.
God wants a relationship with us. It’s why He sent Jesus to die for our sins — so we can have a relationship again.
We grow our relationship with God through reading the Bible and prayer. Reading the Bible is how we hear from God, and prayer is how we speak to Him in return. This process of talking to God, listening for His voice and reading His Word is how we spend quality time with our Heavenly Father.
Just reading the Bible doesn’t give me a relationship with God. People who don’t believe in God have read the Bible. Some atheists can quote the Bible better than some Christians, but they don’t have a relationship with God. Prayer is an integral part of gaining a relationship with God, because prayer turns one-way research into two-way communication.
4 Things That Happen When We Pray
1. Closeness (Jeremiah 33:2-3)
Prayer is intimate and personal. Sharing with God on a personal level helps us to trust God more.
2. Peace of Mind (Philippians 4:7)
We can get bogged down by the negative thoughts in our heads. When we take our worry and doubt to God in prayer, we gain insight to overcome our negative thoughts. When we pray, with thanksgiving and petition, God gives us peace unlike anything we can imagine.
3. Guidance (Romans 8:26)
We don’t always know what to pray for when we pray, but God does. Romans 8:26 says, “...the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us…” When we humbly seek God, the Holy Spirit expresses in prayer what we can’t articulate in words.
4. Healing (James 5:16)
God heals us as we pray for ourselves and each other. Trying to fix our problems ourselves is a fruitless effort, so we take them to the One who can. God created the universe and everything in it. Help is waiting for us if we’ll humble ourselves and ask for it.
By Jason Farr
