Any Christian knows that there is power in our prayer. But so many times we often put too much emphasis on our efforts and our abilities to pray and fail to recognise that God moves not according to our faithfulness, but according to His faithfulness and behind the power that is now in Jesus' name and authority.
We all have prayer requests that we hope God would answer. God tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "pray without ceasing."
But is it really our practice of prayer that gets our prayers answered, or is it the position of our hearts and the faithfulness of our God?
In our short-sighted thinking, we sometimes focus too much on the rituals and the practices and forget the principle and heart of prayer.
Without a shadow of a doubt, God wants us to grow in our prayer life and desires that we learn to draw close to Him at any point.
But it is never through our works and our efforts that God moves. Everything that we do is and will always be by God's grace through faith.
Many Christians think that by praying longer prayers and with more frequency, God will hear us "better." But in Matthew 6:7 Jesus tells us, "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words."
We may sometimes think that through declaring more publicly our faith goals, that God will favour our prayers more. But Matthew 6:5 says, "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward."
Prayer, and virtually everything we do, will always be based on God's unending favour and grace over us, not our own works and our own strength. Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
God enables us to do good works such as praying, but we must never think that it is our actions that gain God's favour. God has always been and will forever be the one who honours the position of our heart.
By all means, we are to grow in prayer and petition because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and as a result of the favour and love God has openly so lavished on us. God answers prayer not because of our faithfulness but because of His faithfulness so readily displayed through Jesus Christ. It is by Christ's name that we pray, and it is by Christ's name that our prayers are answered.
