Prayer is Important for Christians

'For gracious and merciful is He, slow to anger, great in kindness, and relenting of the evil decree' (Joel 2:13). 3)


PRAYER IS IMPORTANT
A rabbi passed away and found himself standing before the gates of heaven. The official at the front desk searched through his ledger and, finding the rabbi's name, asked him to have a seat since there were some technical matters that had to be resolved concerning his admission. The rabbi's curiosity and frustration grew when a completely unimpressive-looking individual arrived and was granted immediate entrance. Unable to contain himself, the rabbi stormed back to the desk and demanded, "Who is he?"
"He," the official politely replied, "is a bus driver." "And why does a bus driver go in right away while a rabbi has to wait?" "Well, rabbi," explained the official, "When you preached, the people slept. But when he drove -- oh, how they prayed!"

We often think of prayer as a response to crisis, - a last resort in times of desperation. The true essence of prayer, however, may be gleaned from a Hebrew word meaning "to pray," l'hitpallel-- literally, to judge oneself. Prayer an exercise in self-reflection and self-evaluation.

The manner in which a supplicant should approach an all-powerful king. With praise and thanksgiving, not because the Almighty needs us to praise and thank Him, but because we need to remind ourselves that God is indeed Almighty and has the power to grant our requests.

We give thanks for wisdom, good health, livelihood, success, good companions, health and strength, everything we could possibly need to live productive and virtuous lives.
Imagine having been granted an audience with an all-powerful king..... When will we start to prepare for this meeting? .....As we stand before him in his throne room and open your mouth to speak?
Of course not. You would prepare well in advance, consider carefully what you would say and how you would say it, evaluate thoughtfully what you should ask and how your petitions will be received. Thou art coming to a king, large partitions with the bring.........

This is the way we ought to approach an audience with God. In the records most pious Jews of earlier generations required a full hour simply to prepare themselves every time they prayed -- l'hitpallel, to judge themselves:..... What should they request? Would their requests be reasonable and appropriate? ......If they received what they asked for, would they truly use these blessings from above wisely to elevate themselves spiritually?

When the Philistine giant Goliath taunted the Jewish army of King Saul, scripture records that he called out his challenge to them every morning and every evening. The scripture explains that he sought to disrupt the Jews from focusing on the words of Prayer which are said every morning and evening. His taunts achieved their intended effect; the Jews lost concentration on their prayers, lost confidence in themselves, and trembled before their enemies.

Are we prepared to pray, prayers for others and maybe for ourselves? We all need the Lord. -- Our prayers are an expression of our relationship with God. Daniel prayed 3 times a each day. This he did in Babylon... Dan 6:10 ** Any activity repeated three times daily can easily become routine. Well it may be our routine today, but we do it with sincerity We have an opportunity to benefit from a personal audience with the King of Universe who is willing and able to bestow upon us His every blessing.

Amen

May the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart find favor before You (Psalms 19:15).


Why must we verbalize prayer? Since God knows our innermost thoughts, why don't we just meditate? Furthermore, why should we pray at all? Since God knows what is best for us, we should just trust that He will provide that which we need.
Let us consider the second question first. We do not pray in order to inform God of anything, for indeed He knows our needs better than we do. We pray in order to make ourselves aware of our dependence upon God. We are always at risk of deluding ourselves that we have control of our destinies. We may think that what we do and what transpires are indeed cause and effect. We therefore need to be reminded frequently that except where the principle of moral free choice applies, our destinies are controlled by God. Why verbalize prayer? Speech alone characterizes us as humans and distinguishes us from lower forms of life. Animals undoubtedly think and feel, but only humans can speak. As we stand before God, we need to remember that we are human, and that as humans our goals and behavior should have the dignity of humanity. If we only pray for our physical needs and welfare, we have not advanced beyond the animal stage, and we are then what science calls Homo sapiens - intellectual animals, but animals nevertheless. We need to remember that we are much more than Homo sapiens, for we can aspire to spiritual achievements and goals.